My background includes extensive experience in academic libraries and a senior coordinating role in provincial library consortia, focusing on post-secondary libraries in British Columbia and Alberta. In these roles, I worked with library staff at all levels, partners in other library networks, government staff and vendors in emerging areas of information services by and for post-secondary institutions. Many people know me for my activism in information policy. In the area of open access I participate in national and international policy consultations, such as the process leading to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Policy on Access to Research Outputs and more recently the UK’s consultations on the most recent Research Councils UK open access policy. I also help other information professionals to participate through my library associations and other networks, by providing information and occasionally drafting letters or responses to policy consultations. My interests in the area of information policy include the political economics of information. One example of a topic in this area is media democracy. A healthy democracy needs educated, informed citizens who are actively engaged. Who owns and controls the information sources that the public relies on? What about the channels of information to politicians – who gets to influence public policy? How does media democracy fit with the recently formed Open Government Partnership, and vice versa? There are many decisions to be made on the road to open and transparent government, and I believe that the knowledge of information professionals will be critical to ensure that the imminent potential for a radically expanded democracy comes to fruition. The title of my dissertation, Freedom for scholarship in the internet age, encapsulates the current focus of my research on open access and transformative change in scholarly communication. What I mean by transformative change is change from the current economically unsustainable system that seems to prioritize profit, often at the expense of researchers, readers, students, and university funders, to an affordable system that prioritizes research and the public good. Research methods is an area of interest for me, and the methods that I have used with success range from quantitative (surveys, economic analysis and modeling) to qualitative (interviews, focus groups) and combinations (verbal protocol or the talk-aloud method). It may be of interest that my first two peer-reviewed publications began as work for my MLIS! My philosophy is that the basic premise that we can make decisions that work at a practical level while fulfilling important social goals can be applied to many areas in information studies. As a teacher and academic supervisor, I like to encourage and support students to explore their own passions, questions and research methods once the basics have been covered.