Oh, Come On!

After all my watchful eyeing of the shadows at previous meetings, this is the year there's a zombie hunt at MLA? When I'm on the other side of the country?

That's it. I want Boston to have liches. They're powerful magic-using undead. Way more challenging than regular zombies. All the zombie-hunting in Seattle should give people the practice they'll need. It'll be magnificent.

The Sweet Smell of Zombies

In case anyone is still worried about zombies, given that the killer robots will probably make short work of them on the way to finishing us off, drrubidium has some extremely useful advice over on the Scientopia Guest Blogge.

It's a careful explanation of the chemistry involved in making a corpse-scented perfume (I like to think it will also be available in a shower gel or body wash), so zombies will think you're one of them. Ingenious!

I think we should probably all start wearing this right away, just to be safe. After all, you don't want to not smell like a rotting corpse when the zombies show up, and that could be at any time.

Possibly not soon enough, either, if everyone smells like a rotting corpse.

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Be Prepared

I keep saying that I am so over zombies, but they keep pulling me back in and trying to get at my brain. It's their thing that they do, I guess.

So the rest of the world is clearly not over the zombie menace, and I would therefore be remiss should I fail to mention the latest exciting update, which I saw on Twitter yesterday: the CDC's emergency preparedness guide for the zombie apocalypse.

There's a lot of helpful information there. Also exciting, a video contest for 'preparedness 101' for the zombie apocalypse. Make a 1-minute video to "show the world how you are preparing for any emergency (hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, zombies…)" and you could win the fame and fortune inherent in having your video posted on the CDC Public Health Matters blog.

You can also download useful graphics like the following to encourage others:



I like how they say "any emergency," and I wonder how many people are going to skip all the ones we see more often and jump right to the zombies when they make their videos. I probably would.

If you need some inspiration, I suggest a quick viewing of the "NLM & You" video contest winners. These were shown at MLA, and they were a fun interlude before the plenary sessions. My favorite is the first runner up, "The Fastest Librarian in the West."

I lived in NM, so I have to cheer them on. Also, the line about the "mighty fine triangular pen" is awesome.

Now go make a video and prove you're prepared for the zombie apocalypse!

Hey...since they do say "any emergency," I guess I could substitute the horror of my choice. An ogre invasion, perhaps.

I do have to say, I kind of love the CDC right now.

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Staying Alert for Monsters

Well, I suppose I have to salute this wise move on the part of Miller Library at McPherson College: a library guide in the context of a comic book about a zombie attack.

It's amusing, introduces library resources, and recognizes the growing zombie threat on college campuses these days.

Medical libraries could do this sort of thing, you know. Heck, zombies (or vampires, mummies, kelpies, demons...let's not limit ourselves) as a pressing health issue are perfect for us!

There could be references to how you research different types of monstrous infections, the basic sciences, a nod to Evidence-Based Medicine...

Someone who can draw should get right on that.

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Monster Update

For those keeping an eye on the approach of the zombie apocalypse, this Sociological Images post about the history of the zombie may be of interest.

I was interested to hear that the zombie is in a way very modern:

What makes the zombie unique from other movie monsters is its unique place of origin. Whereas Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolfman all have ties to the Gothic literary tradition, the zombie stands apart in having a relatively recent (and proximal) origin.

Check it out.

Me, I'm continuing to focus my attention on the monster under the bed. Something must be done about the Ankle-Grabber!

When I was a kid we usually just slept on mattresses or bedrolls placed flat on the floor, so the monster would have had to be too flat to be much of a problem. It was a happy thing.

I've decided to form a campaign to encourage all children's beds to be kept on the floor to ensure that the youth of today can grow up in the same monster-free contentment I did.

Join me!

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Disaster Planning

Although I really, really, am not even concerned about vampires anymore given the growing killer robot threat, I must pass along this excellent advice from A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette:

If your library is invaded by zombies, a librarian should invite them all into the classroom and bore them to death with a lecture about scholarly versus popular periodicals.

I'm on it!
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Useful Subject Guides

I continue to insist that I am so over the zombie menace (I have other terrors to fear! Like killer robots!), but this Zombie Survival LibGuide from the University of Florida Libraries is one of the most awesome things I've ever seen.

There's info on survival, zombie-related materials from the collections, and off-campus access to university resources "from your chosen hiding place." After all, "[i]f a zombie attack prevents access to campus, many resources for classwork and for survival can be accessed electronically."

Now that's disaster planning and looking out for your students.

I'm suddenly overcome with a powerful urge to make a page for my library's Subjects A-Z to cover monster attacks.

Thanks to LISNews for bringing this to my attention.

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Latest Horror Update

Hank at Dangerous Intersection reports on an investigatory mission relating to one of the many gathering threats that menace our fair world: killer robots. The intriguing title, In Which I Render God Speechless, gives a certain optimistic tone not borne out by the remainder of the piece.

While God (the name of a robot with whom the author exchanges words) may be speechless now, surely its descendants will only use the information gleaned from the post to design better, more lethal conversational ploys.

What makes it especially alarming is that Hank convincingly argues that the zombie invasion, which we all assumed would be bad enough, will be only a prelude to the super-intelligent robot attacks!

Buckle up*, everyone. It just gets more exciting from here.

