Mass Live: Horror writers share the stories you must read this Halloween

Horror writers share the stories you must read this Halloween

An Infected with Will Smith as Robert Neville in a scene from Warner Bros. Pictures' and Village Roadshow Pictures' "I Am Legend," based on the classic horror novel of the same title written by Richard Matheson. The novel is among those chosen as must reads by a panel from the New England Horror Writers Association. ( Warner Bros. photo)

By Michael D. Kane | mkane@masslive.com 
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on October 27, 2015 at 7:00 AM, updated October 27, 2015 at 7:11 AM

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With Halloween at its most notorious day, October is well known for its horror-themed happenings. This is true in literature and pop culture, too, when bookstores and libraries put out their scariest titles for those who can't wait to be kept awake by page-turning trepidation.

MassLive asked Massachusetts members of the New England Horror Writers Association which books kept them awake at night. Here are there answers:

Jennifer Allis Provost: "I am Legend" and "We Have Always Lived in a Castle."

Provost grew up in Western Mass. and she "writes books about faeries, orcs and elves. Zombies too."

Jennifer Allis Provost
 

Provost started her writing career "as many others do," by writing "by monster of the week short stories, but quickly moved on to more psychological horror."

"Truly, the inside of our minds is the scariest place," she said.

Provost is the author of the fantasy series "The Chronicles of Parthalan" and the urban fantasy "Copper Girl." Her latest release, "Heir to the Sun," launched June 1, 2015, and "Changing Teams," the first in a new contemporary series, will be release Nov. 10 from Limitless Publishing.

Social decline is something that unnerves her, and it is present in both of the books she chose, starting with the book that influenced George Romero's zombies in "Night of the Living Dead," "I Am Legend," by Richard Matheson.

"'I Am Legend' was the first book that truly scared me," Provost said. "Is he really the last man alive?"

Provost also recommended Shirley Jackson's final novel, 1962's "We Have Always Lived in the Castle."

"In 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle,' readers follow two sisters and an uncle," she said. "The family used to be bigger, that is until some arsenic found its way into the sugar bowl one evening. Unreliable narration and creepiness at its best."

Jeremy Flagg: "Exquisite Corpse," "Night Watch" and "In the Blood."

Jeremy Flagg

Flagg is a high school graphic design teacher and the MetroWest region's liaison for the NaNoWriMo project, a novel-writing project which takes place each November.

He is currently working on the third installment of his horror satire and science fiction series, "Suburban Zombie High." Book one looks at the outlandish world of suburban high school students and the realities they face in "the real world" when their school becomes ground zero for the zombie apocalypse. 

"Suburban Zombie High: The Reunion," was released in August. Flagg is working on the final chapter of the series while also preparing a new series for publication. He can be found on Twitter under @writeremyflagg.

"Exquisite Corpse," by Poppy Z. Brite: "When murder can be described as intimate, I get intrigued," Flagg said. "When you start to make me like the killer, then I begin to get worried."

"Night Watch," by Sergei Lukyanenko: "It's horror and it's Russian, it must be good," Flagg said. "Vampires, werewolves, and witches walk among us, and police one another. Less frightening, but more a darkness that looms in the setting and in the soul of the characters. Beautifully dark."

"In the Blood," by Nancy Collins: "A prostitute turned vampire, hell bent on revenge? Falling in love with a man the demon in your mind hates. Violent and gory; conflict on all fronts."

Trisha J. Wooldridge: "The Girl Next Door," and "Big Sister, Little Sister."

Trisha Wooldridge

Wooldridge is a freelance editor, writer, and journalist and former president of Broad Universe, an organization that promotes science fiction, fantasy and horror written by females.

She has written three novels, "The Kelpie," "Silent Starsong" and "The Earl's Childe." In addition, she has contributed award-winning stories to the anthology series "Bad-Ass Faeries" and is the writing partner in the webcomic "Aurelio."

Find her on Facebook, or on Twitter under @novelfriend.com

"Jack Ketchum's "The Girl Next Door" left me completely disturbed, but I could not put it down," Wooldridge said. "In short stories, one that always springs to my head first is Jennifer Pelland's 'Big Sister, Little Sister,' which is science-fiction horror.

Matthew M. Bartlett: "Mannequins in Aspects of Terror."

Matthew Bartlett

Bartlett, of Northhampton, is the author of "Gateways to Abomination," it's companion piece, "Anne Gare's Rare Book and Ephemera Catalogue," "The Witch-Cult in Western Massachusetts," and "Rangel." In addition, Bartlett's short stories have appeared in several anthologies, including "Resonator: New Lovecraftian Tales From Beyond" and "High Strange Horror." Find him on Twitter under @MattMBartlett

"The story 'Mannequins in Aspects of Terror,' by Mark Samuels, unnerved me," Bartlett said. "It concerns an art exhibit held in an abandoned office building.

