If you’ve ever encountered a workplace bully, you are not alone. Statistics show that bullying has been steadily on the rise and has taken on a variety of different faces.1 Once upon a time, the term “bully” typically conjured up the image of a playground aggressor—someone who used physical force or intimidation to victimize others. In that simpler time, retorts such as “pick on someone your own size” or “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” were common. However, workplace bullying shows little correlation to the physical size of the perpetrator and, among other things, it can involve words that are destructive. The havoc it wreaks can be as bad as—or worse than—what used to happen on the playground. Bullying presents a serious management challenge.

Committed to assisting research and academic libraries in the continuous improvement of management systems, ARL has worked since 1970 to gather and disseminate the best practices for library needs. As part of its commitment, ARL maintains an active publications program best known for its SPEC Kits. Through the Collaborative Research/Writing Program, librarians work with ARL staff to design SPEC surveys and write publications. Originally established as an information source for ARL member libraries, the SPEC Kit series has grown to serve the needs of the library community worldwide. What are SPEC Kits?Published six times per year, SPEC Kits contain the most valuable, up-to-date information on the latest issues of concern to libraries and librarians today. They are the result of a systematic survey of ARL member libraries on a particular topic related to current practice in the field. Each SPEC Kit contains an executive summary of the survey results; survey questions with tallies and selected comments; the best representative documents from survey participants, such as policies, procedures, handbooks, guidelines, Web sites, records, brochures, and statements; and a selected reading list-both print and online sources-containing the most current literature available on the topic for further study. Subscribe to SPEC KitsSubscribers tell us that the information contained in SPEC Kits is valuable to a variety of users, both inside and outside the library. SPEC Kit purchasers use the documentation found in SPEC Kits as a point of departure for research and problem solving because they lend immediate authority to proposals and set standards for designing programs or writing procedure statements. SPEC Kits also function as an important reference tool for library administrators, staff, students, and professionals in allied disciplines who may not have access to this kind of information.SPEC Kits are available in print and online. For more information visit: http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/. The executive summary for each kit after December 1993 can be accessed free of charge at http://www.arl.org/ resources/pubs/spec/complete.shtml. SPEC Kit 331

Fifteen years. In some respects, that's a long time; in other cases, not so much. In many cultures, the fifteenth year-the quinceañera-is synonymous with the coming of age. In terms of wedding anniversaries, the fifteenth is symbolized by crystal-rock solid. Fifteen years is long enough to pay off a mortgage but short enough to feel as if the time has flown by. As terminology goes, fifteen years lacks a well-known descriptor, unlike decade for ten years and score for twenty. Sometimes fifteen years is referred to as a sesquidecade-a quirky, though rarely used, convention to note a decade and a half. 1

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