*Your belts. Because the middle of a zombie and/or robot crisis is the last place you want to be distracted by ill-fitting trousers.

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Zombies: They Pull Me Back In

I keep saying that I'm so over zombies and have moved on to other terrors (isn't anyone but me concerned about the potential Giant Menace?), but I can hardly resist this University of Florida Disaster Preparedness Simulation Exercise addressing a zombie attack.

It is no longer actually available at the University of Florida site, but is presented by Library Preservation, where some insightful comments raise important questions about zombies in libraries. I found it via the estimable Future Feminist Librarian Activist.

I can see that my library needs to dedicate some serious thought to our disaster plan, which I don't believe says anything at all about either zombies or vampires, which, as the other popular monster of the moment, should not be overlooked. It couldn't hurt to focus a little attention on werewolves, either.

Also, of course, giants. They're not messing around, you know--they'll grind your bones to make their bread.

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Ha Ha!--Ew. Movie Review: Zombieland

This evening's entertainment was brought to us by whoever made the movie Zombieland and made available a free preview screening of it to the Boston movie-going public.

It had no conceivable connection to library science, but did offer a health angle since, like many of your modern zombies, the ones here are the result of a virus, rather than witchcraft. The virus even has a pedigree: mad cow to mad human to mad zombie.

You can't argue with that kind of attention to detail.

The virus causes "swollen brain," fever, insanity and of course a ravenous hunger for flesh. It's not completely clear that it causes death, so these zombies may not actually be undead (except in the sense that so many of us are, of not-dead), but that's what makes it scientifically plausible.

Anyway, the movie was pretty amusing at points, and featured plenty of splattering gore and exciting zombie-caused and zombie-experienced deaths. Many of the college-age guys leaving the theater with us afterwards were extremely pleased with it, so I expect it to do well at the box office.

Jesse Eisenberg is the narrator (called Columbus--everyone goes by the name of the city they're from, so as not to get too familiar with each other: a wise move when you might have to shoot someone at any time if they fall victim to the plague), an unlikely survivor of the zombie apocalypse.

He is joined by Woody Harrelson as Tallahassee, playing that role he plays so well--a slightly off-kilter, manically energetic guy who sometimes (as in this case) has a heart of gold. You can tell because it doesn't even occur to him to hit on the young woman they meet, even though she may be one of the last women on earth and is way cute: she's clearly destined to end up involved with the young man, and that's totally cool with Tallahassee.

I tried not to speculate that, if these are really the last people on earth, Tallahassee would wind up hooking up with the little sister after a while. I mean, when she's older. You'd assume the question would have to come up eventually, right? If you were just bumming around a world full of zombies with nothing to do? Yeah, he's 35 years older than her...like there's anyone around to point out that that's totally inappropriate.

Oops. I started speculating. So the movie didn't completely engage my full and undivided attention.

I should perhaps have previously mentioned that they meet up with two sisters, played by Emma Stone  as Wichita, and Abigail Breslin as Little Rock. It's not explained why they're "from" different cities, but maybe they're going by where they were born. I'd have a different name from my sisters according to that system (just call me Havre), so it works for me.

Once assembled, our crew of adventurers drives around, kills zombies, and holes up in the palatial Hollywood mansion of a certain popular movie star. And morbid shenanigans occur.

This was not a particularly thoughtful movie or one likely to promote any sort of extensive personal growth, and the characters do a few unbelievably stupid things, but it was entertaining. I've seen a lot worse.

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Advancing the Frontiers of Zombology

Although I personally have moved on from the living dead to focus on other terrors (ahhh!!!! Flying Heads!!!!), I am pleased to see that others have the zombie menace well in hand.

Via Respectful Insolence, please direct your attention to this scholarly paper addressing When Zombies Attack: Mathematical Modeling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection.

The paper has a broader application than merely demonstrating how vulnerable civilization is to collapse:

This is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the first mathematical analysis of an outbreak of zombie infection. While the scenarios considered are obviously not realistic, it is nevertheless instructive to develop mathematical models for an unusual outbreak. This demonstrates the flexibility of mathematical modelling and shows how modelling can respond to a wide variety of challenges in ‘biology’.

Those of you still on zombie-watch duty can disregard that optimistic bit about how "the scenarios considered are obviously not realistic."

Ahhhhh! Zombies!

I have not said much recently about my wary eye for zombies, but could hardly resist this entertainingly thoughtful article on The Left and the Living Dead.

It asks the important question: what does our fondness for zombie tales say about our psychology and politics?

It also has a nice little graph showing the rise in the numbers of zombie movies over the past decades.

Considering this evidence that plenty of people are alert to the zombie menace, I now feel that perhaps I should become concerned about some other, less popular monster, just to make sure that a variety of threats are being evaluated for their potential to bring about the downfall of civilization.

Maybe kelpies.

Not the dogs, the water horses. Those things are creepy.

Boston PD: The Information We Need

I am so happy to live near Boston right now!

The police department here is ready to practice full transparency should the zombies attack. As one who has in the past (albeit on another, now deceased blog, so I can't prove it) expressed some anxiety about the zombie attack, I am delighted that I can at least count on honest information about my impending doom.

All I need to do is follow their Twitter feed. Done!

The Consumerist has the full story. Blog of the Moderate Left tipped me off.