[ha-Safran]: Library database software
Though I am not a librarian, I recently started working in a small library (3,000-4,000 volumes) with a small budget. It had been neglected for a few years and is not computerized. I would like to know what options there are in programs that I can use. Vicki Salinger == HaSafran - The Electronic Forum of the Association of Jewish Libraries Submissions for HaSafran, send to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org/
[ha-Safran]: Fall Jewish Books from LA Book Expo
--- Message requiring your approval -- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [ha-Safran]: Fall Jewish Books from LA Book Expo MyJewishBooks.com hi there. this is my abbreviated postcard from the Los Angeles Book Expo America. Hello from Los Angeles, where I am attending the Book Expo America as well as the Israel Film Festival. You cannot shake a lulav without hitting a Jewish Book Fair representative. They are everywhere. I ran into the head of jbooks.com, and Lev Raphael, and Carolyn Hessel. I met reps from the Jewish JCC Book Fairs of Indy, LA, St Louis, Rockville, and places in between. There were booths from JPS, Jewish Lights, Gefen Publishing, the Mosaic-Press.com, Merkos Publications, Devorah Publishing, Pitsopany Press, and even the Kabbalah Center. I met lots of authors, and Steve Bochco (LA Law, Hill St Blues) met me and said, This is MY Jewish book, while signing his newest novel. When I met Joel Siegal of ABC TV, he reiterated that he actually did invent German Chocolate Cake Ice Cream at Baskin Robbins. I also learned about a cool Jewish magazine called ZEEK.net by Matthue Roth. Very hip! Hot titles for the Fall include a new Jewish Study Bible from the Oxford University Press. Edited by Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, it uses the JPS Tanakh translation, and is going to be heavily promoted. The Seal Press was hawking The Flying Camel, forthcoming essays on Jewish identity by Mizrahi women, edited by Loolwa Khazzoom. Kathleen Sharp made an appearance for Mr and Mrs Hollywood, a bio on Lew and Edie Wasserman. Rothstein by David Pietrusza will come out in October and tell the real story of Arnold Rothstein and the 1919 World Series. The Stanford University Press was highlighting it's two volume Pritzker Edition of The Zohar, translated by Daniel C. Matt (Fall 2003). Jewish Lights had a dozen very interesting Fall releases. Among them is a new book of Commentary from Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, this one is a Women's Haftarah Commentary, a companion to the Women's Torah Commentary. They will also release a collection of personal essays, based on Danny Pearl's last words, I Am Jewish. Red Rock had two forthcoming books by Marvin Korman about the Jewish Bronx. Gefen has 50 Jewish Messiahs and a book on the Israel astronaut, Ialn Ramon, titled, Journey of Hope. Among the Fall books displayed by Stewart, Tabori Chang was, The Lights of Hanukkah, a coffee table book of menorahs. Barbara Fradkin will publish her third Jewish mystery book in the Inspector Green series, this Fall. Jennifer Kushell was signing a very interesting book, The Secrets of the Young and Successful. She portrays many teens and their various successes. A Jewish book? Sure, she told me, many of those portrayed are Jewish. Many? More like a significant portion! Speaking of success, Professor Sherry Ortner (Columbia) will publish her study of class in America, using as her base of study her 304 classmates of a Newark High School (Class of 1958), classmates who were overwhelmingly Jewish. The Book is titled, New Jersey Dreaming.BR Lauren F. Winner, who wrote a book (Girl Meets God) on converting to Orthodox Judaism at Columbia University and then finding Jesus, and becoming Christian, was hawking a new book titled Mudhouse Sabbath: Twelve Spiritual Practices I Learned from Judaism. Six years after becoming a big-time Christian, it is about the 12 things she misses about Jewish Sabbaths, weddings, burials, kashrut, and holidays, and why she thinks these practices can enrich her Christian life. Other highlights of the Book Expo were; Harvard University Press' Making Americans: Jews and the Broadway Musical by Andrea Most (Univ Toronto); Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine; The House of Klein by Lisa Marsh; Musically Speaking: A Life Through Song by Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer (U of P Press… they served bagels at her signing); Wedding Song: Memoirs of an Iranian Jewish Woman by Farideh Goldin (Brandeis); The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz (Wiley); Values Propsperity and the Talmud - Business Lessons of the Ancient Rabbis by Larry Kahaner (Wiley); Joining the Sisterhood: Young Jewish Women Write Their Lives by Tobin Belzer and Julie Pelc (Suny); and a very very peculiar book: The Secrets of the Jews by Roger Sabbah. == HaSafran - The Electronic Forum of the Association of Jewish Libraries Submissions for HaSafran, send to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org/
[ha-Safran]: Future of Judaica Librarianship
