Address issue 23 with constructor patch to library

[qbarnes]

I confirm that this contribution is made under the terms of the license found in the root directory of this repository's source tree and that I have the authority necessary to make this contribution on behalf of its copyright owner.

I think upstreaming these two commits will address Issue #23.

I believe the old "verizonmedia.com" email addresses should be updated in the source and docs at some point. With this patch, I still left it in the old style.