jan09b.indd


Pregnant orangutans, manatee milk, and other topics of 
veterinary librarianship 

André Nault is a passionate person: he 
loves animals, loves science, loves a chal-
lenge, and loves libraries. His perfect job? 
Veterinary science librarian at the University 
of Minnesota, home to one of the premier 
veterinary science libraries in the United 
States. 

Discovering librarianship 
A native of Canada, Nault has 
an undergraduate degree in 
wildlife biology from McGill 
University. Before becoming a 
librarian he worked as a fi eld 
biologist in Louisiana and 
then co-managed a veterinary 
practice in North Dakota. 

“We had a mobile practice, 
one of those big RVs going 
around, doing everything. I’d 
be out there in the field, in the 
rain and snow, pushing prolapsed uteruses 
back into cows to dealing with very frac-
tious cats.” 

Fractious, Nault explains, is the veterinari-
an’s polite way of saying, “You got one mean 
cat there, Mrs. Jones.” 

Nault’s move to libraries turned out to 
be a great fit. “After we sold our veterinary 
business, I decided to not go back into fi eld 
research. So much of it is hand-to-mouth 
for funding, and that got to be a little old. 
Instead, I decided to pursue a master’s in 
statistics at the University of Rhode Island. 
I went through a semester of that, but I was 
not very impressed by the program. I was 

André Nault 

leafing through the graduate course catalog, 
and I saw the library science program, and 
thought, I wonder what that would be like. 
I’ve always loved libraries, and I’ve always 
loved finding information. I spoke with the 
dean, and once he heard of my science 
background, he said a lot of libraries would 

be really interested in me. So 
I enrolled. I got through the 
program very quickly, and 
around the time I graduated, 
there was an opening here. It 
was like, poof!” 

Instant manager 
Nault admits that becoming 
a library manager right out 
of library school has been 
a challenge, but that’s what 
keeps him interested. 

“I’m the only librarian here 
at the Veterinary Library, although I have 
two library assistants and a bunch of student 
workers. As a result I’m spread really thin. 
I do liaison work, I do collection develop-
ment, I’m managing my staff, I manage my 
own Web site. I also do research as part of 
my continuous employment process, and 
I’m on a lot of committees. But that’s great, 
it keeps me engaged, it keeps me learning 
new stuff. It suits me well, because I need to 
be challenged all the time.” 

Ann Wheeler is the librarian at the Maryland Department 
of Natural Resources. Have a story idea for Job of a 
Lifetime? E-mail David Free at dfree@ala.org. 

C&RL News January 2009  36 

mailto:dfree@ala.org


Working with faculty 
Nault enjoys academic librarianship because 
he “likes to be around smart people,” and 
at the Veterinary College he’s in good com-
pany. “There’s a reason veterinarians make 
fun of medical doctors, because medical 
doctors only have to treat one species, 
whereas [veterinarians] have to treat them 
all. They’re a really sharp bunch. 

“Here at the university, [there are] a lot of 
demands placed on them, so their time is at a 
premium. They are maxed out in a lot of dif-
ferent ways. A librarian can fall off the radar 
a lot. You have that small window when you 
first meet faculty or you first contact them to 
make your sales pitch, and to make it well, 
so that they will think of you later when they 
need something.” 

Nault recognizes the importance of meet-
ing the faculty in their arenas. “Information 
resources in the sci-
ences have become so 
electronic that we’re 
losing face time with 
faculty, so it’s impor-
tant that I go where 
they are. We need 
to find ourselves at 
the table when some-
thing’s being discussed in which the library 
has a stake, or that we can put some added 
value. We need to get ourselves into the 
whole bloodflow of the college.” 

One way he’s creating face-time is by 
staying active on committees. “I recently 
joined the professional skills committee, 
which deals with the way we instruct veteri-
nary students on non-clinical profi ciencies. 
I’ve joined the group to find where can I 
insert library instruction into the outcomes 
that are needed. It’s been really rewarding 
to see how faculty think about their teach-
ing, what they’re trying to get at, and the 
hurdles they have to jump over. It’s just very 
insightful for me to see the inner workings 
of academic instruction.” 

Just another day on the job 
As a veterinary librarian, Nault has fi elded 

p 
h 
s 
t 
h 
h 
m 

Veterinary science librarian 
What: Veterinary science librarian 

Where: University of Minnesota,Ver­
terinary Medical Library 

For more information, visit: 
www.vetmed.lib.umn.edu 

his share of unusual reference questions. 
“I’ve been asked to find the fat content of 
different mammalian milks, such as musk ox 
milk versus manatee milk, or the hormonal 
levels in some unusual animals. We have one 
faculty member who works with the local 
zoo, and sometimes unusual animals come 
into the college. Once we had an orangutan 
that required a C-section at the college.” 

For Nault, it’s another chance to get in-
volved. “One of my hobbies is photography, 
so sometimes, if we have unusual cases, I go 
in and take pictures. I have big 3-by-2-foot 
frames around the library, and I blow the 
pictures up and put them in there. Right now 
I have a picture outside the library of a blue-
tongued skink, which is a large lizard. They 
had to enucleate one of its eyes which had 
ruptured, and I got this wonderful picture of 
it being masked with isoflurane as part of the 

sedation process. 
I ’ v e  a l s o  t a k e n  

pictures of some big 
horses undergoing 
surgery. It’s really in-
timidating to watch 
how they put them on 
hydraulic tables and 
move them up and 

sideways after they’re sedated. It’s really 
something to watch a half a ton animal up 
on a table.” 

Advice to others 
Nault has found his perfect job, and he 
encourages other individuals with science 
backgrounds to pursue librarianship. “In 
science librarianship, there’s been a move 
towards the informationist concept, mean-
ing someone who has a background in 
the specifi c field. I brought a lot of fi eld 
background with me, and it has served 
me very well. 

“Unfortunately, a lot of people in the sci-
ences do not consider librarianship often, but 
they tie in so well. I think for someone who 
has some science or biology background, 
librarianship can be a unique and very fulfi ll-
ing career.” 

January 2009  37 C&RL News