It’s Wednesday, which means BALLER Profile day, where we get to introduce you to some of the authors, publishing professionals, library people, readers, and more in our neighbourhood.

This week we are making our first visit to Library School to meet Alex Melton…

Winston: Alex! Delighted that you could be our first student librarian profile! Can you please introduce yourself to our readers and share a bit about what you do?

Alex: My name is Alex Melton, and I am a student at the University of Alberta in the Master of Library and Information Studies program, working on my thesis that looks parents’ information-searching behaviour for health information.

Winston: That is such a cool topic! So what’s the most interesting thing you’ve discovered so far in your studies?

Alex: I think just how varied parents can be, and what all the different reasons are that they have for using one source over another. The reason a parent will use one source could be completely different than why they use another source.

So like for example people use Wikipedia almost exclusively because it is easy to access, but most people want to use a doctor for information but doctors are so difficult to access. That tension is just one of the dynamics in how people decide to use a particular source of information.

And there’s a million places they can go for information.

Winston: That is really cool. So how people find information…

Alex: And also how people take in that information… especially the value of entertainment for education, and understanding that adults need entertainment in education too, which was not the common way of thinking about adult education ten years ago.

Winston: Love it. Totally agree about the usefulness of entertainment in education. But so speaking of entertainment, as a student librarian, do you still have any time for reading for entertainment for yourself? What are you reading these days for fun?

Alex: The short answer is yes, but I’ve had to change the type of reading. So instead of novels I’ve been reading a lot of graphic novels. The one I’m currently reading is called Roughneck by Jeff Lemire, who is a Canadian horror author.

Winston: And who also wrote Essex County! So anything else on your TBR pile or recommendations list that you want to share?

Alex: The TBR pile is huge right now because it is so easy to go through graphic novels that I just tend to get as many as I can. And if I like it, that’s great. And if I don’t I didn’t waste very much time on it.

But one recommendation would be Ducks by Kate Beaton, which is an incredibly nuanced story, and so telling about modern Canadian life and culture.

Winston: So all this reading definitely makes you a book worm, but are you also a book dragon? Are you also a collector or are you mostly a borrower?

Alex: For novels, absolutely a hoarder. Scifi novels, which I’ve been reading more of, are especially terrible because they have so many editions that are gorgeous and I want them. There are printings of Alastair Reynolds books that are holographic that I’ve only been able to get in Victoria, but I’m slowly building my collection of them.

But for graphic novels I definitely borrow more than I hoard.

I like finding what I like and then buying that.

Winston: So what other highlights are there in your collection?

Alex: I was a philosophy undergrad and so I have a lot of philosophy books, so many of them that I’m never going to read again, but they were so painful to read as an undergrad that I’m keeping them as a point of pride. And when I do go back to them, it’s comforting to see how far my reading comprehension has come. Because you don’t know confusing until you’ve read German philosophy.

Winston: I love everything about that. Books as trophies and trail markers.

So as a closing question, curious to know what your favourite bookstore or library is? Or what your dream bookstore or library would look like?

Alex: My favourite bookstore is hands down Bastion Books in Victoria, BC. It’s a smaller bookstore – where I got all those Alastair Reynolds holographic books – and I think that they are already living the bookstore dream. They’ve got a lot of bookish decorations, a chair that has books all over it, and a bookstore dog who sits and greets people when they come in. And they write their receipts by hand.

Winston: Brilliant! And another bookstore I have to go visit next time I’m in Victoria.

Thank you so much, Alex, for sharing a bit of your bookish life with us.

And thank you, dear patrons, for joining us again today.

Happy reading!

— Winston