I haven't discussed the subject of who will fill our ranks in the future. It seemed that there wasn't the kind of concern for this potential problem because there was little reaction to my posts. Most of the reaction was centered around the low pay aspect. This is true for experienced professionals. I can understand the frustration with the pay scales but what about the new members of our specialty group. They could opt for lower salaries and grow either in their institutions or elsewhere. We really need to ask ourselves where will our libraries be in ten years. I am currently trying to fill a professional position at Gratz. Rabbi Yisrael Meyerowitz, who served our library for almost two years is headed for Touro with an increase over his Gratz salary. He is very talented professional. His library degree was a perfect partner to his Jewish education. He came to Gratz out of Drexel and took the job with its low pay and grew. I have advertised the position since mid-April and have only received a trickle of resumes. Can we say that a new graduate or someone with less than three years experience would shy away from gaining more experience. Definitely not. A person seeking to build a career will look for opportunities to learn and grow and accumulate experience. The dearth of applications are a result of small pool of recent graduates with an interest in Judaica. If there are so few at the entry level what will happen later. This shortage will compound our problems. As we retire our collections will not have enough professionals to administer them. I didn't realize the extent of the problem until I tried to fill a position. We are not doing enough to recruit. The pay issue runs into a catch-22 with a lack of potential professionals. Children's librarianship is suffering a severe shortage. In fact that specialty which does not really attract many has seen an increase in salaries to entice people to take that road. School districts are having a difficult time recruiting teachers. The reason, there are very few going into teaching. Next time any of you try to fill a lower or more than entry level position you will run into the same problem. You might even have to opt to hire a non-professional who knows Hebrew and some Judaica to fill the position. This will undermine the effectiveness of the administration of Judaica libraries and be a disservice to readers. We need to do something. The most important resource of any library is the human resource. A qualified professional is needed to use the technology to its maximum potential. We don't want to have a staff of Israeli emigres who have no professional training. We need to recruit. I urge AJL to discuss this important issue or we may find our rich resources locked away in some Catholic University. Eliezer M. Wise Library Director Tuttleman Library of Gratz College 7605 Old York Road Melrose, Park, Pa. 19027 215-635-7300 x 159 [EMAIL PROTECTED] == HaSafran - The Electronic Forum of the Association of Jewish Libraries Submissions for HaSafran, send to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org/
[ha-Safran]: New Book LAST CENTURY OF A SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY
--- Message requiring your approval -- From: S. Alfassa Marks / FASSAC [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [ha-Safran]: New Book: LAST CENTURY OF A SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY Dear HaSafran members: The official press releases will go out in about a week, but I wanted to let everyone know our latest book is available as of today June 24, 2003. LAST CENTURY OF A SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY. The Jews of Monastir, 1839-1943. by MARC COHEN and published by the Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture, NY. ISBN: 1-886857-06-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2003103192 432pp Hardcover with dustjacket. Maps, photos illustrations. http://www.sephardicstudies.org/monastir1839-1943.html A new, documented history on the Sephardic Jews of Monastir, focusing on the 100-year period that encompassed Monastir's last decades of traditional Sephardic life, the rise of modern schooling, the turn to Zionism, and the destruction of the community during the Holocaust. Features the first collection of Monastir's Judeo-Spanish ballads, folksongs, and proverbs to appear in English translation, and the 1943 Deportation List from Bitolj (Monastir), as well as more than 80 rare photographs and illustrations. As an original, documented history of a model Sephardic community, Last Century is an indispensable resource both for descendants of the Monastir Jews, and for anyone interested in the history of the Sephardim. Last Century offers readers a unique opportunity to enjoy the largely forgotten traditions of Monastir´s centuries-old Sephardic folklore. The new history's collection of folksongs (kantigas), ballads (romances), folktales (konsejas), and proverbs (refranes) is one of the most varied ever published. The folklore is presented in the Judeo-Spanish and in English translations specially prepared by leading scholars for Last Century. In Last Century´s 50-page appendix of Sephardic folklore, readers will seem to be listening in on conversations from a vanished world. These songs and stories were collected by researchers who visited Monastir in 1927 and 1930. The researchers sought out older people who grew up during the mid-19th century, before folk traditions weakened. The list published in Last Century is the first to present in English all the names, addresses, ages, and occupations of the 3,276 Monastir Jews killed in the Holocaust. _ S. Alfassa Marks Vice-president Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture www.SephardicStudies.org Founded in NYC in 1965 === Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
