OT Living Books
Professional Stories. Practice Wisdom. Shared Learning.
OT Living Books is a signature educational initiative within the Division of Occupational Therapy at Binghamton University that brings professional experience, practice wisdom, and lived perspectives into doctoral occupational therapy education.
The initiative creates a dynamic network of occupational therapy practitioners and community experts whose professional expertise, contextual knowledge, and reflective practice can enrich students’ learning as they integrate advanced coursework with applied scholarly inquiry.
Through professional narratives, structured dialogue, and meaningful exchange, students learn with experienced professionals—deepening professional reasoning, examining occupational therapy practice within complex systems and communities, and exploring innovative approaches to occupation-centered practice.
What Is an OT Living Book?
An OT Living Book is a practitioner or community expert who shares professional knowledge through experience, reflection, and dialogue.
Each OT Living Book offers students a perspective that extends beyond traditional academic resources. Their stories illuminate how knowledge is translated into practice, how professional reasoning develops through experience, and how culture, context, systems, and communities influence occupational participation and service delivery.
- A concise professional profile highlighting practice experience, leadership, and areas of expertise
- An optional 2–3 minute video introduction that allows students to meet the person behind the professional story
- Reflections on their professional journey and the cultural, community, or contextual influences that have shaped their practice
- Practice insights, professional experiences, and perspectives related to innovation, collaboration, leadership, or service delivery
- Questions, reflections, and guidance that encourage students to think more deeply about practice and their developing professional identities
- Reading Garden Human Library
- Human Library International
Participation is intentionally flexible. A written OT Living Book Profile is the foundation of participation, with opportunities for additional engagement based on the interests and availability of each contributor.
Connecting Experience With Doctoral OT Education
OT Living Books supports doctoral learning by creating meaningful connections among theory, evidence, practice, leadership, and scholarship.
Contributors may participate through one or both of two complementary pathways:
Capstone Project Experts
OT Living Books can provide specialized perspectives related to areas such as program development and evaluation, clinical practice, education, advocacy, leadership, research, community engagement, innovation, and emerging areas of occupational therapy.
These exchanges can help students explore areas of interest, recognize authentic practice and community needs, strengthen in-depth understanding, and consider how scholarly inquiry can contribute to meaningful and sustainable solutions.
Clinical & Practice Experts
OT Living Books can enrich coursework by helping students examine how evidence, ethics, professional reasoning, contextual factors, and occupation-centered principles come together in practice.
Through exposure to diverse settings, populations, communities, professional roles, and career pathways, students encounter the complexity of contemporary occupational therapy through the perspectives of those living and shaping the profession.
Why Lived Professional Experience Matters
Some dimensions of professional knowledge cannot be fully captured in a textbook.
Experience reveals how practitioners reason, adapt, collaborate, innovate, advocate, and lead. It also provides insight into the uncertainties, relationships, contexts, and pivotal experiences that contribute to professional growth.
By sharing these perspectives, OT Living Books help students connect what they are learning with what practice demands—supporting the development of reflective, evidence-informed, systems-aware, and occupation-centered practitioners and scholarly contributors to the profession.
Become an OT Living Book
Every professional journey contains knowledge worth sharing.
We invite occupational therapy practitioners, educators, community partners, leaders, innovators, and other experts whose perspectives intersect with occupational therapy to contribute their experience to OT Living Books.
Participation can begin simply by completing an OT Living Book Profile, with the option to contribute a brief video, visual elements, discussion prompts, or future learning conversations.
Your professional journey may help a student discover a new area of practice, examine an assumption, strengthen professional reasoning, identify a meaningful capstone direction, or imagine a new way occupational therapy can contribute to individuals and communities.
Share your experience. Inspire inquiry. Shape the future of occupational therapy.
Inspiration and Model
The Human Library Project draws inspiration from international dialogue-based learning models that emphasize lived experience as a powerful educational resource, including:
