Phil Agre is missing

Phil Agre is a professor of library science at UCLA whom I’ve long wished to meet.

A few weeks ago the Los Angeles Police Department announced that he was missing. He abandoned his apartment and his job at some point between December of 2008 and May of 2009, according to the LAPD missing person alert (pdf).

I just learned about it in the Chronicle of Higher Ed, but I won’t bother linking to their article because it is subscription only. It is in today’s issue if you have access and want to look for it.

Friends and colleagues of his have set up a website to let him know that he’s missed, as well as a site devoted to his work.

I first read Phil Agre in the journal Progressive Librarian, issue 12/13, 1997. That issue had an article of his titled, “The End of Information and the Future of Libraries.” It’s very much worth reading.