Title

Gina Costello

Associate Dean, Technology Initiatives / Special Collections
225-578-2217
gcoste1@lsu.edu
LSU Library, 2nd Floor Administrative Suite

Responsibilities

Gina Costello oversees the technology initiatives and special collections units in the LSU Libraries. Her responsibilities in technology initiatives include strategic direction and oversight of the website, application/software development, systems and desktop support, digitization, and digital scholarship. She manages a special collections department of 20 faculty and staff and is responsible for endowments of nearly $6 million. She was previously head of the Digital Services Department where she was responsible for the digitization of materials found in the Libraries and for collaborative digitization efforts within and outside the Libraries. She serves as the LSU Libraries contact for the Louisiana Digital Library (LDL). From 2009-2015, she was Project Director or co-director of the Digitizing Louisiana Newspapers Project, a National Endowment for the Humanities funded project through the Library of Congress.

Experience

  • Co-Principal Investigator, “…And 25 of our closest friends: The Louisiana Digital Library as Community-Focused Data,” January 2020-June 2021. Collections as Data: Part to Whole, Mellon Foundation re-grant. Funded $49,845.
  • Proposal author and Project Manager, Digital Scholarship funding support, 2016-2020. LSU Center for Computation and Technology and Office of Research & Economic Development. Funded $95,000.
  • Proposal author and Project Manager, “Digital Signage and Wayfinding in LSU Libraries” award from LSU Student Technology Fee Oversight Committee, March 2018-July 2019. Funded $30,800.
  • Proposal author and Project Manager, “Equipment for LSU Libraries’ Digital Scholarship Lab” award from LSU Student Technology Fee Oversight Committee, November 2015-June 2016. Funded $29,793. 
  • Co-Principal Investigator, Project Ceres grant, “Louisiana Digital BibliAGraphy: 100 Years of LSU Agricultural Experiment Station Publications, 1888-1898.” August 2014-July 2015, $3,400.
  • Co-Author and Technical Partner, Mississippi Department of Archives and History National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) National Digital Newspaper Program grant. September 2013 - August 2015, $95,470 (LSU sub-award).
  • Project Director, NEH National Digital Newspaper Program grant. September 2013 - August 2015, $210,000.
  • Co-Project Director, NEH-funded “Free People of Color in Louisiana: Revealing an Unknown Past.” May 2013-April 2015, $194,152.
  • Co-Principal investigator, Louisiana Agricultural Center Sugar Research Station-funded digitization of The Sugar Bulletin and other resources. Funded 2012-2014, $6,240.
  • Project Manager, Louisiana Board of Regents-funded “Building Digital Resources for Research: Creating a Digitized Collection of United States Army Corps of Engineers Publications and Related Historical Materials for Access and Preservation.” 2012-2013, $86,800.
  • Project Director, NEH National Digital Newspaper Program grant. Funded September 2011 - August 2013, $285,000.
  • Project Manager, Louisiana Sea Grant sponsored project to develop image and map collections in the Louisiana Digital Library. March - December 2010, $9,000.
  • Co-Principal Investigator, Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries-funded project to digitizeLouisiana Conservationist and associated titles. July 2010 - July 2011, $3,120.
  • Co-Project Director, NEH National Digital Newspaper Program grant. July 2009 -June 2011, $351,380.
  • Project Manager, Louisiana Board of Regents-funded "Louisiana Historical Newspapers: Preservation and Access." 2006-2008, $400,000.
  • Co-Principal Investigator and Project Manager, Louisiana Sea Grant College-funded project to digitize the Percy Viosca historic photograph collection.  April-December 2007; $9,898.
  • Co-Author and Project Manager, Baton Rouge Area Foundation-funded project to digitize Margaret Stones watercolors collection.  August 2006-January 2007, $8,900.

Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy,  Educational Leadership & Research, Higher Education Administration, Louisiana State University (LSU), anticipated 2022
  • Master of Arts, Applied Research, Measurement & Evaluation, LSU, anticipated 2022
  • Master of Science, Information Sciences, University of Tennessee, 2004
  • Bachelor of Arts, English Literature and Education, Mississippi College, 1997

