I work part time at the Jewish Public Library and my other part time at McGill University. The Jewish Public Library in Montreal, Canada, is a vibrant, active and wonderful library that serves the needs of the wide community. On a typical day, you can see Sri Lankan people, Chinese children and boys with peyes and tzitsis enjoying our services and collection. Because we are in a very multicultural part of the city, and in the middle of one of the Jewish Orthodox enclaves, the Library is well used by everyone. To cater and attract the Orthodox community, we at the children section, purchased every single book available from the orthodox press, like Feldheim, CIS, Hachai, etc. as well as every single book, from any other press where it is a Jewish topic. We have videos, tapes and CD's on all the Jewish issues. The orthodox community use the Library because is the ONLY library where they can find what they need and what they want their kids to read. Every Yom Tov, we have a display of books, videos and tapes on the subject. On Sundays, in our free story time program, patrons know that every Holiday they can enjoy stories and arts & crafts related to the subject.
We try to have books that will appeal to the Orthodox community in different languages: English, French, Hebrew and Yiddish, sometimes even going out of our way in an effort to locate books, like a little Hasidishe bookstore to find books published in Yiddish from Israel. We have knowledgeable staff (and some of them Orthodox) attuned to their needs and concerns. Our patrons know that when they ask us for a book suggestion, we will always offer them a title that is suitable, and we will advice them about a title that could be offensive to their points of view. In conclusion, the orthodox community, especially the children, are voracious readers as many of them don't watch tv. The library needs only to offer them the materials they are looking for and they will become big user. I see it every day. Sonia Silva [EMAIL PROTECTED] Jewish Studies Bibliographer Collections Dept.Redpath building. McGill University 3459 McTavish St. Montreal Quebec H3A 1Y1 Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the AJL =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
