The money hidden in the books reminded me of a similar horrific contest one of the local stations pulled back in the early 90s (Bush Sr. was still in office, so it had to be the VERY early 90s). The Rolling Stones were on one of their many farewell concert tours (Steel Wheels? Can't remember which) and one of the stations was hiding two tickets in a book in a library every day, then announcing which library in which town and what book it was. It was always a book themed to the Stones.
At that time, our library system was in crisis because the then-mayor instituted such draconian budget measures that the city was nearly forced into bankruptcy. This may seem off track, but stick with me.
To keep ourselves afloat and not get rid of any more staff than we had already lost, the board of directors voted to keep us open four hours daily and then we would close up and do paperwork and shelving for the other hours. (I do not understand how this saved us cash anywhere, because lights, heat and water were still in use, but hey, that's why I'm not on the board of directors.) We were also closed down one full day in the middle of the week where we would come in and work but not open to the public. (And again, I do not understand where this saved us cash.)
Anyway, here comes our radio station, announcing that our library would be "tomorrow's library" to find the free Stones tickets. They made this announcement on the day we were closed to the public, so don't you know a lot of the staff was trying frantically to figure out which book they had hidden the tickets in? We tried everything from Stones bios to books about "Flash" photography to books about the Devil. Nothing.
The next day, when we opened, there was, indeed, a crowd of people waiting to get in and when they did, I can't say they trashed the place, but they tore in and started searching for the book (which had nothing to do with the stones...it had as its title a number used in the radio station's call numbers). This was the days before computerized catalogs...so, yes, these galoots were coming in and tearing the catalog cards out of the drawers and demanding the librarians find the books for them.
The laugh was on them. The person who found the tickets was a patron who was also library and Dewey Decimal savvy. He parked out front, breezed through the crowds, went to the shelf on which he knew the book would be and took the tickets. It was kind of poetic justice to the other boors who were tearing things apart.
Oh, and the radio station, in defense of its actions, claimed it was doing this to promote interest in libraries. They even--I am not making this up--got Barbara Bush's press secretary on the line one day to discuss how this would help promote literacy. The press secretary, who clearly had never spoken with Laura about what is good for a library, rattled on about what a fine project it was.
I never did get to see that concert, but I was sick to death of the Stones and so was every other librarian in the county.