Presentations

  • “Exploring Leader-Follower Duality and Role Identity in Library Middle Managers.” ALA Core Forum, Baltimore, MD, October 8, 2021.
  • “Online Practitioner-Oriented Graduate Programs: Are they meeting the needs of new professionals?.” Mid-South Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, November 6-8, 2019.
  • “Evolving Statewide Digital Libraries,” with Jason Battles, University of Georgia. Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), St. Louis, MO, April 8-9, 2019.
  • “Leading 21st Century Digital Design in 20th Century Library Spaces,” with Dr. Donald Gilstrap, University of Alabama. Designing for Digital Conference, Austin, TX, March 4-6, 2019.
  • “Evolving Leadership in Academic Librarianship  and Challenges to a Sustainable Workforce.” LSU Curriculum Camp, Baton Rouge, February 22, 2019.
  • Moderator, “Sustaining Digital Humanities Centers” panel discussion. Digitorium, Tuscaloosa, AL, October 4-6, 2018.
  • “Digital Projects & Digital Libraries” Louisiana Library Administrators Fall Conference, Baton Rouge, LA, November 3, 2017. [Invited talk.]
  • “Peer-to-peer Learning to Advance Digital Preservation” with Barrie Howard, Library of Congress. Digital Library Federation annual forum, Pittsburgh, PA, October 25, 2017.
  • “Success through Collaboration: LSU Libraries and Graduate School Theses and Dissertations Migration Project.” Southern Miss Institutional Repository Conference (SMIRC), Hattiesburg, MS, April 13, 2017.
  • “Digital Preservation: From Identifying Content to Providing Access” .5 day pre-conference workshop. Louisiana Library Association Conference, Lafayette, LA, March 7, 2017.
  • Deep South Digital Preservation Outreach & Education Workshop, September 19-23, 2016, Jackson, MS. In collaboration with the Library of Congress [Workshop organizer.]
  • "Digital Libraries Research and the Future of the Louisiana Digital Library” with Rachel Tillay, Tulane University. Louisiana Library Association Conference, Baton Rouge, LA, March 9, 2016.
  • “Proposal Development in the Arts & Humanities” panel discussion for LSU Office of Research and Economic Development (ORED), March 12, 2015.
  • “Digitization Basics” at Louisiana Federal Depository Library Council meeting, Lafayette, LA, November 14, 2014.
  •  “Digital Project Management Basics & Beyond” with Rachel Tillay, LSU Libraries. LOUIS User’s Conference, Baton Rouge, LA, October 16, 2014.
  • ORED sponsored Data Management workshops with Bill Armstrong, LSU Libraries. Spring and Fall 2014.
  • “Sweetening the Deal: A Digitization Partnership Between LSU Libraries and the LSU AgCenter Sugar Research Station” with Cristina Caminita, LSU Libraries. Louisiana Library Association Conference, Lafayette, LA, March 27, 2014.
  • “Digitization Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary, Cross-Profession Discussion” [Panelist.] Society of American Archivists Conference, New Orleans, LA, August 17, 2013.
  • “A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned: Ways to Maximize your Learning Potential in Tough Economic Times” with Kelly Blessinger at ACRL/LLAMA Spring Virtual Institute - “Doing Well by Doing Good”: Entrepreneurial Leadership for Librarians, April 21-22, 2010.
  • “Oral Histories from ‘Analog’ to Louisiana ‘Digital’ Library at LOUIS User’s Conference, Baton Rouge, LA, October 21-22, 2010.
  • "Digital Archiving and Digital Project Management” at Association for Conservation Information Annual Conference, Baton Rouge, LA, July 16, 2009.
  • “Creating and Managing Online Exhibits” Pre-Conference workshop (half day) at Rice University, Society of Southwest Archivists Annual Conference, Houston, TX, May 21, 2008.

Publications

  • Blessinger, Kelly and Gina Costello “The Effect of Economic Recession on Institutional Support for Tenure-Track Librarians in ARL Institutions.” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 37:4 (2011): 307-311. Costello, Gina R. “Digitization and Access of Louisiana Oral Histories: One Oral History Center’s Experience in the Digital Realm” In K. Ng and J. Kucsma (Eds.)
  • Digitization in the Real World: Lessons Learned from Small and Medium-sized Digitization Projects (2010) New York, NY: Metropolitian New York Library Council.
  • Costello, Gina R. and Alice Daugherty “Analysis of Job Responsibilities of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Human Resource Professionals” In E. Pankl, D. Theiss-White and M. Bushing (Eds.), Recruitment, Development, and Retention of Information Professionals: Trends in Human Resources and Knowledge Management (2010) Hershey, PA: IGI Publishing.
  • Costello, Gina R. “Louisiana Coastal Wetlands and Louisiana Coastal Grey Literature: Vanishing Treasures.” Publishing Research Quarterly 23:1 (2007): 19-29. Reprinted from The Grey Journal.

Service

  • Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE)
  • American Educational Research Association (AERA)
  • American Library Association (ALA) Core committee chair, member
  • Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Rare Books and Manuscripts Association (RBMS)
  • Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Community Representative
  • National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant review panelist, 2007, 2015, 2021
  • Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant reviewer, 2018
  • National Historical Publications and Records Commission grant reviewer, 2015