There could be no better candidate for the “Faces of New Canaan” series than Jeff Zaino—or, as I’d thought of him for 30-plus years (before two weeks ago, when I asked him to participate in this feature), ‘That Library Guy.’
Here, we spotlight individuals who—though they may not be familiar to us because they’re famous or hold especially prominent positions in town—make up the fabric of New Canaan. These are people we associate with our town—the people, who, say, if you go away for a while, upon returning to New Canaan, you spot them again and know you’re home.
I remember Zaino from when I was a kid and our mom took us to the library several days a week—I found out during our chat (transcribed in full below) that I was about eight years old when Zaino came here.
I asked Zaino about his background and hobbies, experiences at the library and ways that New Canaan’s taste in things like reading materials has changed, or not, through the years. I also asked him for some personal favorite things about New Canaan—places to go, local shops and Zaino not only mentioned some popular spots such as Baldanza, Connecticut Muffin and Elm Street Books, but also recalled The Best Würst over on East Avenue. We also discussed his thoughts on the widely anticipated, though very nascent, plans to rebuild the library.
Here’s our conversation.
New Canaanite: I’ve wanted to do this with you since I came up with the idea, because I remember you being here from when I was a kid. So let me start by asking you: How often do you get that? The ‘Hey, I remember you. You’re that guy from the library.’ How often does that happen?
Jeff Zaino of New Canaan Library. Credit: Michael Dinan
Jeff Zaino: Pretty often. (Laughs.) I get it around town and I get it from around the library. People like you who I knew when they were little kids.
Are you local, too? Do you live locally?
I live in Milford.
And what is your title at the library?
Head of digital services.
And when you joined the library, you’d told me it was 31 years ago, so we’re talking ’83.
That’s right.
What did you start as at that point?
I was serials clerk.
I don’t imagine there was a digital job at that point.
There was not. It was pre-computer.
Talk to me a little bit about how, in your time here, that part of the library, the technology, has changed. You just got the 3D modeling machine. How has this all changed in your time?
I’ve seen dramatic changes. In the early days it was all paper-based and text. Now it’s all digital. Probably the biggest change was in the ‘90s, when the Internet debuted. When the ‘World Wide Web’ came on the scene. And in those days, we were getting our Internet service through a 300 baud modem. No broadband or anything like that. There were little homegrown Internet vendors, suppliers, and they were absorbed by the big guys now. AT&T and all the rest. But I remember this guy in town, Peter Farnsworth, who actually started his own Internet company and we used the small service here at the library, and we used to give classes here, all huddled around one desktop computer. There was no network. So that was a dramatic change. And the next-biggest change was everything moving to digital from text. So we saw a lot of our reference databases move from paper to CD-ROM to completely digital over the Web.
What do you think these kids who come in here now would say if you showed them a card catalogue?
They wouldn’t know what it is. They just weren’t raised on it. The card catalogue went out of existence here in the late ‘90s, I’m going to say. That’s when we moved online.
And you were a veteran of the library by that time. Talk to me a little bit about your connection or involvement in New Canaan prior to coming here as a member of the library staff.
Really none.
Where are you from originally.
From Norwalk. Grew up and raised in Norwalk and then—
—Norwalk High School?
No, Brien McMahon.
What year did you graduate?
’75. Good old Brien McMahon. So then I read about the job in the paper, I was just fresh out of college and got the job, got interested in this kind of work and went back and got my master’s degree while I was working. That took me six years and then became a professional librarian after that. Moved up from a serials clerk.
Can you tell me where you went to college and also what did you study for your bachelor’s as well as your masters?
Sure. My school was Southern Connecticut State University. That’s where I got my undergraduate degree. English literature. And my master’s at Southern Connecticut and that was in library science and information technology. And that was in 1991.
Tell me a little bit about New Canaan people. You see a lot of, not just library users, but the library is sort of a community crossroads. There are events here, artists, elected officials, school field trips. Tell me a little bit about your impressions of New Canaanites.
