What is A Living Library?
A Living Library
provides a vision and shows a
way to create meaningful and healing ecological and sustainable environmental
and educational transformation in communities of the world. A Living Library
transforms sunken meadows and brownfields, urban sprawl and desolation, public
parks and plazas, concrete and asphalt schoolyards, civic centers or undeveloped
wastelands into vibrant and relevant community learning environments and highly
visible public magnets offering innovative and practical community and economic
development.
A Living Library develops themed, content-rich
landscapes with integrated community programs, multidisciplinary
project-based learning, and state-of-the-art communications
technologies. A Living Library is created by all
sectors of the community, particularly students, and cultivates
the Human Garden, by its emphasis on diversity, commonalities,
participation, and inclusivity from the peoples of the world.
A Living Library provides a practical and enchanting
way to bring us all together and celebrate life.
A Living Library
provides a systemic framework and vehicle for environmental and educational transformation.
Each Branch Living Library is created with the local community in a site
and culturally sensitive manner, incorporating regional resources—human,
ecological, economic, historic, technological, and aesthetic—past, present,
and future.
The Goal is to develop and link Branch Living Libraries in different communities
of the world using state-of-the-art communications technologies.
A Living Library is linked to the curricula of the schools and animates all
subjects through real-world experience. Students, together with adults, are
involved in all aspects of the research, planning, design, implementation,
use, maintenance, management and communications of the transformed learning
environments and integrated programs. Math, science, history, language
arts, arts, and technology come to life through relevant activities and
community building using the ecological, multicultural, and built
environments as the context for learning.
A Goal and Opportunity is to create site and culturally-sensitive
Branch Living Libraries in different locales of the
world linked electronically. Each Branch Living Library
will be unique based on its systemically linked local resources
and integrated community and school programs. When experienced
together, the commonalities and biodiversity of differing
ecologies and cultures will create exciting opportunities
for understanding connections and communicating, and for sharing,
growing, and learning locally and globally. When we learn
all that we can about our local place and its resources, from
that, we can extrapolate and learn about the world - past,
present, and future - while promoting sensitivity, understanding,
healing, and peace in our communities and on the planet.
