Zombie Apocalypse at Orion Library?

The Orion Township Public Library’s new Teen Services Librarian, Kathleen Kozlowski, has only worked at the library for five months, but she already has a following.

By offering programs like Zombie Apocalypse and a twice monthly Animé Club, Kozlowski has hit a sweet spot with her target audience.

On November 30, after the library was closed for the day, more than 50 teenagers gathered there for Zombie Apocalypse. Kozlowski challenged participants to see if they were ready for the fictional zombie uprising by dividing them into teams and giving them tasks. Things like:  "Can I Eat That? Foraging in the Woods for Food is Tricky Work.  You need to know which plants will feed you and which plants will kill you.  Find a book on Botany in section 581 and bring it back to the safe zone." 

“It was a fun way to show them where certain books and resources are located in the library,” Kozlowski said. The team that successfully completed the most tasks won candy bars labeled Zombie Defense Serum.  

While the teens were completing their tasks, they also had to fight off zombies. It started off with one zombie and, if a human got tagged, he or she became a zombie too.  All the humans got NERF guns and if a zombie got hit with a NERF gun they were stunned for 10 seconds.  

For the uninitiated, (and according to Wikipedia) the zombie apocalypse has become a popular subgenre of horror fiction in which zombies (the “undead”) rise up globally and assault humanity. The scenario is so popular (think Thriller and Night of the Living Dead) that the US Centers for Disease Control has used the scenario in its own publication to promote emergency preparedness.

Kozlowski is also bringing teens into the library with a popular and growing weekly animé club which is held the first and third Tuesdays of each month at 7 p.m. These events are free and open to kids in grades 6-12.