Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Sep 07/98) - Gayle Jessop is anything but the stereotype of the shy, mousy librarian. In fact, she has employment aspirations that make her sound like an international spy.

"I want to get into competitive intelligence, supplying strategic information to the decision makers at companies," says Jessop, who, armed with a masters' degree in library and information sciences, explains that while it sounds intriguing, her future dream has more to do with research and analysis in the corporate world than with James Bond.

"It's all above board. You don't do anything illegal," says Jessop.

Until then, the 33-year-old is more than willing to fulfil her brand new employment responsibilities as the legislative librarian for Nunavut's Legislative Assembly.

Responsible for obtaining and cataloguing the library's collection and forming the policies and the mandates of her department, Jessop says she will also be called upon to do research for Nunavut MLA's.

"We're serving people on a priority basis. If a member needs information during a meeting, that request is urgent."

Jessop says that even though the urgency makes the information that much more important, it also leads to job stress.

"Sometimes you're trying to do too much," notes Jessop.

The variety of issues however, is what she thrives on and Jessop is sure to cover many topics and meet many people during her tenure as the legislative librarian.

"There's a real sense of helping people when you teach them how or find information for them."

Once the new legislature is finished, Jessop will move into the third floor library and begin to provide information services to the assembly and other government departments and she says the collection will also be open to the general public.

She adds that she hadn't even considered applying for the position and leaving her old job as the librarian at Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit until construction on the new building began.

"I saw the piles go in for the Legislative Assembly and I got really emotional and excited about it. I just thought wow, it would be so great to be involved in the Nunavut Government."