"The feeling that something is lurking around every corner, the isolation and disorientation experienced by the narrator, the feeling that he is being watched, or, worse, controlled—it is edge of your seat reading," he said. "I had to laugh when I noticed the physical reaction I had while reading it. My eyebrows were up. I was chewing my thumbnail. My legs had curled up under me. Few stories truly move me to fear. This was one of them."

Amber Fallon (formerly writing as Alyn Day): "Ghoul"

Amber Fallon
 

Fallon lives in a small town outside Boston. A self-described "techie by day and a horror writer by night," Fallon's published stories include "So Long and Thanks for All the Brains," "Daily Frights 2012," "Women of the Living Dead," "Zombie Tales," "Here Be Clowns," "Horror on the Installment Plan," "Zombies For a Cure," "Quick Bites of Flesh," "Daily Frights 2013," "Mirror, Mirror," "Operation Ice Bat," 'Return to Deathlehem," and "Daughters of Inanna." She can be found on Twitter under @Z0mbiegrl.

"Brian Keene's 'Ghoul' is a really great example of what we writers like to call 'bleeding on the page,'" he said. "There's an awful lot of the author himself there, as well as monsters of both the human and inhuman kind."

From: Mass Live

Metro: Library plagued by pranksters sticking up rude messages by their book drop-offs

Library plagued by pranksters sticking up rude messages by their book drop-offs

Olivia Waring for Metro.co.uk

Friday 23 Oct 2015 5:03 pm

According to this particular sign LA Public Library exercises positive discrimination (Picture: Obvious Plant/Jeff Wysaski)

Libraries everywhere are now struggling to compete with ever-tightening government budgets, plus that thing called the internet.

But apparently that does not make them exempt from a bit of gentle banter from professional pranksters Obvious Plant.

These cheeky signs, posing as official notices, have appeared next to book drop-offs at the Los Angeles Public Library.

(Picture: Obvious Plant / Jeff Wysaski)

Whoever’s responsible for these signs clearly has no respect for the sanctity of the written word… and really loves pickles.

Obviously IRL pickles are not welcome in libraries.

Nobody wants vinegar on their Stephen King.

(Picture: Obvious Plant / Jeff Wysaski)

One of the signs asks readers to shout ‘not a squirrel’ when opening the flap so that Keith doesn’t have to worry about squirrels stealing his lunch – whoever Keith is.

Another reads: ‘This drop box is for books and pictures of cute boys only!’.

And whatever you do, don’t go inside and ask Cathy about her furry friends.

(Picture: Obvious Plant / Jeff Wysaski)

Like all people who place too much emphasis on reading, she’s lonely and square and probably smells.

If she’s real, that is.

At least they got in a book lover’s in-joke at the expense of the Twilight novels.

(Picture: Obvious Plant / Jeff Wysaski)

That said, they appear to be the only person in the entire universe who hasn’t read Pride And Prejudice.

(Picture: Obvious Plant / Jeff Wysaski)

Perhaps the Pride And Prejudice And Zombies movie will appeal to them more.


From: Metro

Times of Malta: Too much information

Too much information

Sunday, October 18, 2015

In the last 50 years, we have produced more information than in the previous 5,000 years. But can we understand all of it, Marc Kosciejew asks.

It seems, even feels, as though we are overloaded with information. There seems to be so much of the stuff around. We seem, and in many cases are, obsessed with information, wanting, needing, demanding and expecting more of it for diverse activities and purposes. We have come to expect access to any kind of information, anywhere and at any time.

We constantly produce, record, store, consume, purchase, and share information, from the most important, substantive and serious, to the most trivial, petty and mundane. We are consequently surrounded by information in every sphere of personal, private, and public life and seemingly inundated with it at all times, from all directions, and in all places.

It is said that there has been more information, and more diverse kinds of information, produced in the last 50 years than during the previous 5,000 years. In 2003, for instance, the prestigious School of Information Management and Systems at Berkeley, US, estimated that humanity had accumulated approximately 12 exabytes of data in the course of its entire history until the advent of modern computers. To put this huge number into perspective, consider that one exa is a decimal unit prefix in the metric system denoting 1018. To put differently, it’s a 50,000-year-long DVD.

The Berkeley researchers also calculated that print, film, magnetic, and optical storage media had already produced more than five exabytes of data in 2002 alone. This number is staggering for a one-year period, considering that it represents nearly half of all the data humanity had accumulated in the previous thousands of years. To put five exabytes into perspective, it is equivalent to 37,000 new libraries the size of the Library of Congress in Washington, US. Further, between 2006 and 2010, the global quantity of digital data (excluding analogue and print data) increased from a whopping 161 exabytes to a mind-boggling 988 exabytes.

