We are excited to feature Donna Baluchi, MLIS for our April 2022 edition of Spotlight On and to celebrate National Library Week (April 3-9). Donna (she/they) is the Eccles Health Sciences Library Interim Associate Director for Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I am a transplant to the Salt Lake Valley. I moved here in 2013 from the suburbs of Los Angeles to get a fresh start, figure out my life, and there was work here and affordable rent at the time (very much not the case in 2022).
I went to school for journalism because I wanted to be a war reporter, and then the internet happened. Though I'm very good with technology, I'm just not the most adept in terms of communicating online, and it was a strange time in 2001 when the whole world felt like it was shifting. So that didn't work out, and I didn't quite know what to do with my journalism degree. I went back to school for business, but I realized I didn't like it when I was there. So instead, I pivoted and thought, "What do I like?" I love art history, so I did that, and it put me in museums and galleries.
In my personal life, there was a lot of involvement in activism, arts, and events like community-based music and art events. That was a lot of my life, community, social interactions; all of it really came from that, and it still does. The activism arts and music scenes are something that I'm still a huge part of and where the vast majority of my friend group is all from. In high school, I was very involved in punk and was goth; and there was an activism corner of those groups you could get into. So, I attended protests, read books, and learned about activism.
While working at museums and galleries, I was doing some odd jobs, like at the post office doing data entry at one facility and sorting letters at another. I will give it up for the post office; it was a high-paying job that did not come home with me, there was zero stress, I gained muscle throwing around those letters, and there's a pension and a union. At some point, though, after three years, there was this feeling—it wasn't what I wanted to do. I had gone to school, and I wanted to achieve something different; I wanted a career.
I did not know it at the time, but museums and galleries lend themselves to libraries. I had looked up what a graduate degree for museums would be and discovered that it's a master's in library science. I thought I should work in a library and see if it's something I want. I got a part-time job at the Eccles Health Sciences Library five years ago, and so much has happened since then. I went full time, got my Master of Library Information Science degree, started running the public services department, a pandemic, and then after my supervisor, Joan Gregory, retired at the end of 2021, I became Interim Associate Director for EDI.
Being able to meld EDI into my actual work life, like taking my private life and putting it into my work, was very anxiety-inducing initially. Luckily, Joan was already blazing a trail, and she let me come with her, which gave me the protection to do that work with her. It sometimes feels a little difficult not to have my security person around because I have felt the repercussions on the job of pointing out that something is racist. I didn't have to for so long because Joan would point it out, and I could just be there. So, I think I've shifted quite a bit since I started, but then here I am, and I hope I'm doing the good work.
What is your vision for the Eccles Health Sciences Library?
So the library is unique compared to the schools and colleges in that we are not a degree-granting institution. We are this communal space that exists to serve the schools and colleges, as well as the greater university, community, region, state. In terms of who our patronage is, our vision and our view could be worldwide. Because we don't grant degrees, we come to classrooms when invited, we interact with students one on one at the desk or when they're in the library studying, and we are simply there to provide.
So one of the things that I really want to do is create a culture and a space that can be so welcoming and comfortable and inclusive that when a person, be they the spouse of a patient just diagnosed at Huntsman or a concerned father calling from Vegas, or even a burnt-out resident, an OT student, a PA student--that they can come to the library and feel that they are welcomed, they are accepted, that they are so safe they could take a nap there--that is my overall vision for the library.
And I know that there is a thought of, well, how does anti-racism fit into that, like why would you just want a big, comfy couch? And I can personally say that there are spaces as comfortable as can be, yet something in the air tells you that you shouldn't be there. That is what I'm trying to do at the University of Utah--to try and clear the air.
Why did you want and choose to take this role?
It was just a perfect combination of all the right things. My partner had graduated from and got into a graduate program at the U. My supervisor formally announced her final retirement date after a phased retirement. So then, to be able to be the face of the library by being at the front desk, being the head of public services, I was able to do a lot of really good EDI work simply in a much more direct way to the students and to the space because I was in charge of those things. And then, once my supervisor retired, there was the expectation that I would need to take over that role, but I couldn't take over the entire role because she was senior faculty and the administrative portion I could not take on because at this point, I was designated visiting faculty because there was the pandemic hiring freeze in place at that time, but this is very much in line with my career goals. This is clearly where I want to go, and this is very much where I want to stay.
I'm very excited to see that EDI librarian is very much a position that is available across the country in a lot of academic libraries now when five years ago, this was unheard of. There was no emphasis, and there was no position in EDI, as much as libraries really wanted to. They had been talking about it and needing to diversify our profession—we are an incredibly white profession—and you can find documents of them saying this in 1990. And 30 years later, it's barely budged. I think it went from 90% to 87% white. But I imagine things will change so much more quickly now because the people making those decisions are different, the understanding is different, and the education is there. So I sincerely hope there will be some bigger changes in libraries.
Sometimes folks look at EDI-focused careers and work as not being enough to prepare for other leadership roles outside of EDI departments. How do you feel this work does or can help benefit and advance your career as well as your close collaborators and partners?
Well, I mean, it's so obvious to me. As someone who has been the head of a department, EDI definitely makes you a better leader through and through. Is being versed in EDI going to make me a better neurosurgeon, even if I've never been to med school? Yeah, it will but it will take me longer to get there. But to have EDI work actually inform how you approach people, approach communication, lead a team, lead an organization, you are going to end up with a group of people who are so much more empathetic, more invested, and their job satisfaction is going to be so much higher because you take into account the whole person when you consider EDI principles. and you also broaden your perspective of the world and the community you live in. And then you bring all those people with you when you're working in EDI, you know, because you're imparting that knowledge. You're not just sitting there reading it, taking it in, and then you're like, "Okay, I know this now," and then you go to work and do something completely different. No, you take all that information and apply it to your everyday. And to be a leader, to be able to holistically see all the pieces all over that constitute the constellation that is healthcare, that is U Health, that is the Salt Lake Valley, then you're only going to create better opportunities. You can definitely help people with their career trajectories, but then at the same time, you're able to see where you best can apply your efforts and where your skillset is as opposed to where you need to get extra help, where you need expertise from someone else.
There's a humility in EDI, which I think is also something that leadership could really inject itself with more to not just be sympathetic but also be empathetic.
What is your “why”?
My why, I guess, is very self-centered: I do not want anyone to go through what I went through, what my brother went through, and I think more so, I don't want anyone to go through what my mom and my dad went through. Because my mom and dad immigrated here, and my dad is a firm believer in assimilation. And my mom just couldn't do it. I saw my mom struggle so severely with having an accent that people didn't like, and I saw my mom lose jobs for things like having an accent. I saw the conflict between me and my parents because they couldn't understand where I was picking up American cultural values and just this complete disregard and disrespect and this fear that lived, and still does, in my family. I just so deeply want to change the general culture, wherever it may be, even if it's just within the organization of the library, so that if my parents walked in there, they wouldn't be treated the way they were, for so many years. That's my why.
5 Things to Know About Donna
- I don't necessarily have like a favorite color. I don't necessarily think about those things, but these are some of the things that are me.
- First and foremost, it is important to know that I come from punk rock. I am still very involved in punk, that punk is what set me on this path, and to have any kind of ill feelings towards a music genre and subculture that you potentially don't know about; I will tell you this if you want someone who is on your team for EDI—go find the punks.
- I am very involved in zines, something that also I got involved with very early on because it does fall under the subculture of punk. I am one of the organizers for Grid Zine Fest, which is happening this year on June 11. It's at the Salt Lake Arts Academy, and I would love for anyone to introduce themselves to the simplicity and the joys of self-publication.
- I love the sun! I LOVE the sun. I love being in the sun. I love being warm. I like lying in the sun. I'm a big, big fan of the sun. I know that, in like 350 billion years, the sun will consume us, and I'm just a little sad I won't be here for it. But I just love the radiative heat of the sun. There is such a like deep, wonderful feeling I take from it. Sunbathing for me is not to get tan; it is literally for like serotonin.
- I am going through all of the Godzilla movies right now. And let me tell you—absolutely incredible! Some of them have some fantastic themes that I did not pick up on when seeing them on network TV when I was younger. I'm really enjoying all the kaiju films right now. I highly recommend any and all of them. The vast majority of them are on HBO Max now too. I have, unfortunately, caused a culture war in my home because I said I liked King Kong better. I don't know; something about King Kong just gets my heart. Whereas Godzilla is very uncaring, and we're just in the way, you know? Not in all of them, but in the vast majority, Godzilla is destroying a city, not because it wants to destroy it but because he's just passing through.
- By the way, the first Godzilla film from 1954, I want to say, unfortunately, if you have only seen an English dubbed version or an English understood version, you are consuming one of the most racist things. And I did not know this! I went back because a big chunk of the Godzilla films came out on Criterion Collection, and so they got this beautiful remastering, and the sound is incredible, so of course, you want to revisit it. The very first Godzilla film is such a horrifying and upsetting allegory for war and the atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan. But everybody just thought, "A big lizard steps on things." So I would highly encourage everyone to go back and revisit and watch the very first Godzilla movie from the 1950s but watch it with English subtitles. I mean, I cried. I cried because it is people who are like, "What do we even do with this? How do we even survive this? This monstrosity is just devastating everything, and it doesn't care about us, and the lasting effects will destroy generations." I was just like, "Oh my God! Why did I think this was something totally different?"