I would say overall my impressions of New Canaan are positive. I’ve met so many interesting people and I can’t think of an institution that’s more supported, that people are fond of, that they see as the core of the community, that they support on so many levels and throughout my time here I’ve come into contact with so many interesting people. There’s a high level of intellectual curiosity here. It makes the job very exciting. There is tremendous support from the community. We have volunteers and board members who donate many hours of time and expertise especially. There are people in the town that I’ve called on, on many occasions, for technical advice, just a great place to work. Really. Just a tremendous place to work.
In terms of the reader side, have you noticed any changes in readers’ tastes? Trends in what people like to read? Have there been some things that, in three decades here, you noticed people have been interested in where they’re more interested in another type of thing now?
I will say one thing that hasn’t waned: Reading is still very popular. As far as reading styles, I would have to say the thing that sticks out most for me is with the teenagers and the graphic novels [books composed of comic book content]. That’s something that I think is a fairly recent thing that I’m seeing. Tremendous interest in that. I can’t seem to remember those books being around in the ‘80s or even the early-‘90s, I think it’s a fairly recent phenomenon. And of course the other thing is the move from paper to digital. You see a lot of people reading now on their tablets and on their phones, and this is true of music and video as well. So you’re seeing that trend. But the genres pretty much remain the same. There is tremendous interest in mysteries and fiction. This community has a lot of nonfiction readers. Like I said before, a lot of intellectual interest.
Yes, a lot of intellectual curiosity, you said. It’s still early, but what are your thoughts—I mean, you’re as connected to the library as any of us, really—what are your thoughts about the planned rebuilding and what is planned here in the early going with the vision?
I am completely delighted about what’s happening and excited about what’s happening. If there’s one thing I can say in my long history here it’s that the building is not designed for the way the modern library does service. So we really have to improvise, given the building that we have. And I think the future looks bright. It will be a building that’s designed to maximize service in a digital age. So I’m very happy about that and looking forward to the new project.
You talked a little about New Canaan people. Talk to me about your experience in town. You say people recognize you around town. What are some spots you like to go? What are some of your local favorites?
Yeah well, Connecticut Muffin I used to go to all the time. And I just discovered a place just the other day, on Elm Street. Baldanza? It’s a little café. Wonderful. Back in the day there was a place called The Best Würst that was a great deli we used to go to. Elm Street Books is very nice. Mead Park is another great place in town.
What did you get at Baldanza that you liked?
Well, I had their turkey sandwich. It was called ‘The Café.’ So it was a turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomato on multigrain bread. It was terrific. And I had their escarole and bean soup, which was really good.
And Mead Park, is that a place you might take your lunch or just kind of hang out?
Exactly and we’ve gone there on a couple of afternoons and there’s a guy there that sells falafel.
Oh that’s Emad [Aziz] there, the Mead Park Lodge.
Yes, exactly. So we go there occasionally and get one of those, which are terrific.
Tell me something else about you. Are you a dog person? What are your own interests? Tell me more about you.
I guess my greatest passion outside of work is hiking. I do a lot of hiking out west. I like to take one big trip out west every year. We do, a good friend of mine, some backcountry camping and hiking, and been to Arizona, California, Montana, so that’s probably my biggest passion.
When you go hiking, do you always go out west, or have you explored, say, the Adirondacks?
Oh we’ve done a considerable amount in the east, too. Adirondacks, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York state.
Do you do any mountain climbing up in the Adirondacks?
I don’t. My hiking buddy is a rock climber.
Rock climber?
Yeah, he’s an avid rock climber. I am not. But he does a lot of that.
We used to go to the high peaks region in the Adirondacks every summer. My parents went on their honeymoon up there. My dad used to take us, now my brother takes his kids. Me and my wife used to go, until we got a more aggressive dog, now we can’t have him up there. He’ll attack the other campers. We used to go up there with our dogs.
Nice.
It’s really nice up there.
Family tradition now, right?
It’s a tradition. I don’t know if you know Scrhoon Lake up there. It’s like an hour north of Lake George, up in the high peaks region. Just below Lake Placid. Love it up there.
Beautiful.
This was terrific. Thanks so much.