I am reminded of a brief interaction I had with Walt Walker at a library event last fall, during which I told him about the work I was doing to acquire monographs by or about women scientists, to add to the LMU collection. I wanted to do this, especially in my role as liaison to the departments of Chemistry and Physics, so that our students saw themselves reflected in our collection. He responded casually, saying something like, “Oh, I’ve been adding additional subject headings to those bibliographic records of that kind of material for years, so that the books are found when a patron searches the catalog.” From that, I knew I had an ally, but better yet, our library collection and its patrons had an ally.
Walt’s work had both a regional and international reach, locally as a founding member of ACT UP/L.A. and as a volunteer with ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, and his efforts as an editorial board member of Homosaurus, an international-linked data vocabulary of LGBTQ terms. To me, he was also just Walt, a colleague with a great laugh who worked two offices away from mine. I am sad to hear of his passing on 6/11/20.
