Field of Dreams Style Library Marketing

This post is in response to the library website module and the recent discovery I made that my local doesn't have one! They do have a paragraph on the council's website explaining where they are located. This wouldn't be so insane if they hadn't recently began a 1.6 million dollar refurbishment that is only mentioned in two places on the council's website (one of which is a broken link so you can't access that story and the other is how they are at a temporary location during the refurbishment due for completion August this year). I won't mention which library because I don't want this page to be one of the few a search engine returns for people looking for info but they claim to be one of the largest library networks in Sydney and many of the branches are undergoing similar refurbishment.

Sorry, Kevin Costner but "if you build it he will come" coming across the corn field in a hushed ominous voice just won't cut it anymore. You need to market your services to get the crowds and you need to market them where the crowds will see them. So, that is where they should be concentrating their efforts right now: Web 2.0 technologies to market the vastly improved library/libraries in their system to make the 1.6 million money well spent.

Web 2.0 technologies they need? I think they should concentrate on getting some Web 1.0 technologies first! Seriously, who doesn't at least have a fleshed out portal on the council's website in this day and age? A webpage with OPAC access, info on interim library services, a blog to keep the community updated on the progress of the upgrade and while they are at it add all the bells and whistles of modern websites. But they have taken some Web 2.0 strides in the form of social networking though I think it was drunkenly done as a joke by a librarian with a warped sense of humor. Seriously, their facebook page must be a joke (it has pictures of a woman holding her dogs and a dog in a santa hat as its only pictures the comments of which are in spanish and don't even think they were taken near the library). I am not the most savvy facebook user but even I could do better than this. They should take some tips on how to utilise facebook from the strip club that is listed in the places nearby on their page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sefton-Playhouse/150850011621800 - that's how you make facebook tastelessly work for you!). I'm not suggesting sexy librarian pics to spice up the library's page but anything would be an improvement on the lady with her dogs.

Library 2.0 - ASU - OLJ

Adopters of Web 2.0 technologies can be judged of their effectiveness against the philosophical 4C principles that underlie: collaboration, conversation, community and content creation. The Arizona State University (ASU) Library could be argued to be an example of a library that aspires to successfully leverage Web 2.0 technologies but have they realised this when measured against the philosophical underlying 4C’s?

Collaboration – to collaborate, as defined in its broadest sense, is to “Work together, especially in a joint intellectual effort” (Farlex, 2013). By this definition, ASU makes attempts to collaborate with its users to build better library services. The video Library Minute: The Social Connection (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohyqXAhLgsM) is about library seeking to collaborate with its users through the various channels it has for communication. Though in a Web 2.0 sense this is not what is meant by collaboration, it is still admirable.

Conversation – to converse, as it would be most appropriate in Web 2.0 usage, is “interchange of thoughts and feelings; conversation” (Farlex, 2013). The Library Minute: The Social Connection is all about trying to engage the users in conversation to improve library service. Furthermore, the channels they provide on their website (http://lib.asu.edu/librarychannel/) to facilitate this conversation are numerous: facebook, twitter and ask-a-librarian. Moreover, they offer other one way channels of communication (YouTube, flickr, vimeo and the online suggestion box) for those who prefer this type of communication to achieve similar ends.

Community – in the Web 2.0 sense encourages “Sharing, participation and fellowship” (Farlex, 2013). I would argue that videos posted on Fun Things to Do at the Library (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOsiYx9orK8) and Exhibits (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJAPIimv6MY) are an attempt by ASU to create a sense of community. Furthermore, ASU’s social networking platforms keep their community informed of events of interest held by the library that would serve to strengthen the bonds of community between the library and its users. Though, these are not community in the Web 2.0 sense they are still good library practice.

Content Creation – this is where ASU truly stumbles in meeting the 4C’s in the slightest. ASU does not offer a way for its users to be content creators. Though they do encourage open access through the ASU Digital Repository (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO38zHPhNQI&list=PLCA6A813AA9C9A574).

However, the success of a library should not be measured against Web 2.0 criteria: Library 2.0 criteria provide a much better measure. Casey and Savastinuk (2006) ask “What makes a service Library 2.0?” (para.20). It is any service that: successfully reaches users, is frequently evaluated, makes use of customer input and perhaps most importantly is physical or virtual (Casey and Savastinuk, 2006).  By that standard ASU may not be flawlessly Web 2.0 yet but they are a good example of a Library 2.0 institution. They are where their users want and need them like being available 24/7 on mobile devices (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ1ZjStKny0), inviting study spaces (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi_SGY8niCY) and they offer a range of technologies that improve the catalogue (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4Row35FdVA&list=PLCA6A813AA9C9A574 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNe6yBSaORc). And isn’t all that improvement more important in the end?

Bibliography

Casey, M. E., & Savastinuk, L. C. (2006). Library 2.0: Service for the next-generation library. Library Journal. Retrieved April 2013, from http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6365200.html

Farlex. (2013). Collaborate. Retrieved April 2013, from The Free Online Dictionary: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/collaborate

Farlex. (2013). Community. Retrieved April 2013, from The Free Online Dictionary: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/community

Farlex. (2013). Converse. Retrieved April 2013, from The Free Online Dictionary: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/converse

Library 2.Oh, Here We Go Again

I hate 2.0's! There, I've said it. Rather than continue with a long new rant I am going to repost a rant I did for another subject as a critique of a 2.0 based article.

Web 2.0 & Library 2.0: Revolution?

Shakespeare will always sound more eloquent than a grizzled old prospector, circa 1849, but I think “Thar’s gold in them thar hills!” serves adequately in critiquing Anderson’s (2007) article “All that glisters is not gold” – Web 2.0 and the librarian. And there is gold in the article but it is buried, as gold often is. Like everything in the world searching for that gold will be a much more pleasant task with the help of John and Paul ... the Beatles, not the Saints.

(Scream along with Paul - Aaaaah!)

“You say you want a revolution

Well, you know

We all want to change the world”

(Lennon-McCartney, 1968)

Web 2.0, according to Anderson (2007), is O’Reilly Media Inc’s revolution regarding the Web. But is it really all that revolutionary? The theory has many detractors and weighty ones at that. John Dvorak, a well-known columnist for PC Magazine, argues that the so called Web 2.0 revolution is in fact a simple evolution (Black, 2007). “The tools that allow people to do things for themselves are simply getting more efficient. The Web 2.0 products, such as podcasts and blogs, are all built on technology from the early 1990’s.” (Black, 2007, p. 4). Is this right? It certainly seems that way when his argument is backed up by the creator of the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee.

“Web 1.0 was all about connecting people. It was an interactive space, and I think Web 2.0 is of course a piece of jargon, nobody even knows what it means. If Web 2.0 for you is blogs and wikis, then that is people to people. But that was what the Web was supposed to be all along. [...] The idea of the Web as interaction between people is really what the Web is. That was what it was designed to be as a collaborative space where people can interact.”

(Berners-Lee cited in Black, 2007, p. 3)

So, Web 2.0 is nothing more than a myth but it has already has the library hitching its wagon to its star in the form of Library 2.0.

“You tell me that it’s evolution

Well, you know

We all want to change the world”

(Lennon-McCartney, 1968)

Library 2.0, the supposed evolution or revolution of the library, is nothing more than a myth itself. Curran, Murray, Norrby & Christian (2006) state, “Libraries, as we know them today, can be defined by the term Library 1.0. This defines the way resources are kept on shelves or at a computer behind a login. These resources can be taken from a shelf, checked out by library staff, taken home for a certain length of time and absorbed, and then returned to the library for someone else to avail of.” (p. 47). Really, is that all a library is? Many librarians would argue that it’s something more. And many do.

“You say you got a real solution

Well, you know

We’d all love to see the plan”

(Lennon-McCartney, 1968)

Objection to Library 2.0, “often comes in the guise of ‘we have been doing all this before’” (Godwin, 2008, p. 177). That is certainly the stance of T. Scott Plutchak, as cited in Black (2007), where it states:

“the term Library 2.0 is meaningless because the term suggests that the changes in libraries are radical, when they are actually evolutionary. Librarians in the past have sought out the newest technologies and sought to provide good customer service. [...] libraries have evolved many times as the communities they serve have changed. When librarians embrace the changes in technology and society to find new and more effective ways to serve their patrons, they are not acting in brand-new 2.0 ways, they are simply being good librarians.” (pp. 10-11)

And being good librarians should be the goal for those for and against the Library 2.0 moniker. Being good librarians in the age of the “web generation” will mean adopting the appropriate Web 2.0 technologies (Godwin, 2008, p. 5). As Miller (2006) states, “To those who object to the term, for whatever reason, should be careful not to dismiss the trends and messages along with the label.” (p. 1)

“You ask me for a contribution

Well, you know

We’re all doing what we can”

(Lennon-McCartney, 1968)

There is gold in them thar Web 2.0 hills but the whole hills are not made of gold. “We should utilize the tools, not for their own sake, but only where they improve our services, for the benefit of our users.” (Godwin, 2008, p. 177). Another problem is that by aligning itself with Web 2.0, Library 2.0 is missing the bigger technological picture. Anderson (2007) notes the comparison made between Amazon’s book delivery mechanisms and the inter-library loan process and points out that while its book delivery mechanism is key to Amazon’s success, it is not one of its Web 2.0 features.

In conclusion, Anderson’s (2007) article is golden in its suggestion that today’s librarian needs to understand the technology of the day but that message is mired by the 2.0 minutia. Libraries would best serve their patrons if they would all take Phil Bradley’s advice “Forget the 2.0 label and consider how you can do things better.” (cited in Godwin, 2008, p. 165)

Posted by Luke Warren at Saturday, March 31, 2012 

You might have noticed that I cherry picked some of the quotes for my Web 2.Oh that hype rant from earlier in the semester. I do love to recycle some hard found quotes when they are appropriate. Tomorrow's posts will be less negative towards my hatred for the 2.0's in the world and instead focused on the good they can produce if we all drop the 2.0 myopia we seem to be suffering from. Three legit OLJ's postings tomorrow should give me some variety to choose from at the end of the semester.

The Philosophy of Cartman

Just thought I'd share this video rather than my usual rant. It's perfect for this subject with its various friend driven social networks and VoIP because it's not only about the specific topic, it contains the most perfect philosophical statement on quality friendship at the end.

Virtual Suicide Note

I tried so hard to navigate this second life but I kept getting lost (the place is huge and stuff is hard to find). I tried moving forward but barriers kept getting in my way (literally - walls chairs, tables - I need a second life guide dog because my avatar is clearly blind). I felt often disconnected from the world (the result of a poor internet connection). I often could not feel the ground beneath my feet (when I forgot how to turn off the fly function). I could not even find love (for fear that the cute girl would turn out to be a dirty old man).

So, goodbye cruel virtual world.

Don't weep for me friends for I am off to a better place.

RSS - OLJ

RSS or Really Simple Syndication is an XML application which allows for the aggregation of subscribed content as it is created for a subscriber's viewing with feed readers (Bansode, Dahibhate and Ingale, 2009). This content can be distributed as a list of headlines, update notices and occasionally full-text content (Bansode et al, 2009). Requirements for RSS in XML are a syntactic tag for a title, a link (URL) and a description (Tennant, 2003).

RSS has its own universally recognised logo, see diagram 1 (Oxford Reference, 2013).

(Diagram 1)

RSS is utilised by many digital content providers. One such example is The Pirate Bay (TPB). Self descrbed as “The world’s largest bittorrent tracker”, TPB like many other bittorrent sites offers RSS for its various categories. TPB (2013) states RSS is a subscription format that gives you the option to instantly get notified when new torrents are added to our site. If you have a torrent client with support for RSS you can even let it search for your favorite series and automatically download new episodes as soon as they show up” (para.1). Another site using RSS, in a much more ethical manner that does not contravene copyright laws, is The Australian. The Australian offers RSS feeds of all their content via various categories including arts, various business, news, etc. Furthermore they offer feeds on their news magazine, IT and blog feeds.

In library world, RSS is used as a portal, a way of evaluation and recommendation of websites, filtering and customisation of information delivery and as a way of reviewing information in a succinct format (Bansode et al, 2009). These are all good uses for RSS by a library but library users can also indirectly benefit from the RSS use of the librarian that serves them. There is far more information out there today than any one person can keep abreast of without the help of an RSS feed (Tennant, 2003). By subscribing to the feeds pertinent to library world, a librarian can keep up to date on all the latest trends and success stories from the various feeds of others (Tennant, 2003). RSS could deliver to a librarian that missing ingredient they need to serve their community better.

Works Cited

Bansode, S., & Dahibhate, N. B. (2009). RSS applications in libraries and information centres. Library Philosophy and Practice.

Oxford Reference. (2013). RSS. Retrieved April 2013, from Oxford Reference: http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100407126

Tennant, R. (2003). Feed your head. Library Journal, 128(9), 30.

The Australian. (2013). RSS Feeds. Retrieved April 2013, from The Australian: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/help/rss

The Pirate Bay. (2013). Subscribe. Retrieved April 2013, from The Pirate Bay: http://thepiratebay.se/rss

I Don't Like Coffee!

I am one of the few adults I know that doesn't like coffee. You all got on the coffee bandwagon one day when I was probably looking up info on cartoons and left me behind to drink other childish beverages. Why does this piece of information matter? Because adults get together and drink coffee!!! It is the standard arbitrary task that is necessary for social interaction between adults. Kids they get together and play. Adults: coffee and a chat. Does anyone else think that the kids are the ones with the right idea?

I'm sure that a few of you are starting to see my point so I'll get to how this relates to this subject.

I also don't like social networks! They are the coffee of the online world. It seems like you are all willing to swallow the bitter filth that is social networking but I'm not drinking the Kool-Aid (or coffee). I'll accept that we have to live in a cafe culture and I'll even meet at a real cafe so you can all get your fix as long as I don't have to choose my blend and sip from the hole in the lid of a Styrofoam cup. And on a similar note, I'll accept that social networks may be part of my job but they won't follow me home.

But how will I stay connected in this fast paced Web 2.0 world? I have a phone that is always on me and unlike so many others, I actually answer it when it rings or beeps. I am as reachable and connected as I want and, more importantly, need to be. I don't feel the urge to announce that I went to the shop for bread to everyone I've ever known and my musings on life are best inflicted on whoever is in the room with me (and inflicted is the right word if the look on my girlfriend's face is anything to go by. I bet you're feeling a little inflicted upon right now). I have nothing interesting to say to the world that isn't pointless or fictional and no need to connect with that guy I played with in kindergarten (I'm sure he moved on too).

I'm not asking you to smash your coffee mug or to shut down your facebook account. All I'm saying is that there are other beverages out there and other ways to spend your time. Have a milkshake and disconnect from the social networks for a little while. Get off the fast paced Web 2.0 world for a few minutes and join the few of us left in the real world for some old-fashioned fun.

I realise that I am almost the last adult holdout in both social networking and coffee and I don't care if facebook now offers a timeline of the banal events of my life or if i can post as many pictures of my dinner as I want to to flickr or that a latte is more milky or if a mocha has chocolate (and why would you waste chocolate like that? It's like drawing a moustache on the Mona Lisa), I'm not joining the rest of you and no arguement you put forward can make me. And if we do happen to connect in the real world and decide to hangout, I'd rather we got together and did something more fun than consume steaming hot caffeinated liquid. Come on people, we were all kids once: exercise that imagination that is dying from lack of use and come up with a fun activity that doesn't involve your aromatic drug of choice. If nothing else, go with Will Hunting's pickup line and offer to take me out to eat a bunch of caramels.

I do like caramels!

The Monster Mashup

I have no idea why but I can never seem to get twittervision to work! I will dispense with the usual non-OLJ rant because I have something worth sharing. While I was tooling around Mashable, I found this inspiring piece from Patton Oswalt posted on facebook in response to the Boston marathon explosion.

Boston. Fucking horrible. 

I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, "Well, I've had it with humanity."

But I was wrong. I don't know what's going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths. 

But here's what I DO know. If it's one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. (Thanks FAKE Gallery founder and owner Paul Kozlowski for pointing this out to me). This is a giant planet and we're lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they're pointed towards darkness. 

But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We'd have eaten ourselves alive long ago. 

So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, "The good outnumber you, and we always will."

- Patton Oswalt

After 3 hours of going live, it was shared more than 81,000 times and received more than 97,000 likes. Then again it beats the crap out of the usual rubbish people post on facebook. Well, I'm off to status update YOLO with some insipid emoticon behind it to balance out the good Patton's doing on his page.

(I know that the video has little to do with the post but I couldn't help myself)

Tag, You're It

I've signed on to delicious.com and had a look around just long enough to know that if I was becoming a teacher-librarian I'd find it invaluable. However, I'm not intending in going in that direction and would rather concentrate my intention on things that strike me as more useful in a public library setting. On top of that, my case study is on tagging so I'll be getting plenty of info there on social tagging.

I will mention that I have read some good things on QR codes. UTS is doing amazing things with them around their library that also impart basic information literacy skills. In fact UTS is doing some amazing things in general at their library. The OPAC has a tag cloud that I like to use when I go there for resources. I find it helps refine my searches when I'm casting a wide net. Below is just a few of the articles I've read on what UTS is doing over at their library. I was reading them for mobile technologies but they might be useful for this subject too.

McDonald, S. (2012). There's a librarian in my pocket: Mobile information literacy at UTS library. In M. Ally, & G. Needham (Eds.), M-libraries 3: Tranforming libraries with mobile technology (pp. 93-100). London: Facet Publishing.

McDonald, S., & Tiffen, P. (2009). UTS library gets social: Using social media to connect with users. inCite, 30(9), 15.

Back and Begging

I've been busy with some big assignments for other subjects but I'm back and committed to getting through the modules before the next onslaught begins in about 5 or 6 weeks. I'll be working at a break-neck pace saving one task per week for a deep look each Wednesday so I have at least 5 well researched tasks to choose from at the end of the semester.

Now comes the begging.

My assignment 2 has to do with social tagging. If you could take some time to read/skim this very short public domain story by Edgar Allan Poe and add three tags separated by commas or semi-colons that you think are most appropriate in the comments section, it would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Luke

The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe           www.world-english.org

The red death had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal--the madness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress, and termination of the disease, were incidents of half an hour.

But Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his crenellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince's own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts.

They resolved to leave means neither of ingress nor egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the "Red Death."

It was toward the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence.

It was a voluptuous scene, that masquerade. But first let me tell of the rooms in which it was held. There were seven--an imperial suite, In many palaces, however, such suites form a long and straight vista, while the folding doors slide back nearly to the walls on either hand, so that the view of the whole extant is scarcely impeded. Here the case was very different; as might have been expected from the duke's love of the "bizarre." The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time. There was a sharp turn at the right and left, in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic window looked out upon a closed corridor of which pursued the windings of the suite. These windows were of stained glass whose color varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it opened. That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue--and vividly blue were its windows. The second chamber was purple in its ornaments and tapestries, and here the panes were purple. The third was green throughout, and so were the casements. The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange--the fifth with white--the sixth with violet. The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue. But in this chamber only, the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes were scarlet--a deep blood color. Now in no one of any of the seven apartments was there any lamp or candelabrum, amid the profusion of golden ornaments that lay scattered to and fro and depended from the roof. There was no light of any kind emanating from lamp or candle within the suite of chambers. But in the corridors that followed the suite, there stood, opposite each window, a heavy tripod, bearing a brazier of fire, that projected its rays through the tinted glass and so glaringly lit the room. And thus were produced a multitude of gaudy and fantastic appearances. But in the western or back chamber the effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered, that there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all. It was within this apartment, also, that there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony. It pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to hearken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and while the chimes of the clock yet rang. it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused revery or meditation. But when the echoes had fully ceased, a light laughter at once pervaded the assembly; the musicians looked at each other and smiled as if at their own nervousness and folly, and made whispering vows, each to the other, that the next chiming of the clock should produce in them no similar emotion; and then, after the lapse of sixty minutes (which embrace three thousand and six hundred seconds of Time that flies), there came yet another chiming of the clock, and then were the same disconcert and tremulousness and meditation as before. But, in spite of these things, it was a gay and magnificent revel. The tastes of the duke were peculiar. He had a fine eye for color and effects. He disregarded the "decora" of mere fashion. His plans were bold and fiery, and his conceptions glowed with barbaric lustre. There are some who would have thought him mad. His followers felt that he was not. It was necessary to hear and see and touch him to be _sure_ he was not.

He had directed, in great part, the movable embellishments of the seven chambers, upon occasion of this great fete; and it was his own guiding taste which had given character to the masqueraders. Be sure they were grotesque. There were much glare and glitter and piquancy and phantasm--much of what has been seen in "Hernani." There were arabesque figures with unsuited limbs and appointments. There were delirious fancies such as the madman fashions. There were much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust. To and fro in the seven chambers stalked, in fact, a multitude of dreams. And these the dreams--writhed in and about, taking hue from the rooms, and causing the wild music of the orchestra to seem as the echo of their steps. And, anon, there strikes the ebony clock which stands in the hall of the velvet. And then, for a moment, all is still, and all is silent save the voice of the clock. The dreams are stiff-frozen as they stand. But the echoes of the chime die away--they have endured but an instant--and a light half-subdued laughter floats after them as they depart. And now the music swells, and the dreams live, and writhe to and fro more merrily than ever, taking hue from the many-tinted windows through which stream the rays of the tripods. But to the chamber which lies most westwardly of the seven there are now none of the maskers who venture, for the night is waning away; and there flows a ruddier light through the blood-colored panes; and the blackness of the sable drapery appalls; and to him whose foot falls on the sable carpet, there comes from the near clock of ebony a muffled peal more solemnly emphatic than any which reaches _their_ ears who indulge in the more remote gaieties of the other apartments.

But these other apartments were densely crowded, and in them beat feverishly the heart of life. And the revel went whirlingly on, until at length there commenced the sounding of midnight upon the clock. And then the music ceased, as I have told; and the evolutions of the waltzers were quieted; and there was an uneasy cessation of all things as before. But now there were twelve strokes to be sounded by the bell of the clock; and thus it happened, perhaps that more of thought crept, with more of time into the meditations of the thoughtful among those who revelled. And thus too, it happened, that before the last echoes of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence, there were many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention of no single individual before. And the rumor of this new presence having spread itself whisperingly around, there arose at length from the whole company a buzz, or murmur, of horror, and of disgust.

In an assembly of phantasms such as I have painted, it may well be supposed that no ordinary appearance could have excited such sensation. In truth the masquerade license of the night was nearly unlimited; but the figure in question had out-Heroded Herod, and gone beyond the bounds of even the prince's indefinite decorum. There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion. Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made. The whole company, indeed, seemed now deeply to feel that in the costume and bearing of the stranger neither wit nor propriety existed. The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have difficulty in detecting the cheat. And yet all this might have been endured, if not approved, by the mad revellers around. But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in _blood_--and his broad brow, with all the features of his face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror.

When the eyes of Prince Prospero fell on this spectral image (which, with a slow and solemn movement, as if more fully to sustain its role, stalked to and fro among the waltzers) he was seen to be convulsed, in the first moment with a strong shudder either of terror or distaste; but in the next, his brow reddened with rage.

"Who dares"--he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood near him--"who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery? Seize him and unmask him--that we may know whom we have to hang, at sunrise, from the battlements!"

It was in the eastern or blue chamber in which stood Prince Prospero as he uttered these words. They rang throughout the seven rooms loudly and clearly, for the prince was a bold and robust man, and the music had become hushed at the waving of his hand.

It was in the blue room where stood the prince, with a group of pale courtiers by his side. At first, as he spoke, there was a slight rushing movement of this group in the direction of the intruder, who, at the moment was also near at hand, and now, with deliberate and stately step, made closer approach to the speaker. But from a certain nameless awe with which the mad assumptions of the mummer had inspired the whole party, there were found none who put forth a hand to seize him; so that, unimpeded, he passed within a yard of the prince's person; and while the vast assembly, as with one impulse, shrank from the centers of the rooms to the walls, he made his way uninterruptedly, but with the same solemn and measured step which had distinguished him from the first, through the blue chamber to the purple--to the purple to the green--through the green to the orange--through this again to the white--and even thence to the violet, ere a decided movement had been made to arrest him. It was then, however, that the Prince Prospero, maddened with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly through the six chambers, while none followed him on account of a deadly terror that had seized upon all. He bore aloft a drawn dagger, and had approached, in rapid impetuosity, to within three or four feet of the retreating figure, when the latter, having attained the extremity of the velvet apartment, turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer. There was a sharp cry--and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which most instantly afterward, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero. Then summoning the wild courage of despair, a throng of the revellers at once threw themselves into the black apartment, and seizing the mummer whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable horror at finding the grave cerements and corpse-like mask, which they handled with so violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form.

And now was acknowledged the presence of the red death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And darkness and decay and the red death held illimitable dominion over all.

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