The ideas in this book are all about helping your library building become a more exciting, interesting, experiential space where people are engaged and want to spend time.  More time spent in the library increases the library’s value and relevance to its users—and the more intriguing the space is, the more it helps draw in new patrons.  Taking inspiration and examples from companies and non-profits outside the library world, this book’s engaging ideas include

• using “biophilic design” to bring nature into your library through gardens, plants, and greenery;
• transforming static spaces into “Instagram bait”;
• putting art installations in bathrooms;
• turning underutilized spaces like hallways and mezzanines into welcoming “chill” zones;
• creating pop-ups and other flexible spaces that change regularly;
• developing co-working spaces in libraries;
• preserving and promoting silent spaces; and
• creating “parklets” from parking spaces.

Complete with lists of additional resources for discovering even more ideas, this book will help all kinds of libraries create innovative spaces that will delight their communities.

Michelle Reale is a professor and access services and outreach librarian at Arcadia University. Her books include Inquiry and Research: A Relational Approach in the Classroom, The Indispensable Academic Librarian: Teaching and Collaborating for Change, Mentoring and Managing Students in the Academic Library, Becoming an Embedded Librarian, and Becoming a Reflective Librarian and Teacher: Strategies for Mindful Academic Practice. Her research interests are embedded librarianship, mentoring, narrative inquiry, poetic inquiry, and reflective practice.