These numbers are steadily and inexorably growing every day. As humanity approaches the age of the zettabyte (1,000 exabytes), it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

This inundation of, and obsession with, information is resulting in a dramatic surfeit of information. The phenomenon of excessive information is also referred to as information overload, infoglut, infobesity, or simply, as too much information. Exaflood is a term that is used to describe just the tsunami of digital information that is submerging us. Taking into account all diverse kinds of information, there seems to be a continually rising, churning information flood, or what The Economist describes as a data deluge. This information is helping generate a sensation of drowning. According to The Economist, “Everywhere you look, the quantity of information in the world is soaring. Merely keeping up with this flood, and storing the bits that might be useful, is difficult enough. Analysing it, to spot patterns and extract useful information, is harder still.”

Yet ironically, as we create, crave, and expect access to more information, we also increasingly feel as though we are submerged in a tumultuous sea beyond our control or comprehension.

There are historical echoes of information overload. For instance, criticisms and complaints of too much information are found in the ancient world. In the first century AD, Seneca the Elder commented that, “The abundance of books is distraction”. In Ecclesiastes 12:12, it is observed that, “Of making books there is no end.”

Gutenberg’s printing press accelerated the expansion of book and document production and the accompanying feelings of being overwhelmed. Books and documents were produced, circulated, accumulated, and consumed cheaply, in unprecedented numbers to the point that Erasmus asked, “Is there anywhere on earth exempt from these swarms of new books?” According to the philosopher Denis Diderot, “As long as the centuries continue to unfold, the number of books will grow continually, and one can predict that a time will come when it will be almost as difficult to learn anything from books as from the direct study of the whole universe. It will be almost as convenient to search for some bit of truth concealed in nature as it will be to find it hidden away in an immense multitude of bound volumes.”

But what exactly is information overload? What is this data deluge that seems to be drowning us? Is there such a thing as having too much information? Is more information necessary and helpful or unnecessary and harmful? Since it may only take one or two pages of Google results to overwhelm the average searcher, does it matter whether or not there are hundreds or thousands of more pages after those two?

"An information diet is not about consuming less but instead consuming quality information from original, primary and respected sources"

There are some psychological and sociological studies that demonstrate how information overload can contaminate judgement. More information is usually helpful at first, but as it increases, information becomes more unhelpful. As it grows further, it actually becomes a hindrance.

There can be negative effects on mind and body when you feel overloaded with information. Information overload can exacerbate psychological issues like anxiety, stress, attention deficit disorder, worry, and depression. It can also create or contribute to various physical problems like blurred vision, headaches, and painful joint, back, shoulder, and wrist issues.

Moreover, individuals can only absorb and process so much information at any given time. Information overload can thus negatively impact cognitive capabilities. In The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains (Atlantic Books, 2011), technology writer Nicholas Carr explores how information overload distracts and interrupts, forcing us to scan and skim, thereby diminishing important cognitive abilities such as attentiveness, concentration, reflection, and memory. Carr argues that we are losing our abilities to pay close attention and concentrate over a prolonged periods of time, whether reading a book or engaging in conversation, without being constantly distracted, usually by the internet and some information communication technology. This turns us into superficial thinkers.

The internet and information communication technologies foster compulsive behaviours and habits like constant checking, consulting and refreshing of online information. These compulsions ultimately undermine cognitive consolidation, that is, the transfer of information from short-term or working memory to long-term memory. This transference is crucial to the creation of connections between all the information in your mind. But as this transference is increasingly distracted and interrupted, cognitive consolidation is disrupted. As we train our brains to take in more information, very quickly and in fragmented ways, we strengthen the parts of the brain that are good at multitasking, yet weaken the parts of the brain involved in cognitive consolidation. This weakening is an alarming prospect considering that cognitive consolidation involves some of our most important thought processes, such as long-term memory, contemplation, conceptual knowledge, critical thinking, and reflection.

How can we cope with information overload?

Coping mechanisms for handling and navigating too much information have not significantly changed from ancient civilisations to the present. Whether it is traditional information tools like bibliographies or indexes, or digital ones like search engines and wikis, they all share the same principles of searching, selecting, summarising, sorting, and storing, coupled with human attention and analysis to guide the information-seeking process. These principles are the fundamental concerns and practices of librarianship, archival work, and records and information management. These are enduring professions dedicated to the navigation, organisation, and presentation of information, helping us control and make sense of the information flood. They remain essential in helping to control and understand both information and its surfeit.

A personal way to cope with information overload involves a kind of diet. In The Information Diet (O’Reilly Media, 2012), Johnson compares information overload to a diet. He states that, “We know we’re products of the food we eat. Why wouldn’t we also be products of the information we consume?” Johnson argues that people tend to consume information confirm their biases or that they find interesting, in a similar way that they would prefer to eat their favourite dishes, eat desert before dinner, or choose junk food instead of healthier options. Just as too much dessert or junk food can lead to health problems such as obesity, junk information can lead to intellectual stunting like ignorance.

