‘It’s Been a Wonderful Place To Work’: Jeff Zaino Retiring After 37 Years at New Canaan Library

When Jeff Zaino started as a serials clerk at New Canaan Library in January of 1983, visitors found books by using a card catalogue. 

There was no such thing as the World Wide Web, and Center School—New Canaan’s original elementary school, now an underused parking lot—stood across Maple Street in its final months of occupancy.

Now the head of infrastructure at the library—through the years he’s worked as head of circulation, when that involved stamping and signing out books, reference librarian, go-to computer guy and head of digital services, and also helped with collections, selecting religion, philosophy and foreign language books—Zaino will go to work Wednesday for the last time. 

“There’s a lot of excitement and a little bit of anxiety because it’s a new lifestyle,” Zaino said of his retirement. “But certainly I would put it at 90% exhilaration and 10% anxiety.”

His final day bookends a career that has bridged the digital age at New Canaan’s community hub, and marks a farewell to one of the town’s most familiar faces.

Zaino is described by longtime colleagues and patrons as a smart, funny, dedicated and adaptable professional whose significant behind-the-scenes work has helped the library staff excel.

“He’s super-interesting as a human being,” said Lisa Oldham, the library’s executive director.

“One thing really that comes through strongly with Jeff is his dedication to the community,” she said. “He definitely sees everything we do as for the community we serve and that loyalty is very honest and authentic.”

Lauren Phillips, the library’s collection manager, has worked with Zaino since 1987. She said the one thing that strikes her most about him is his ability to keep apace with developments in technology.

“When Jeff got here, you found a book through the card catalogues, there was no Internet and our first clunky old Radio Shack computer was like a dinosaur,” Phillips said. “But we started to put bar codes in books and automate slowly in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Jeff did not resist these changes. He made himself adaptable and helped the library grow that way.”

Zaino “guided us into the digital age,” she added.

Henry “Pete” Stair has known Zaino for more than 20 years, as a library patron and through serving on the library’s technology committee.

“Jeff is a superb, widely knowledgeable technical worker and manager,” Stair said. “He has worked very hard to keep up with the changes in technologies that have advanced with lightning speed in the last several decades. He is also a pleasure to work with, which cannot be said of all of us ‘techies.’ ”

Alan Donaldson, who served as library president and vice president for many years, as well as head of its technology committee, called Zaino “unfailingly helpful, kind and easy to work with.”

“His expertise was essential to the installation of the library‘s very first computer network, including all the workstations and related facilities our patrons now take for granted. In addition, Jeff was instrumental in creating and renovating the website, various calendars and other patron-friendly online services. He has been invaluable for his ability to marry a knowledge of library functions with our increasingly advanced technology. The town is losing a great resource with his retirement.”

Phillips said that as a co-worker, Zaino has been “great,” and that he “has a good sense of perspective and he knows that there are other things besides work.”

“He always has a lot of stuff to discuss with everybody,” she said. “He’s always been here. It will be very strange not to have him here.”

The library staff last week put on an outdoor brunch for Zaino and gave him a present, Oldham said.

A Norwalk native and 1975 Brien McMahon High School graduate, Zaino earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Southern Connecticut State University, and in 1991 went back for a master’s degree in Library Science and Information Technology. 

A Milford resident and avid hiker, Zaino said his plans for the near future include pursuing interests such as archeology (he’s on the board of the Archeological Society of Connecticut).

“I’m in the midst of completing a certification in archeology,” Zaino said. “It’s been my avocation for a long time. So I’m looking forward to doing that at Norwalk Community College. And then there’s another exciting facet of life and that is, probably next spring, I’m putting my house on the market and moving to Arizona.”

Zaino said he’s always loved the west coast.

“I like the openness off it, the abundant wilderness, and so there is that but also there are practical reasons: I have family in Tucson, my brother and his wife. And also things are a lot cheaper there than they are in Connecticut, particularly taxes. But it is really the landscape. I’ve admired the southwestern landscape since my first visit there, so having spent most of my life on the east coast, it’s time for something new.”

Asked what he would say to the New Canaan community on the occasion of his retirement, Zaino said, “It’s been a wonderful place to work. It really has. I’m being sincere about that.”

“The community is very supportive, always has been, and there are so many talented people in the community that we have drawn on their expertise through the years. A lot programming pulls in people that are retired engineers and so forth, and I think the community really has something to look forward to in the new building. We are truly moving into the 21st Century in the new building. It’s very exciting for the community and staff and the library will finally have an opportunity to roll things out and have a building that cooperates. I’m grateful to the town of New Canaan for providing me with a good living all these years, and grateful to the administration here for providing me with interesting and meaningful work.”