Grant obtained his training in library and information science (MLIS) at the University of Western Ontario. He started out working in special libraries at the Canadian Gas Association and the Industrial Research and Development Institute. Working for a unit of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources on forest health, he developed a bibliographic database with text search capability using Oracle and SQL*Text Retrieval.

Grant also did contract work for the Toronto Reference Library, as map librarian and the Durham District School Board managing the central resource centre. He also carried out contract work in records management for clients that included the Regional Municipality of Durham, Save the Children, Association of Municipalities of Ontario, and the Addiction Research Foundation.

Later Grant worked in the public library systems first in the U.S. and then in Canada. He worked as an Assistant Library Director and Reference Head for the Rockbridge Regional Library centred in Lexington, Virginia. Grant was the Head Librarian at two of the largest public libraries in the Canadian Territories, first at the Inuvik Centennial Library in Inuvik, Northwest Territories and later at the Iqaluit Centennial Public Library in Nunavut. Grant also spent six years as a Trustee on the Oshawa Public Library Board.