Johnson argues that it is not information overload that is problematic, but instead our bad consumption habits. “Ask any nutritionist, and they’ll tell you that a diet isn’t about not eating – it’s about changing your consumption habits,” Johnson adds. He proposes that instead of stressing over too much information, we need to adopt a healthy and balanced information diet. A diet does not mean you stop eating but instead consume nutritious foods. Similarly, an information diet is not about consuming less but instead consuming quality information from original, primary and respected sources.

Johnson prescribes discipline in how we consume information. It is not enough to unplug the computer, turn off the television, avoid social media, disconnect from the internet, or ignore the news. These are only superficial coping mechanisms. We need real and sustainable changes to our actual information-seeking habits. For instance, simultaneous distractions, like constant alerts and notifications, should be eliminated. They pull attention away from present tasks, fragment concentration, and reinforce more bad behaviour of compulsive checking, rechecking and scanning. Or, as another example, using smartphones as alarm clocks should be stopped in order to prevent people from becoming immediately drawn into them upon awakening.

“Information obesity isn’t new. Just as it was possible to be obese 500 years ago, it was possible to experience this new kind of ignorance 500 years ago, too. It was just more expensive, and you had to work much harder for it. But now we’re living in a world of abundance,” Johnson reminds us. We continue to need many enduring information practices and tools that have not changed in fundamental ways since their invention, even though most have been updated to adapt to contemporary technological developments.

Perhaps we need to go on an information diet. Johnson argues that, “There always has been more human knowledge and experience than any one human could absorb. It’s not the total amount of information, but your information habit that is pushing you to whatever extreme you find uncomfortable.”

Perhaps it is not information overload that overwhelms us but instead our bad information consumption habits. Perhaps we need to adopt more healthy ways of coping with information. We can look to libraries and archives on successful strategies to deal with information. We need to remember and reaffirm the enduring importance of libraries and archives in the organisation, management, and storage of information. Indeed, libraries and archives of all stripes are information Noah’s Arks that have always helped us navigate information floods and remain crucial in doing so today.

It is important that we recognise and acknowledge part of our own complicity in information’s continual rise. We must come to terms with our obsession with information. We want more, we need more, we expect more, we demand more, we accumulate more, and consequently, we become overloaded with, or submerged in, more information. If we adopt a balanced information diet, and learn important lessons and seek vital guidance from libraries and archives, we will better understand how to manage and deal with information overload.

Marc Kosciejew is head of department and lecturer in the Department of Library Information and Archive Sciences in the Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences, University of Malta.

From: Times of Malta

The Atlantic: What the Google Books Victory Means for Readers

What the Google Books Victory Means for Readers

Is a universal library finally within reach?

Beck Diefenbach / Reuters

DAN COHEN
OCT 22, 2015

A lawsuit can run on for so long that, even if major issues are still at stake, it can seem dated and even inconsequential by the time it’s resolved. Such is the case with Authors Guild v. Google, which likely came to a conclusion on Friday, more than 10 years after it began. The Second Circuit sided with Google, ruling that the company’s program to scan millions of books, including those still in copyright, was legal.

So much has changed on the Internet, in libraries, and with books in the decade since the Authors Guild first filed suit. In 2005, Google was a relatively young search engine—it had only gone public the previous year—looking to expand its horizon beyond the web. Now Google is part of a conglomerate named Alphabet, and Google Books seems very much like an early, vestigial effort among Alphabet’s larger body of projects, which includes higher-profile ventures like self-driving cars.

Ten years ago there were no Kindles, iPads, or postcard-sized smartphones to read on. Now the growth of e-reading is unmistakable. In 2011, 11 percent of Americans read an ebook; in 2014, 27 percent did. (In the same period, the number of Americans reading a print book fell, from 71 percent to 63 percent.) In the past 12 months, Americans read 120 million ebooks on just one app used by public libraries—an increase of 20 percent from the year before. And while big publishersmay be seeing their ebook sales plateau, self-published authors and indie presses—many of them selling directly to readers through Amazon—continue to gain market share, while charging a fraction of what print books cost. With so much of the landscape for digital books forever altered, what does Friday’s decision mean for readers, writers, libraries, and the public?

As Judge Pierre Leval emphasized throughout his ruling for the Appellate Court, as audacious as Google Books appeared at its inception, it seems less monumental today. Although Google did tip entire library shelves into the scanner without regard for copyright status—triggering an unsurprising revolt from authors and publishers—the tech giant only shows small “snippets” of in-copyright works. The full digitized books are walled-off, making only certain uses possible. Researchers can fact-check using Google Books, or they can examine the number of times particular words and phrases are mentioned in the corpus each year, but they can’t really read Google’s online version of most volumes.

This makes Google Books a wonderful tool—a transformative one, in the eyes of the court, and thus non-infringing—but it also means that the service has ended up being more tantalizing than fulfilling. What Google has created is less a universal library than a tinted window into one.

