The article opens a dossier dedicated to the human libraries, who met for the first time in Italy on 6th October 2017. The author believes that human libraries could have a role and a legitimacy only in a strong social value library, which doesn’t discriminate and actively engages in inclusion and social cohesion. By now, this library is called “social library”. The author analyses the principal features of a social library, so as to highlight the contact points and possible links between social library and human library.