Vale Ethel Horner

18 November 1927 - 19 March 2003

Ethel Horner was the inaugural medical librarian at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children. She was affectionately known as Eff and joined PMH in 1973 to establish a medical library. The library, as such, at that stage consisted of a very small collection of books, journals and magazines, which were housed in the medical director's office. So Eff virtually started from 'scratch', to set up the Hospital's Medical Library.

The library was small, but vibrant, and the hub of the Hospital's provision of information to medical staff and others. It was also very warm and welcoming - so much so that Eff often had to surreptitiously nudge a very tired and snoring doctor, nodding over a journal, so that he didn't disturb the avid medical students trying to study nearby!

As the building in which the medical library was housed was to be demolished to make way for a new Hospital building, the library was moved to slightly larger temporary accommodation. Once again Eff set about providing a welcoming and up-to-date library. It was during this time that Eff commenced agitating for a permanent home for the ever-expanding medical library. In 1984 the medical library was moved to its current premises and the existing nurses' library was amalgamated with the medical library.

In those days before automation, electronic access and the Internet, the medical library was managed by Eff with her outstanding professional skills, giving meticulous care to detail, and the provision of the most current information to medical and other hospital staff. Her services were highly valued by all staff members and she would go to endless lengths to provide them with any information they required to solve their problems, and to assist them in the provision of health care within the Hospital, and to other establishments within the state and Australia.

Eff was highly respected by her peers within the library profession and her contribution to librarianship was demonstrated in her willingness to embrace new technology and tools to enhance the library's role in the hospital's health-care, and in the profession generally. She was instrumental in establishing the Health Libraries Section of the Library Association of Australia in Western Australia, and was very actively involved in all aspects of her profession.

In 1990 Eff retired to spend more time with her husband Jack. She was looking forward to the arrival of her grandchildren. She was diagnosed to have cancer of the pancreas at the beginning of 2002, but was determined to see the birth of her latest grandchild. Eff passed away on the 19th of March, just three months after the death of her husband.

Brigitte Glockner

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