It was not always going to be this way. A proposed 2011 settlement between Google and its antagonists would have laid the groundwork for paid access to all of the scanned books. Yet many book lovers viewed such a settlement (rightly, in my opinion) as creating an undesirable, near-monopolistic online book outlet. The judge presiding over the case, Denny Chin, agreed and rejected it, ruling for the Southern District of New York that Google Books, as is, was a fair use. The Second Circuit has unanimously concurred.

It’s now a good time to think about more heterogeneous models and markets for ebooks, including in the discussion not only the Googles and Amazons of the world, but also libraries, which find existing channels and platforms for ebooks less than ideal.

This matches larger trends in digital librarianship. As Google has shifted its attention away from books, nonprofits have stepped in to ensure access to our shared culture. The Digital Public Library of America, which I direct, brings together the digitized contents of America’s libraries, archives, and museums.HathiTrust—which was also unsuccessfully sued by the Author Guild—was established by universities to preserve digital copies of their holdings for the long term. The Internet Archive also has scanning centers in multiple locations, and many smaller institutions have started their own digitization programs.

For those organizations to provide greater access to digitized print books, the United States will have to solve thorny issues about the status of much of what is held in its cultural-heritage institutions. Works from before 1923 are in the public domain, and recent volumes are clearly under copyright. But a large percentage of books between the distant and recent past are in a grey territory where their status is foggy. Their copyright may not have been renewed, and their publishers and authors are long gone. With imperfect records we can’t be sure what we can do with these millions of books.

Fortunately, in the U.S., we can also appeal to fair use, an important principle that makes the American system of copyright different from most other countries. As the length of copyright terms has been repeatedly extended, fair use acts as a counterbalance, providing exceptions for using copyrighted materials in ways that benefit society without destroying the market for books. Authors also benefit from fair use, by being able to quote, parody, and build upon copyrighted works.

However, like the status of so many books on our libraries’ shelves, the nature of fair use has often been unclear. Judges are asked to balance four fairly abstract factors in deciding whether a use is fair, including how creative works are being repurposed and to what extent, and how the market for the original might be impacted.

In a narrow sense, the decade-long litigation over Google Books ended with a judgment about the balance of these factors for a specific project: a large company scanning and indexing the contents of millions of volumes.

But critically, and with greater and lasting impact, the case also helped to clarify fair use in general. Authors Guild v. Google stands to make fair use much more muscular. Because many institutions want to avoid legal and financial risk, many possible uses that the courts would find fair—including a number of non-commercial, educational uses—are simply never attempted. A clearer fair-use principle, with stronger support from the courts, will make libraries and similar organizations more confident about pursuing forms of broader digital access.

After all, as Judge Leval emphasized: “While authors are undoubtedly important intended beneficiaries of copyright, the ultimate, primary intended beneficiary is the public.” It may have taken 10 years, but that crucial reminder of copyright’s goal is anything but dated and inconsequential. It will serve all of us as we think about how books are written, read, and preserved for future generations.

From: The Atlantic

NPQ: Loud New Voices Emerge to Protect Quiet Library Spaces

Loud New Voices Emerge to Protect Quiet Library Spaces

By ANNE EIGEMAN | March 23, 2015



March 20, 2015; Wall Street Journal and KCTV-5 (Kansas City, MO)

Last week, two separate events brought attention to the precarious place of public libraries in various parts of the country. In Missouri, a group of about 100 students traveled by bus from Kansas City to Jefferson City in the hope of meeting with the governor to relay their dissatisfaction with his proposed $6 million budget cut to the state’s library system. In New York City, the presidents of the Brooklyn Public Library, Queens Public Library, and New York Public Library issued a joint report, “Long Overdue: NYC’s $1 Billion Library Fine,” to draw attention to the terrible physical condition of many of the city’s libraries and the jaw-dropping price tag to repair them. Although the Missouri campaign seems to be mostly student-driven while the NYC campaign is broader, they both are relying heavily on social media to generate discussion about the multiple roles that libraries hold for students and adults and the need for more stable funding sources to support them.


The Save Missouri Libraries homepage provides a powerful list of the adverse effects a library budget cut would have on ongoing statewide programs, with an impact on summer youth programs, afterschool programs, support services for job seekers, as well as programs to support rural residents of all ages. As an offshoot of this campaign,the KC Library Teens Facebook page boasts not only 465 “likes” but an array of photos of students posing in front of the state capitol during their visit last week and a few select shots of students with signs such as: “Without Libraries What Have We? We Have No Past And No Future!” In spite of this planning, however, the much-anticipated meeting with the governor never actually took place because the group was asked to leave the office. As part of their reporting on the story, KCTV cited Kansas City Public Library Executive Director Crosby Kemper’s own Facebook post that he “had never been treated like that in…54 years in active politics.”

