Library Limelight: Gina Scioscia

Monnie Nilsson

What type of work did you do prior to your years at BPL?

I’ve mostly worked in bookselling. As a teen, I worked in my parents' bookstore, later in my college bookstore and several corporate bookstores. My husband and I owned a used bookstore for many years. We even had a bookmobile! I had a brief stint as a Montessori teacher and café manager, but mostly selfemployed.

Gina at her workshop getting ready to rough sand the orrery bases. Photo courtesy of Gina Scioscia How long have you worked at the Boulder Public Library? What positions have you held at BPL, and how did you come to work here?

I’ve worked here since September 2001, 20 years this September. I started as a Reference Specialist in the Reference department with 15 other staff. I also held an interim systems administrator position in 2012 for just over a year while they were hiring that position and loved that. That same year I was hired as Librarian II to manage electronic database subscriptions. After the re-organization several years ago, I began managing the eCollections (OverDrive, hoopla and Kanopy) and periodicals.

I came to the library happenstance, looking for work to supplement our family business. When I saw the job description for the Reference Specialist, it really appealed to me, and I absolutely fell in love with it and working for BPL. Can you give us a brief rundown of what your daily, monthly, quarterly tasks and your typical workday generally consist of?

A lot of time is spent ordering for our OverDrive collection each week. Keeping abreast of new titles, and trying to manage the ever-growing hold lists. I buy fiction, nonfiction and juvenile titles for OverDrive. I troubleshoot database issues when they crop up, or particularly thorny eCollection problems. I also do quarterly statistics for our programs, circulation of physical and electronic materials, door counts etc. These come from a lot of diverse platforms like LibCal, Sierra, multiple database and ecollection platforms, and I standardized these for the director’s quarterly report. Monthly, I run weeding reports, missing, in transit, and claims

returns according to a maintenance schedule (in normal times anyway, it’s been a bit uneven of late with our closures/re-opening). I still love getting into the stacks and actually handling the books. Annually, with my supervisor, I handle the renewal of legal contracts for our databases, periodical renewals, onboarding any new vendors, and compiling the State report survey with Kathy J.

Can you share some of the most/more satisfying experiences you've had at work in the library?

Mostly I love working with my colleagues and serving patrons. Even though it’s sometimes challenging, it is more oftentimes rewarding. The times when you feel you’ve truly helped someone, those moments carry more weight than the hundreds of daily irritations. I love the Research Rendezvous program that I started several years ago. It is very satisfying in many ways: You are helping students learn research skills—teaching them to fish so to speak—but you also are learning so much history. It’s amazing what students choose for their topics and how they approach it. It’s a lot of fun, plus you get to meet teachers, parents and CU faculty, and librarians from the region. One of the highest compliments came from DPL librarian who burst into the break room and exclaimed, “This is so much fun! I want to work at BPL!” Can you share the most bizarre or funny experience you’ve had at work in the library?

Omg. Well, the library is really free for all, isn’t it? There’s a book about that, but I haven’t gotten around to reading it.

Something I still remember: I had a patron ask me to research a place name in Turkey (so she thought), we researched it quite a bit, but I kept coming up empty with the name she provided. Even historical records didn’t yield any info. I finally got around to asking her where she had first heard of this place and why she thought it originated in Turkey. She then explained that her “psychic counselor’ had suggested that she had lived a past life there. Of course, I kept a straight face and didn’t fall off my chair.

If you didn't work at the library what would your "pie-in-the-sky" dream job be?

That’s a tough one, especially for someone approaching retirement! I think I would have liked to be a medical researcher, trying to cure childhood cancer or disease.

Can you tell us about your hobbies outside of work?

What type/genre of books do you gravitate to? What do you avoid?

I mostly read non-fiction, history and science and I love essays on a variety of topics. There is something about the short snippets of thoughtful writing that appeals to me. Probably because my attention span is faltering as I get older! I used to read a lot of mysteries and true crime, just haven’t picked them up in a number of years. I avoid YA , sci-fi/fantasy and romance.

Are there some childhood books and authors who stick with you?

I remember reading Steinbeck a lot in middle school and loving those books. I also loved the short stories of O. Henry, Saki and Guy De Maupassant; I couldn’t resist the twists of fate! Of course, I grew up on Beverly Clearly, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Donald J. Sobol, E.B. White, Norman Juster. Am I dating myself? And just to be honest, I also loved reading many of the comics at my parents' bookstore. There’s a photo of my sister and me, chins cupped in our palms, elbows on the counter, reading comics, probably Archie or something equally inane.

What’s your kids’ or partner’s favorite nickname for you? Hobbies, what’s a hobby? I spend my "free time” helping in our family business, doing the bookkeeping, taxes, administrative tasks as well as whatever needs to be done, polishing brass, sanding wood, or organizing the workshop! I really have had two jobs these past 20 years! I suppose if I had time for a hobby, I would take up bird-watching. I live near wetlands and have seen and heard intriguing silhouettes and songs. I’d love to know what’s going on in the skies above me!

Tell us one thing about yourself that might surprise us.

I don’t think there are any surprises in my life!

Our family business is making orreries—an orrery is a mechanical model of the solar system, around since the 1700s, and my husband and I are one of only about 3-4 orrery makers in the world who create and sell models to customers and museums around the world.

How has the pandemic changed your work?

It made me realize that people need to connect socially and that there is a real fatigue with doing everything online. I’m a mostly solitary individual, but I realize that being disconnected from patrons and colleagues on a daily basis is really hard. There is a vitality of life that stems from social interaction, and thinking about my primary role as a digital resource provider, I’m rethinking priorities this year. We did get a nice compliment from a parent who used OverDrive a lot for remote learning, and so I want to be mindful of how to balance our digital content and subscriptions to truly meet the community needs. 9