Pat Scott is a notable woman in history herself, serving as a librarian and archivist who continues to be involved with many projects, including at the Thomas T. Taber Museum and the Jersey Shore Historical Society, since retiring from her long career in June 2019.

Before kicking off her career, Scott received what was then called a bachelor of humanities from Penn State University.

Colleges and universities called it a bachelor of humanities “as the philosophy was, you cannot study literature independent of history, geography — all of those things are of one piece to understand, like where it happened, why it happened, what was going on historically — and this really clicked with me,” she said.

Scott then worked full time at Penn State’s main campus for many years while commuting to the weekend program at Clarion University to gain her master’s in library sciences. She went on to work at Bucknell University for four years, then worked for 20 years in the Pennsylvania College of Technology library’s collection development department, managing and preserving the college’s archival collections.

Scott said each library she worked in was special in its own way — “At Penn State, the breadth of collections was amazing. The Bucknell library was very private, which was nice to have also.”

Scott’s passion also encompasses the Lycoming County History Project, which was started by historian Mary Sieminski and Janet Hurlbert, director of Lycoming College’s library services. She recently contributed to volume 3 of Women of Distinction Magazine, which is ladened with stories celebrating historical women of Lycoming County.

Scott explained the distinction between librarians and archivists as librarians organize by subject, but an archivist organizes by provenance, the history of an object’s ownership, location or custody from its origin to the present day. Scott stated where a piece of literature, art or any other item is from and how an individual or group arranges their works can be extremely important.

At this time, she is collaborating with Tina Cooney from the Jersey Shore Historical Society scanning hundreds of postcards into a collection on the digitalized program called Power Library.

“If you put it online, more young people will have it, as so many people have lost pieces of history if not digitalized,” she said. “I feel so lucky as it’s really a lot of fun to do.”

Scott’s love for literature and history started early on.

As a child, she loved to “live in her imagination, which is really the best place to be,” she said. Her father Norman and mother Justine “were both voracious readers and when you see your parents reading, this really encouraged us,” she said, alluding to her two siblings, who also remain avid readers.

She looked back fondly on trips with her father to the James V. Brown Library, which inspired her and encouraged her love of literature, art and people.

As Scott built a family of her own, she became the breadwinner and loved how her husband, Russell Gula, was the “fun dad” of their two children, Andrew and Elizabeth Gula, now Elizabeth G. Hodgson. Scott said her husband was “doing this before men were taking care of children and once a week he would go out with the guys.” Russell was a “great stay-at-home dad” while she was busy with her passion and career. She misses him dearly, as he passed away in January of this year.

Scott also feels the loss to this day of her son, Andy, who was shot by a man with a concealed weapon a few weeks before his 21st birthday.

“I still can’t understand it,” Scott said.

She said she finds her dog, Spike, by her side and her beautiful daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren help ease the pain, which she has felt deeply throughout her life.

As she continues to follow her passions, Scott also looks forward to spending more time with her daughter and family soon, babysitting her grandchildren. She joked, “my son-in-law also needs a break!”