In an introductory letter introducing the New York libraries report, the presidents and CEOs of the New York, Brooklyn, and Queens Public Libraries explain, “We present this report as an urgent appeal for long-overdue city action on the staggering infrastructure crisis in our branches.” Highlighting the current maintenance crisis with a bulleted list of ten points, including cooling and heating problems, out-of-order bathrooms, ADA inaccessibility, and overcrowding, the report then devotes a single page to each issue area along with examples from a specific branch library and an accompanying boxed story of a library staff person or “local hero” who has been creatively working around the problem at hand. The homepage for the New York City Library campaign, “Invest in Libraries: Invest in New Yorkers,” also has a Twitter feed, a link to Facebook, and a letter center where supporters can draft and send letters to their own city leaders.

In Missouri, Governor Nixon’s 2016 budget request is complete, but the story of the Kansas City teens is still getting noticed by media sources, including the Missouri Times, the Moberly Monitor-Index, and even Fox News, and so could still draw the attention of a state legislator. Citing a spokesperson for New York City’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, theWall Street Journal reports that New York City has increased annual operating funds for the city’s three public library systems by $22 million and an updated capital plan for the system is likely to be part of the executive budget that will be unveiled this spring.

Building on what seems to be strong demand in past years, this year, edX is again offering the online class “Library Advocacy Unshushed.” Led by a Canadian institution, the University of Toronto, the examples from Missouri and New York City suggest that the class not only has clear relevance for U.S. institutions but also that the Kansas City Library teens might serve as excellent online speakers in the future.—Anne Eigeman


From: NonProfit Quarterly

Renton Reporter: Libraries are crucial catalysts for ideas

Libraries are crucial catalysts for ideas | GUEST COMMENTARY

Oct 24, 2015 at 9:00AM

By Gary Wasdin,
Director, King County Library System

I have worked in libraries in the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest and now the Pacific Northwest, and in almost every city, the public library is the heart of the community.

Librarians often call the library a bridge to a brighter future. The Renton Library is the first I’ve seen that actually is a bridge. I understand the significance of its unique setting and appreciate the community’s advocacy to keep the new library at the same site. It is an engineering marvel and underscores the importance of the Renton Library to the city and the people it serves.

Libraries thrive because of a strong public-private partnership that dates back more than a century. Here in Renton, Neva Bostwick Douglas submitted an ambitious request to the Andrew Carnegie Foundation to help build a public library for her beloved city. The grant was successful, and the city received $10,000 ($240,000 in today’s dollars) to fund its first public library. Even then a controversy erupted as the location of the library became a point of contention. Sound familiar?

Libraries evoke such passion because they are much more than just buildings. Libraries are community engines. They are the catalysts that protect, strengthen and future-proof our lives.

I started at KCLS in January and I’ve spent most of my first 10 months listening to whatever people wanted to tell me about their communities and their lives. Among the many things I’ve learned, three trends have come up repeatedly:

• Aging population – By 2025 nearly one in every four King County residents will be age 60 or older, and we need to think about how we serve this growing population;

• Diversity – King County becomes increasingly diverse every year as immigrant and refugee populations settle in our area, seeking a better life for themselves and their families;

• Need for new and innovative skills – The ability to read and write is still critically important, but youth AND adults require new literacy skills to help them obtain jobs we can’t even yet imagine.

As always, the library must continue to adapt, evolve, and grow to prepare communities for the future. The Renton Library 100 years ago boasted 8,000 books. Today, KCLS offers 3.3 million items, including books, but also audio books, CDs, DVDs, magazines, newspapers, research tools and more.

Thomas Jefferson said, “An informed citizenry is the heart of a dynamic democracy” and literacy is at its core. But today, literacy is more broadly defined and libraries must respond by offering services that build a variety of literacy skills, including:

• Financial Literacy – To learn the basics of financial management for households and small businesses.

• Civic Literacy – To encourage active participation in communities through a better understanding of government;

• Cultural Literacy – To understand our own history and appreciate the history of others;

• Digital Literacy – To develop new job skills or ways to communicate in an increasingly complex world;

• Reading Literacy – To reinforce the foundation upon which all other literacies are built. Public libraries are truly remarkable spaces. They are engines that transform communities and each of us are its engineers.

When you step through the doors of the library, things change. Together, we can transform ideas into action.

Gary Wasdin is director of the King County Library System. He can be reached via email at gawasdin@kcls.org

From: Renton Reporter

BlogTO: The Toronto Public Library responds to Kansas City

By Amy Grief | October 21, 2015

The Toronto Blue Jays are heading into game 5 against the Kansas City Royals right now. And yes, there's a possibility that the ALCS could end tonight. Thankfully, the Toronto Public Library is here to boost our morale by showing Kansas City (and its public library) that we won't go down without a fight.

In a book-spine poem of its own, the TPL sends out an ominous message that reads, "Warning, Kansas City. It Ain't Over 'Till It's Over."

