Jim Cleary has been a senior research assistant at Griffith University working on the AusRED (Australian Reading Experience) database and an ARC-funded research project on The Reading Culture of Australia Between the Wars, a topic related to his 1986 Master's thesis on "Books for the Troops: Libraries and Librarians in World War II." He worked as a research officer at Austlit (2006-2008) on the Bibliography of Australian Literature and before that as an academic library manager at the University of Newcastle. His research interests include gender and professionalisation in Australian librarianship and the history of libraries, publishing and the book trade.