Ridley is a librarian and an instructor at the University of Guelph. Until January 2012 he was the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Librarian at Guelph. Ridley has been a professional librarian since 1979 working at a variety of positions at the University of Guelph, the Health Sciences Library at McMaster University, and the University of Waterloo. In 1995 he returned to the University of Guelph as the Chief Librarian and in 2004 I was named the CIO. Ridley was the 2001 OLA President and currently edits OLA’s Open Shelf.