After the Jays lost 14-2 last night, the Kansas City Public Library blasted out, "Canada. Sorry You Lost. What Bluebirds Do." But, we think TPL's response is the real winner in this Twitter feud.

Yet, the KC library has already fired back. Perhaps it's time to settle the score with some good, old-fashioned baseball.

Visit BlogTo for more.

American Libraries Magazine: Better Communication, Safer Facilities: Creating a security-aware staff

American Libraries Magazine: Better Communication, Safer Facilities: Creating a security-aware staff

By Steve Albrecht |  September 14, 2015

When I ask library people, “Who is in charge of safety and security for your library?” the most common answer is, “The police department or sheriff’s department.” Some people will say, “The library director,” and a few brave souls will give me the correct answer: “Everyone who works here and even the patrons.”

Safety and security are everyone’s jobs. This includes the library director, every department head, every supervisor, all full- and part-time employees, library board members, Friends of the library members, elected officials, and even patrons—who can and should tell us about safety or security concerns when using our branches.

Safety and security themes

Facility safety and security are big responsibilities and important ones; we’re talking about people’s lives here. Crime, conflict, and violence are real possibilities, so it helps to have some absolutes when it comes to our methods and approaches to keeping staff members and patrons safe. I suggest these five:

1. We will treat all patrons with respect, even and especially when we disagree with their behavior. We will accept all patrons, without having to accept their inappropriate behaviors.
2. We won’t tolerate crimes, threats, or acts of workplace violence. We won’t wait for events to make smart security improvements. Security and safety at our facilities is a work in progress.
3. There should be consequences for patrons who violate the law, our codes of conduct, and our safety and security policies.
4. We will offer support and assistance for every employee and every patron who asks for or needs help with safety or security concerns, including bringing in law enforcement.
5. As to our work culture, we will agree that asking for help does not mean employees don’t know how to do their jobs with patrons; it just means they need help at that moment. And we will ask all staffers to do their jobs safely, not just do their jobs.

Degrees of alertness

When you’re watching out for one another and keeping safety in mind, you are in what I call Condition Yellow. This refers to your ability to pay attention to your safety and security anytime you’re on the library floor, in the stacks, at the service desk, in transit between the floors of your facility, entering or leaving your facility, or in view of or in contact with the public. Condition Yellow represents an everyday level of alertness, but you must keep in mind the other two security levels: Condition White and Condition Red.

Condition White is best viewed along a spectrum. It serves its purpose when you are on a break, in a safe back office, eating your lunch, chatting with colleagues, or behind the scenes and other­wise not actively engaged with patrons or strangers. Condition White means relax, catch your breath, and energize to finish the day. The other end of the Condition White spectrum is when you are caught unaware by a situation or a patron’s behavior because you weren’t paying attention and didn’t consider the possibility that he or she would erupt. The operant phrases for the not-good Condition White are: “What just happened?” “I didn’t see that coming.” “I was caught off guard.”

Condition Red gives you two choices: get out of the dangerous situa­tion immediately or, if necessary, protect yourself by fighting back. I prefer the first to the second—as I’m sure your supervisor, library director, human resources rep­resentative, municipal attorneys, and joint powers insurance carrier do as well—but I’m not discounting the need to protect yourself physically. Many people have done brave and heroic things to protect themselves when faced with violence and lived to tell about it, even if they originally had thought they never could.

Three core values for a safer workplace

Three elements can keep you safer (and saner) while you interact with patrons.

Self-protection. You can’t take care of others if you’re not safe yourself. When working around people you don’t know, it makes good security sense to stay at least an arm’s length away until you feel more comfortable coming closer. When people feel crowded, they often react with anger. Give people their space, especially if you see that they are starting to get upset.

Read situations with angry or entitled patrons by examining their tone, facial expressions, and body language for signs that they feel embar­rassed, humiliated, or disrespected; maybe there are no good solu­tions or you see escalating anger or sudden rage. In these events, their next response could be to use violence. If that happens, you have every right to disengage, physically leave the situation, and get help.

You can’t just walk away if a patron raises his or her left eyebrow at you, but you are under no obligation to stand at your desk or on the library floor and wait to be assaulted either. Justify why you left to get help after the situation has stabilized.

Anger management and stress management. When it comes to dealing with difficult or challenging patrons, who may use mean words to try to degrade you, your job, or your efforts, always remember QTIP: Quit Taking It Per­sonally.

Most of the time, angry, or entitled patrons aren’t mad at you personally; they’re mad at what you represent—a public space entity with rules, a code of conduct, and policies they find irritating, chafing, or not meant for them. They don’t have the right to abuse, threaten, or harm you, but you will have to use patience, per­spective, and customer service skills when dealing with them.

Working smart. You must know what to say, what to do, when to stay or go, whom to call, and how to get help when dealing with challenging patrons. Most times you can use good com­munication skills to solve a patron’s problem; sometimes you just need to get another employee or supervisor with a different approach.

