Grant McCracken has an interesting article in today’s Harvard Business Review feed about an innovative library promotion (Innovating the Library Way — note the link may expire). An excerpt from his post appears below, outlining a message his local library sent to the branch’s children:

What do you think your stuffed animal friends would do if they spent the night at the library? Bring them to our Stuffed Animal Sleepover and find out! Will they play on the computers all night? Raid the candy shelves at the cafe? Ride the elevator BY THEMSELVES?

We start with a special Sleepytime storytime for your furry friends, then tuck them in for the night. Overnight, the librarians will keep watch and take photos of everything your stuffed animals do. Come in the next day to pick them up and see what they were up to. Ages 2 and up.

As libraries close due to funding cuts (I have some upcoming posts that will tell library advocates the types of info they should be using to fight a closure), and bookstores go dark, this is a great way to raise awareness of the library among future generations whose demands on the library we cannot even yet picture.