There are five permanent employees (4.5 FTE) and numerous students involved in running HSL. More permanent staff would be welcome as there is currently no professional help available after 6 p.m. and on weekends. In order to keep the library open to its patrons at these times, students run the library. Needless to say, they are given some very diligent training beforehand, and are highly respected by their peers.

Joan Campbell, Library Supervisor II, joined HSL in 1989. She has only left once, reluctantly, for three months when she was "bumped" from her position and moved up to Holland Circulation. Everyone in HSL (Veterinary/Pharmacy Library at the time) suffered intense separation pains, but fortunately she was able to return and hasn't left since. At Holland she had to focus on one aspect of library work. "Here you do some of everything involved in running a library," claims Joan, and that makes it more interesting, even if more demanding.

The newest employee is Sarah McCord, Electronic Resources Librarian, who came on board on October 1, 2000 and has already created quite an impression with her Pharmacy faculty. She has provided such complete literature searches for one faculty person, he has forwarded them to colleagues at Eli Lilly. But the professor won't give out her name, so Eli Lilly can't lure her away! Elizabeth Gifford, Library Tech Lead, and Michael Kercheval, Library Tech II, make up the remaining 1.5 FTE. Elizabeth attains permanent status as Library Tech Lead on March 1, 2001, having been assigned here in a temporary capacity since August 2000.. Michael, who is half-time, has been with HSL for seven months. He had worked for the Libraries as a student until he graduated in May 2000. Both are valuable additions to the HSL staff.

Reference questions are extremely diverse, ranging from the ordinary to the unusual. Examples of the extraordinary include the amount of pressure that comes from the jaw of a pit bull, DNA fingerprinting of a llama for a paternity suit, and the number of lobes on a sheep's pancreas. And yes, answers were located!

But there are disadvantages as well. The space issue is critical and expansion possibilities in the building are problematic. The room adjacent to the library is a well-funded sleep research laboratory known as the "cockroach dormitory." Moving in to that space, even if it were to become available, may be a little discomfiting. The lack of space means there are no private areas for meetings or breaks. Sarah's office is a former closet, "…a cubbie hole," she divulges, "there's no room for personal space so I have to take people to the public area to demonstrate databases or help with searches. " They are also short staffed to serve the large number of faculty and students involved in the programs. Vicki and Sarah are available to their users at all times, (*needs attribution here*) "…at the bus stop, walking on campus, and even in the rest rooms…" There is no "off-time" as there are no reference desk hours assigned per se. "The reference desk approach was tried several times," Vicki explains, "but it didn't work." A Dick Tracy watch with access to the Web would be helpful so they can provide information any place any time!

There are no instructional facilities outside of the regular classrooms in the building. Except for orientations, Vicki and Sarah go to the classes rather than have the classes come to the library, which can lead to some anxious moments! Sarah, for instance, found herself teaching over a large drain when she faced 73 students in a Veterinary Pathology class this spring semester. She was reassured when told the drain was in case of "accidents" when animals were brought in for demonstration, not to catch the blood from a necropsy (dissection)!

Sarah is also active professionally. She is currently the Chair of INWHSL, a regional consortium of health sciences libraries, and plans to attend the annual meeting of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy in Toronto this summer. There is plenty at WSU to keep her busy, though. Sarah is researching the possibility of providing limited "real-time" reference to Pharmacy students participating in clerkships, and is developing a new Health Sciences section of Gen Ed 300, which she plans to teach next fall. It has been a long goal of Vicki's to develop the library into a Animal Health Library. Colleagues in the region have always considered it WSU's medical library, and the staff as their WSU medical information contacts. Now at last the library's name reflects its collection!