Will this pandemic ever end? Wow, it just seems like we’re going to be in this situation a lot longer than anyone could’ve imagined. The President has botched up the whole thing, and things are as bad as ever. Man, I sure hope we can get a grip on this before a lot more people die. We’ve already lost over 200,000 people nationwide, and things just seem to be getting worse. The President’s current solution to the problem is to encourage herd immunity, which means that he wants everyone to catch the virus and then develop immunity to it as a result, but research is showing that you can catch the virus more than once, so it’s not likely going to work. Go figure. How many more dead will there be before we take this seriously?

It’s been such a bad year. People dear to me have died, including my best friend Richard, my beloved aunt Mary, my uncle Arturo and my aunt Corinna, whose death, by the way, I just learned about today. On top of all of that, our country is at present in the hands of a maniac. I’ve been watching the news a lot and caught all of the debates recently, some of which were painful to sit through. The elections are less than three weeks away, but there’s no guarantee that Biden and Harris are going to win. Trump is pulling all kinds of dirty tricks, and he’s getting help from Russia and the potential help from a Supreme Court nominee who’s a conservative, outspoken, religious bigot. People are having to wait in long lines to vote all over the country and in some places, there is but one drop off location for ballots in an entire county. I’m not going to take anything for granted. Trump could win, given all these shenanigans, or he could try to nullify the election results in one way or another. I sincerely hope we get that asshole out of office and kick him to the curb for good. He belongs in prison. He’s a low down crook.

I have been working from home now since March. I actually like it, but I do miss going out to dinner, going shopping, and seeing my family and friends in person. I’ve managed to stay in touch with my family, but haven’t spent a lot of time with them. Ruben and I visit his parents periodically and I recently checked in with my brother Charles for his birthday. My sister Irene buys me tortillas and other stuff like green corn tamales and salsa. I’ve gone over to her house once or twice.  I also see my other sister Becky every now and then too. Our visits are usually very short. I’ve also been in touch with Emily, Richard’s wife, and I’ve re-connected with my friend Ricardo. I talk to my colleague Erika practically every day too.  It’s important to have someone to commiserate with at times! I’ve even been in touch with my friends Bubba Fass and Ernie Carrillo. Still, I feel lonely at times. It can be a drag being home alone all the time. Ruben is working a lot, and is home just a few days a week. We get along well, so being around each other isn’t a problem. After 27 years together, we’re pretty well adjusted to each other’s quirks. We were “officially” married six years ago on Oct. 31, so I thought I’d add this photo as a little memento of that wonderful occasion.

I thank my lucky stars that I have had no major health issues since the beginning of the year. I did catch two colds before the end of February, but nothing else has happened. I have to admit, I’ve gained weight, and can never seem to get enough exercise. I go out for walks in the early morning for about half an hour when I can, but I do sit all day sometimes, doing work here at my desk. When I’m not at my desk, I do my household chores or I work outside doing yard work. I rarely go anywhere, except to the bank and the grocery store occasionally. Sometimes I pick up takeout for us, but that’s about it. I always wear a mask if I do go out. I hope to get a flu shot soon. I tried to get one today, but it just didn’t work out.

I’ve spent the past several months organizing my personal papers. I have over 30 bankers boxes filled with all my photos, memorabilia, work stuff etc. all organized in chronological order. It’s been a fun project and one that has kept me busy. I will likely keep working on this project for quite a while as I still have more stuff to sort and organize. I don’t know what I’m going to do with all of it down the line, but I’ll figure something out. I doubt that any archive would want my cochinero.

I’m also reading a lot. I’ve been trying to read a little every day, and I recently decided I will read a different book every day of the week and keep rotating the reading until I finish each one. I’m not sure how that’s going to work out, but we’ll see. Sometimes I just like to focus on one book at a time, especially if it’s really good. Here are the books I’ve chosen to read lately.

For the past month or so, I’ve been mostly focused on my job and service activities. I also try to write every day.  I’m happy with what I’ve been able to accomplish. I’m managing our department’s virtual reference service and am doing a decent job of keeping up with it. I compiled usage statistics for the month of August/September recently, and I also drafted departmental procedures for providing reference service, both virtual and in-house, for our patrons. I was also recently appointed to a Library task force that is looking at the “future state” of the Library.  Once again, budget cuts are forcing us to take a hard look at the work we do and we have to yet again revisit what our priorities are going to be given reductions in funding and staff. The focus of the group I was placed in was “research services support”. It included looking at things like data management, data visualization, evidence synthesis and systematic reviews. I didn’t know much about any of this stuff to be honest. I thought research services meant providing primary materials, books and journals to faculty and students. It turns out many libraries are engaged in providing data management support for those doing scientific research. I have to admit, this stuff is not of great interest to me, but I contributed what I could, and I learned a lot. It was interesting to see how the task force chair managed the project and the group process, and how the project unfolded. She used a variety of interesting decision making tools and techniques that helped our group, comprised of librarians and staff from various departments, get our ideas out on the table. While we all didn’t agree on everything, we discussed our differences of opinion openly and managed to complete our work on time. We’re now awaiting next steps.

I’ve also, within the last few months, involved myself in the work of the Library Faculty Assembly, and am the faculty representative to the LFA Executive Board as well as a member of the LFA Awards committee. I’ve contributed steadily and wholeheartedly to the work of these groups, attending every meeting and adding my comments and concerns along the way, and all has gone quite well. I’ve even joined the new union, the United Campus Workers of Arizona. It won’t be able to engage in collective bargaining, but it will serve as an advocacy organization on behalf of all University of Arizona employees. It just got organized, and already there are over 300 members, including folks from ASU and NAU.  

I’ve also been involved in several other service activities. I recently wrote an article, slated to be published soon, for the Mountain Plains Music Chapter of the Music Library Association about how the pandemic has affected Library services to our music faculty and students, and I also wrote a program proposal for the ALA Rainbow Roundtable program planning committee. I was able to drum up a number of people to agree to participate on a panel discussion about issues related to subject access and terminology and how they affect diverse populations. I hope it gets approved. Here’s the title and abstract of the program:

“What’s in a Name: LGBTQ+ and Latinx Perspectives on Access Terminology–Challenges and Solutions“

50 years ago, Sanford Berman shone light on serious problems with some of the word choices employed by the creators of Library of Congress subject headings. Over the years, other scholars, notably Ellen Greenblatt and Hope Olsen, have also worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the need for more accurate, culturally sensitive, modern terminology. The struggle continues to this day, particularly when addressing words and phrases that describe diverse populations such as trans people, queer people, immigrants and people of color. The purpose of this program is to consider progress and share ongoing concerns and potential strategies for improvement.  

I’ve also recently thrown my hat into the ring and ran for the position of Southern regional representative to the Arizona Library Association. I was appointed because nobody else ran. The conference will be held this week, and I’ll be introduced there as the new Southern regional representative. Here is the bio I recently submitted to the AZLA president:

I also just wrote a recruitment letter to students in the UofA School of Information and Library Science, encouraging them to join the Tucson chapter of REFORMA, The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, which I am working to revive after several years of it being dormant. I’ve received several responses and will need to get things rolling next week. I’m very excited about this. The Tucson Chapter of REFORMA will live once again! I’ve also contributed to the work of the REFORMA Education committee by writing up a draft set of guidelines for REFORMA Student clubs. Our committee will be meeting again this week to review our progress, and hopefully, the guidelines will be finalized next month. Finally, I’m a member of the American Institute of Architects Arizona chapter’s archives committee, and again, I’ve attended all the meetings and have contributed a number of ideas. We recently held our annual summit, and it was very informative.

Whew! That’s about it for now. It’s been a busy few weeks.