Ambivalent about information, fascinated by stories
It might seem strange for a card-carrying member of the information profession to be ambivalent about information, but on the other hand, it makes perfect sense for a member of the information profession to be ambivalent about information. Information is my day job. I love my job, but let’s be serious here: no matter how much passion or esprit de corps you can muster, your day job can’t help but become, in certain aspects, blasé. Information — meta-data, journal articles, tweets, encyclopedia entries, status updates, TED talks, MARC records, professional blog posts, email, the news — all just grist for the mill.
Narratives could be the archetypical example of something that’s more than its parts. Stories are made of information: plot, characters, dialogue, but we all know a good story is more than simply “information.” If information is the fuel that moves the machine called “modern life,” then stories are the ghost in that machine. A good story can move people, make them think, make them cry. A good story is the fastest train out of town:
“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”
Who could argue with that?
Now, the mundane details.
I started my library career working in the IT department of the Washington DC public library. Following that, I lived many years overseas, primarily in West Africa building IT infrastructure in The Republic of the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau and Guinea Conakry. I have also worked in Ethiopia and Uganda on a telehealth project on behalf of The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. Currently, I work as an academic librarian in Ontario's North.