Job for an infophile

Now this is an interesting job: Writing for Slate Magazine’s Explainer :

We’re looking for a freelancer who could spend up to two days a week writing “Explainer” columns for Slate. You’d have to be confident covering a wide range of subject matter, including science, religion, and politics; we’d also need you to provide excellent copy on tight deadlines.

If you’re interested, please paste the following into the body of an e-mail (NO ATTACHMENTS), and send it to danengber@yahoo.com by March 31, 2008:

* Your résumé.
* A list of 10 possible Explainer questions, culled from this week’s headlines (with links to the relevant news stories).
* If you want, you can send links for up to three clips of your published work.

[Source]

Reading the Explainer archive, Reminded me of one of jobs libraries and librarians did and it was reference service. In the old days there used to be phone service just answer questions and eventually email. I am sure libraries still offer this service in one form or another.

What is amazing is this kind of job would appeal to a librarian, a researcher and a skilled infophile. Most likely the aside from research and writing skills the prospective applicant would need to have a good reference tools – both books, databases, and an assortment of online-based tools.

Again this would really be an interesting job or sideline. Any takers?