The great sage Hillel taught, " if I am not for myself, who will be for me...." (Avos 1:13) I have brought up the issue of the future of Judaica Librarianship. Many responses range from complete resignation to the dreary outlook to total apathy. This listserve is sometimes more preoccupied with politics and political agenda than with the future of our collections.
I recently received a pamphlet from the American Theological Library Association. It was about recruitment to the specialty of theological librarianship. The graphics were very impressive and the titles of the sections were as follows: LIBRARIANS TEACH, LIBRARIANS STAY CURRENT IN THEIR FIELD, LIBRARIANS PRESERVE THE HISTORY OF THEIR FIELD. They put in a plug for student membership to ATLA. Why don't we do such outreach? I know that people will respond to this by focusing on the low salaries. This is true and it is also an area that AJL needs to address and perhaps issue a report and then go public with the findings as well a some lobbying efforts. At any rate if we focus this way then we certainly will have no one within a decade. The brochure seems to be aimed at library school students. Last year the President of Gratz College, the head of Judaica studies at Drexel University and myself met with the Dean of the Library school at Drexel. We were lobbying for course that would address Judaica issues. The Dean responded that the interest for these courses is unknown. Wouldn't an AJL brochure for recruitment also serve as a barometer for interest of library school students. While we recruit we need to make a unified effort for salary standards. In Pennsylvania there is currently a severe crisis of funding for public libraries. I had a letter in the Philadelphia Inquirer addressing that issue. The Newspaper had an article about this desperate situation with no comment from any professional organization. Protest is not credible if the professionals do not have a public involvement. If we do not do our own outreach and do not try to deal with the salary situation then we become part of the problem. I urge the organization to do more for our present (salaries) and our future (recruitment) Eliezer M. Wise Library Director Tuttleman Library of Gratz College 7605 Old York Road Melrose Park, Pa. 19027 215-635-7300 extension 159 ========================================================================== HaSafran - The Electronic Forum of the Association of Jewish Libraries Submissions for HaSafran, send to: Hasafran at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listserver at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 at osu.edu AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org/
