Dan Grace, Information Adviser at Sheffield Hallam University

+Important things you should know:

  • I really can’t stand the word “customers” to describe people who use libraries.

  • Like Chuck D and Queen Sofia of Spain I am a pescetarian. My moral justifications for this choice are convoluted and, occasionally, contradictory.

  • The first half of the week I am a Library and Information Assistant at Sheffield Public Reference and Information Library. I have been working there for just over five years.

  • I once served an ice cream to that guy who played Trigger in “Only Fools and Horses”.

  • I write. Mainly poetry. Please don’t hold this against me.

  • If you haven’t already you should really read “Anarchy in action” by Colin Ward. It explains anarchism, my political philosophy of choice, much better than I could ever manage here.

  • In September I’ll start a PhD looking at how technology effects public libraries ability to build more resilient communities. To do this I will have to give up my job working in a public library. I think this is ironic, but I’m not sure.

  • Despite being 33 years old I still play Dungeons and Dragons on a semi-regular basis. I’m hoping that this, like thick framed glasses and bad haircuts, is now cool.

  • The second half of the week I work as an Information Adviser at Sheffield Hallam University. That’s a subject librarian, just to clarify.

  • Never dress up as an owl to promote a database to students. It doesn’t work.

Things I will most likely tweet about (all in relation to libraries, obvs):

  • Privatisation, neoliberalism, nasty evil capitalism, and so on.

  • Mental health.

  • Equality.

  • The daily grind.

  • My PhD. I’ll try not to go on about this too much, but I’m really very excited about it.

  • Many other things which may not seem at first as if they’re connected to the library world. Trust me, they are.

Dan can be found at @danpgrace on Twitter and at his two irregularly updated blogs: http://insurgentmumblings.tumblr.com/ (writing) and http://resilientlibrary.tumblr.com/ (libraries and community resilience).

Follow Dan this week on @VoicesLibrary