Getting help isn’t a bad reflection of your customer service skills. Think about the concept of “the right person for the right patron in the right situation at the right time” as an alignment of sorts. Human beings align and connect with one another for a variety of reasons, including race, age, gender, religion, country of origin, neighborhoods, hobbies, and life­styles. You can use this to your advantage in service situations by trading off with one another based on who gets along best with the approach­ing patron.

You’ve certainly seen this many times: A patron comes in who seems to like you but hates your coworker. Or here comes the patron who can’t stand you, and tells you so, but he or she seems to connect with your colleague in a way that’s a clear signal for you step away and let them interact. Once you and your colleagues recognize these alignments, you can trade off so that an employee works with certain patrons who align with him or her best. It’s not always possible to do this, but when it is, you can choose to go with a patron’s flow instead of trying to swim upstream.

A key component of working smart is the ability to document bad behavior, using an informal memo or email to your boss or a more formal approach, like filling out a security incident report.

Here’s one example where after-the-fact documentation can help protect your professional rep­utation: You are speaking on the phone to an increasingly angry patron who starts cursing at you. You warn him that he can’t speak to you this way and tell him that if he continues, you’ll hang up. If he keeps cursing, keep your promise and hang up. Take a few stress management breaths and then document the conversation, including the actual curse words verbatim.

When this type of patron calls back to complain to your supervisor or shows up in person to meet with your library director, he or she is often wearing a shiny halo and a set of tiny angel wings. This is what the director will hear: “I’ve never been treated like that in all my years!” or “I was shocked, insulted, embarrassed, and now I’m thinking of speaking to my lawyer.” It’s important to depict accurately exactly what the person said to help your boss justify why you did what you did.

Posting and enforcing codes of conduct

I say this with love in my heart, but after having looked at dozens and doz­ens of code-of-conduct rules from libraries across the US, my conclusion is that many of them sound like they were written by city attorneys and not by true library people. The language is stilted, stiff, and almost biblical. (“Thou shalt not consume thy foods in said building.”) This is hardly surprising since much about compliance with policies, especially in government, is derived from advice from our legal friends.

What’s best is a patron-friendly code of conduct written so there are no gray areas about what you can and can’t do in the library. It should be firm but not sound so legalistic that patrons get a little mad by the time they’re done reading it.

I’m always puzzled when library directors or library employees tell me they have behavioral problems in their libraries and yet the only place to find the code of conduct is on a clipboard behind the circulation desk (which no patron has ever actually asked to read) or on the library’s website.

Having your code of conduct posted in several highly visible places throughout your library is an important first step toward ensuring continued patron compliance. Hiding these important rules from view is a mistake because it allows patrons to fall back on standard answers about noncompliance: “No one ever told me.” “I didn’t know I couldn’t do or say that.” “Other people are doing the same thing.” “I’ve been coming here for a long time, and I always thought I could do this or that.”

I’m a big believer in putting the rules of library conduct on large posters that are visible near the entrance and other common areas. I also like changing the language from negative to positive.

“No cellphone calls in the library” should be rewrit­ten as “Please take your cellphone calls outside.” “No eating or drink­ing in the library” can be recast as “Please enjoy your food and beverages before you come inside.” You will get better compliance from patrons and create a more welcoming atmosphere by using positive language instead of negative rules.

Making Safety, Security, and Service Rules Work

• Know that a good predictor of future bad patron behavior is past bad patron behavior.
• If you impose no consequences for problem behavior, expect it to stay the same or escalate.
• Don’t trade security for convenience. Lock employee-only doors, protect yourself and your colleagues, and use your secu­rity devices, policies, and procedures.
• Don’t rationalize irrational patron behaviors.
• Don’t ignore safety or security problems; they rarely go away.
• Listen carefully to colleagues and patrons as they explain their view of a situation.
• Avoid snap decisions unless it’s an emergency situation. Assess several possible responses before you make a decision.
• As best as you can, stay focused and nonjudgmental; don’t lose your patience or your temper or become fearful—both hurt the decision-making process.
• Paraphrase what you hear back to the patron until you both agree what the problem is.
• When you understand what the problem is, take action to resolve it quickly by valuing the patron’s time.
• Explain your position using firm, fair, consistent, and assertive language.
• Keep your tone neutral and polite. Take special care to not use a condescending tone, especially when you’re tired, frus­trated, or at the end of your day.
• Work as a team with colleagues on particu­larly difficult patron situations.
• Get outside help, support, and advice if necessary, especially from safety and security stakeholders (police or sheriff’s department, human resources, city attorney, county counsel, risk management personnel, facilities staff).
• After a difficult patron situation, debrief, support, and praise one another when it’s safe to do so.

This is an excerpt from Library Security: Better Communication, Safer Facilities, by Steve Albrecht (ALA Editions, 2015).

From: American Libraries Magazine