This might sound sacrilegious, but if G-d's name isn't written in the book, (meaning, it's not a religious item), and no-one wants the book, there are some amazing DIY projects online to make mobiles, purses, and the like. I have an Ellison die cut machine with a bookmark die cut. I used an old decrepit book (that was not religious!) to create bookmarks. I then highlighted specific words to create a brief poem on the face of the bookmark. My volunteer loved it as an impromptu gift. Hang them in your library window as decorative art!
Well, it's an idea. I'm still trying to talk patrons into taking old discarded VHS tapes-I've suggested they unwind the ribbon, and crochet a purse. It's the "green" way to go. Susan Fried Koopman Senior Librarian 860-231-6375 ________________________________ From: hasafran-boun...@lists.service.ohio-state.edu [mailto:hasafran-boun...@lists.service.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of Andrea Rapp Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2012 12:31 PM To: Hasafran@lists.service.ohio-state.edu; Deborah Stern Subject: Re: [ha-Safran] "I have some old Jewish books. What can I do withthem?" Right, people don't want to supply a list, or even check their titles from home against our holdings on our online catalog! So if it's not a great number of books-say 20 or so, I take them, evaluate them, and end up putting most on the used book sale/cart. Also, on the opening day of religious school, when there are hundreds of parents in the lobby, I always have the books for sale spread out on a table, "manned" by a student volunteer, and we always sell some then. Andrea Rapp Wise Temple, Cincinnati --- On Wed, 8/1/12, Deborah Stern <dst...@rrc.edu> wrote: From: Deborah Stern <dst...@rrc.edu> Subject: Re: [ha-Safran] "I have some old Jewish books. What can I do with them?" To: Hasafran@lists.service.ohio-state.edu Date: Wednesday, August 1, 2012, 9:30 AM Unfortunately in smaller libraries, including many synagogue libraries, the items we are offered are not of the caliber that Yaffa and Zachary mention and I have found people will not comply when I ask them for a list of the books. A few have actually photographed the books, which does help. And libraries like mine and SSC libraries are not set up to deal with rare materials or ephemera, and it's not our mission to collect such materials. I also run a continuous book sale, but in the end if the books don't sell then we've taken the responsibility to dispose of them. So it's often a fine balancing act regarding donations. Debbie Stern, Library Director Mordecai M. Kaplan Library Reconstructionist Rabbinical College From: hasafran-boun...@lists.service.ohio-state.edu [mailto:hasafran-boun...@lists.service.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of Weisman, Yaffa Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 7:17 PM To: Zachary M Baker; Hasafran@lists.service.ohio-state.edu Subject: Re: [ha-Safran] "I have some old Jewish books. What can I do with them?" To second Zachary's approach: I spent a 3 months sabbatical last spring going over 18,000 items offered by an executor of a secular Jewish scholar's library, who's main interest was political science. Turns out that his father (New York, Portland, Toronto and Santa Monica) and grandfather (Lithuania) were scholar rabbis, avid readers and activists in the Jewish community - and he had their libraries as well. I ended up adding no more than 300 BOOKS to our collection, but the EPHEMERA that reflected Jewish life in their communities was priceless and was placed in the rare and special collections of our library. And feeding the nosey treasure hunter in me is an added bonus... Dr. Yaffa Weisman, Director The Frances-Henry Library Adjunct Associate Professor HUC-JIR Jack H. Skirball Los Angeles Campus www.huc.edu/libraries/la 213-765-2170 From: hasafran-boun...@lists.service.ohio-state.edu <http://us.mc1617.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=hasafran-boun...@lists.se rvice.ohio-state.edu> [mailto:hasafran-boun...@lists.service.ohio-state.edu <http://us.mc1617.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=hasafran-boun...@lists.se rvice.ohio-state.edu> ] On Behalf Of Zachary M Baker Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 1:47 PM To: Hasafran@lists.service.ohio-state.edu <http://us.mc1617.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=hasaf...@lists.service.oh io-state.edu> Subject: [ha-Safran] "I have some old Jewish books. What can I do with them?" My instinct is to resist these types of invitations, but (to quote the old New York State Lottery slogan) hey, you never know. We certainly don't want to accumulate massive numbers of duplicates that become _our_ problem (or Gifts and Exchanges' problem), instead of the donor's. On the other hand, if donors can provide lists that we can select from, that is helpful. (One of the first questions I ask, when offered a book donation, is, May we be selective?) Or, if we have a sense that the donor had intellectual interests that might result in significant additions to our research collections, by all means let's pursue the matter. My favorite example involved the library of a deceased scholar of Hungarian Jewry, whose books on the subject greatly enriched the holdings of the YIVO Library. I enjoyed meeting and chatting with the late scholar's widow (an artist) as well. And sometimes one encounters unexpected -- and welcome -- surprises. A couple of years ago an acquaintance invited me to look over her father's books. He had died a year or so earlier and the daughter was cleaning out his house. I went there with not very high expectations and indeed the Judaica books on the living-room shelves were fairly slim pickings. But then I went into the garage and encountered a treasure trove of "gray literature": vintage publications -- in Hebrew and English -- devoted to soil science, agricultural development, and water resources in Israel in the 1950s and early 1960s. This is precisely the sort of special collections material that we are collecting at Stanford. The 1950s-era Israeli children's magazines were a bonus. (My acquaintance's father had trained as a soil scientist and lived with his family on an Israeli kibbutz back then.) Hey, you never know... Zachary M. Baker Reinhard Family Curator of Judaica and Hebraica Collections Stanford University -----Inline Attachment Follows----- __ Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) ================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran@lists.service.ohio-state.edu <http://us.mc1617.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=hasaf...@lists.service.oh io-state.edu> To join Ha-Safran, update or change your subscription, etc. - click here: https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran Questions, problems, complaints, compliments send to: galro...@osu.edu <http://us.mc1617.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=galro...@osu.edu> Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mail list.html Earlier Listserver: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist .html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org <http://www.jewishlibraries.org/> -- Hasafran mailing list Hasafran@lists.service.ohio-state.edu <http://us.mc1617.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=hasaf...@lists.service.oh io-state.edu> https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran
__ Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) ================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran@lists.service.ohio-state.edu To join Ha-Safran, update or change your subscription, etc. - click here: https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran Questions, problems, complaints, compliments send to: galro...@osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.service.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html Earlier Listserver: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org -- Hasafran mailing list Hasafran@lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran
