2017 Libraries on Empathy Day
Libraries on Empathy Day
We’re so delighted to have taken our first step with libraries on Empathy Day, partnering with the Society of Chief librarians and seven library services to test activities for this and future Days. They included empathy book displays, and green screen selfies with #ReadforEmpathy book recommendations. You can download our Library Newsletter here.
Public Libraries; School Library Services and School Librarians from Sheffield to Devon took part in Empathy Day. Libraries ran empathy-focused events, class visits, got creative with digital tools to create empathy Wordles and book recommendations. They did some fabulous displays and they shared their great empathy reads. Our library partners lived up to the Empathy Day message from author Gillian Cross "In libraries we can find out how the world looks to other people. That's crucial for developing our empathy skills. Happy Empathy Day!"
The participating authorities were
- St Helens
- Sheffield
- Libraries Unlimited (Devon)
- North Tyneside
- Hampshire
- Essex
- Sandwell
"Developing empathy is a vital life skill—in libraries part of why we promote and encourage reading for pleasure is so that children, young people and communities can understand, empathise and relate to different life experiences—it is absolutely why I believe that all libraries should engage and celebrate Empathy Day."
Janene Cox, Chair of the Books and Reading Group, Society of Chief Librarians
"A library is a real-life EmpathyLab – stuffed full of experiences and emotions "
Catherine Johnson, Author
Essex Libraries ran an after-school story challenge focusing on the different perspectives of squabbling crayons in Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers’ “The Day the Crayons Quit”.
"In libraries we can find out how the world looks to other people. That’s crucial for developing our empathy skills.
Happy Empathy Day!"
Gillian Cross, Children's Author
