Lisa, Nothing of what you wrote surprises me, however, the Temple Sinai library books are not locked in a closet or sold as used books for a $1 a piece. They got news home. I'm not sure what happened with the 92nd St, library books and I don't know what will happen to the Temple Emanu-El collection. Liza is not the only one to loose her job. Others like her did not find a job. It is hard at an age of close to retirement to find a job. This is another aspect of the situation. Amalia
Sent from my iPad > On May 27, 2015, at 7:57 PM, Lisa Silverman <lsilver...@sinaiakiba.org> wrote: > > > Excuse the long post, but I would like to weigh in to this discussion because > of the similar changes going on here at Sinai Temple, which mirror what is > happening everywhere. In our case, 100 letters from people outside our > organization, especially if they had come from different cities, would have > been an interesting social experiment, but would not have changed a thing. > > A year ago, our temple board decided that due to economic reasons beyond > their control, they decided to remove all funding for the library. It was > explained to me that due to the recession there had been a severe downturn in > donations, and, along with our major building upgrade and renovations, the > temple was in the fiscal red. Our professional staff of 4.5 employees was > cut to…zero. The library and its needs, budget, and staffing, was handed > over to the Pre-K-8 day school, because it was common knowledge that the > majority of patrons were day school students, staff, and parents. The day > school had only enough money to offer two positions to librarians and I was > retained as the day school librarian and another school librarian was hired > as associate. With my knowledge of adult sources, I was encouraged to still > help the synagogue patrons, when or if they continued to come in. > > All adult programming was cut because I am now working for the school and do > programming solely related to school needs, which are considerable. (I made > the personal choice to continue with my evening adult book group because this > group has been meeting regularly for 15 years, even though the temple did not > pay me for it. It was suggested that I charge for attendance at this group, > which I rejected as absurd.) We are now in the process of reducing our adult > collection considerably, and moving these items to the soon-to-open Sperber > Jewish Community Library of Los Angeles, which is now part of American Jewish > University. I have been serving as consultant for them, and will begin > working there next year as the community librarian. Our adult collection here > will still be accessible to all patrons, although it will be run by the > school librarian and not kept up by a professional Judaic librarian. > > Since working as Sinai Akiba Academy school librarian this year, no longer as > the temple librarian, I have come away with some observations I would like to > share: > > 1. Synagogues clearly need to save money and move forward with the > things that engage the most members and cut funding from things that don’t. > Period. Sentiment is not a reason to pour money into old models of synagogue > engagement. The problem for libraries is that the decision-makers are not > seeing beyond the old model and are not offering funding for librarians to > create new models. > 2. Protesting to the powers that be does not work when boards have > already made difficult decisions. If a library is a beloved part of an > institution, board members do not make these decisions lightly, but when they > do, they are rarely swayed to change their minds because by that time they > have heard all the sides they are going to hear and have thought it all > through. (We had many letters written in opposition, and members spoke their > minds at meetings—the decision to close library funding stuck.) > 3. Our school/student/parent engagement has gone up this year and we > keep quite busy. These people are also members of our temple, which should be > noted. The authors/literary and film programming is now the responsibility of > the programming department. Those people who are missing out on what used to > be are the mostly older, retired, literary minded folk who liked to come into > the library for such things. Hopefully, they have been absorbed by other > programming of the temple, but if not, it seems their numbers are not > significant for the board to reinstate funding. > > This library will still be run well after I leave next year, but it will no > longer be a leader among synagogue libraries and the go-to catalog for Elazar > system users. Adult patrons will still be served, but eventually it will turn > into a fine school library, and the people of Los Angeles will turn to the > Jewish Community Library at AJU for Jewish-themed books, book and film > clubs, literary events and programs. > > > <image002.jpg> > LISA SILVERMAN LIBRARY DIRECTOR, SINAI TEMPLE BLUMENTHAL LIBRARY > 10400 WILSHIRE BOULEVARD, LOS ANGELES, CA 90024 > 310-481-3215 (direct) 310-481-3218 (main) library.sinaitemple.org > > > __ > 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: > hasaf...@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.osu.edu > https://lists.osu.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: hasaf...@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.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran
