[ha-Safran]: Convention minyanim

[Daniel A. Scheide]

First, I'd like to thank everyone involved in putting together this
year's convention.  It was a tremendous amount of work and a great
success.  There was one small matter that I think could be improved
upon in future conventions and I wanted to get some feedback from
everyone else while the convention in still fresh in our minds.



While the shaharit minyanim were very well organized, there were no
preparations made for minhah or ma'ariv.  Because of this, we had
people scrambling around, trying to informally organize times and
locations to daven.  For some reason, the ad hoc minyan tended to
gravitate towards meeting in front of doorways, in the path of hotel
staff or guests causing unnecessary inconvenience and potential hilul
Hashem.   Perhaps I'm being overly sensitive, but this was my
impression.  At times, we were able to meet in empty meeting rooms,
but I am not sure if we had permission from the hotel to use these
rooms at the time.  All of these problems could be easily solved by
providing a time and place for the minyanim to meet.  If space is an
issue, perhaps the 2 minyanim could meet together for minhah and
ma'ariv.



It's possible that my concerns are exaggerated and that this bothered
me more than it bothered others, but on the other hand, it can only
benefit AJL, the minyanim, and our relationship with our various
convention centers to have minhah and ma'ariv better organized in the
future  I'd like to hear everyone else's impressions.  Again, thank
you to everyone involved in making this convention a success.  Next
year in Cleveland!







Daniel Scheide

Catalog Librarian



S.E. Wimberly Library

Room 103A

777 Glades Road

Boca Raton, FL 33431-6424

Tel: (561)297-0519

Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]




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RE: [ha-Safran]: A "Reference Desk" Experience in Phoenix

[Rettberg, Dan]

International Airport
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Thank you, Phil--

What an amazing story! It just goes to show how important it is not 
to jump to conclusions and, as you did, to ask for clarification so 
the inquirer gets to ask the real question. Thanks again for sharing 
your experience with us all.

Dan




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A "Reference Desk" Experience in Phoenix International Airport

[Miller, Philip]

This is a copy of my most recent posting to the HUC Librarians' Blog,
Needle in the Bookstacks...

A "Reference Desk" Experience in Phoenix International Airport

The subject of the Eleventh Rosalind and Meyer Feinstein Lecture I
delivered on June 18, 2007 at the Forty-Second Convention of the
Association of Jewish Libraries (Scottsdale, Arizona) was "The Art and
Science of Reference Work." While it was a pleasure putting this lecture
together, and a greater pleasure presenting it, the greatest pleasure
came in the reaction and conversation the lecture produced, especially
the anecdotes I adduced. Yet little did I know or expect that a highly
unusual "reference desk" experience awaiting me at the airport as I was
departing.

As I passed through the airport's security on the way to the gate, my
carry-on tote was singled out for closer examination. An agent of the
T.S.A., an older African-American gentleman with a finely shaped
moustache and who carried himself with pride took my tote off the belt
and asked me to accompany him to a table close by. As he lifted it to
the table, he noticed what was printed on the bag's side: "New York
2006" and "26th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy." [I
apologize I was not carrying the AJL 2007 tote, but the one I was carry
was more commodious.]

He studied these words for a moment before setting the bad down.

"Do you study this?" he asked me.

"Yes," I replied.

"Is it true that the Jews financed the American War of Independence?"

My first reaction was "Huh?!" But his tone was even and respectful, and
years of reference work has taught me that people often need further
questioning in order to get to the root of their query.

"Why," I asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well," the gentleman continued, "I learned that the Founding Fathers
acknowledged their thanks to the Jews for financing the Revolution by
placing a menorah [Yes. That was the very word he used!] on the dollar
bill."

Completely puzzled by this, I reached for my billfold and took out a
dollar bill. As I was examining the front, he indicated I should turn it
over. Then he gently took it from me and inverted it. He folded the bill
in half and indicated the inverted tail-feathers of the spread eagle.

"There. Isn't that a menorah?"

I was not eager to get into a discussion over whether this was a menorah
or not, figuring the subtleties of iconography might be excessive, given
the context.

Then it dawned upon me. I told him plainly that I had never heard this
story about the menorah before and that I was grateful to him for
pointing this out. Then I hastened to add that Jews as a collective did
not finance the War of Independence, and told him of Haym Salomon and
his singular role. I also told him that one could visit Salomon's grave
near Independence Hall in historical Philadelphia, where his
contribution to the founding of America was mentioned on a marker. As
for the dollar bill, this was news to me.

The gentleman listened respectfully, shook my hand and told me how
grateful he was that I took the time to explain this to him.

He then indicated the direction of my gate and said good-bye.

(Yes, he did examine my bag while I was talking, and confiscated an
unopened can of V-8 juice.)

I admit, I had never heard this "menorah mayseh" before, so I
instinctively looked it up on the Web. Yes, it is there! On Jewish and
Christian web-sites:

http://www.konig.org/wc129.htm
http://www.factsofisrael.com/blog/archives/000467.html
http://www.ttt.org.il/2000/jokes/2.shtml
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b2a7f5b44e5.htm

 At first blush one might wonder if this gentleman were
innocently repeating some calumny he had picked up. Uncritically one
might even jump to the conclusion that this person was anti-Semitic. Yet
his way was gentle, displaying curiosity.

Hence I had to conduct an impromptu "reference interview" in order to
find out what it was he really wanted to know.



Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author
and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL)
===
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RE: [ha-Safran]: Blogs

[Daniel Stuhlman]

Where is one supposed to find these blogs?  What is the URL?




Daniel Stuhlman
Chicago, IL  60645
DDstuhlman at earthlink.net

http://home.earthlink.net/~ddstuhlman/liblob.htm
Librarian's Lobby
http://stuhlman.biz  Home page

[ha-Safran]: AJL Convention 2007

[Wolfson, Laurel]

Congratulations to everyone who worked together to make this a
terrific convention! From personal experience and the comments,
everything from programming to meals to rooms (well OK, we could have
used a little less heat) was superb.

Looking forward to next year in Cleveland.
Laurel
Laurel S. Wolfson, President
Association of Jewish Libraries
Klau Library
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
3101 Clifton Ave.
Cincinnati  OH  45220
phone: 513-487-3274
fax: 513-221-0519
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]



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and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL)
===
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Re: [ha-Safran]: Molly and the Sabbath Queen

[Kathe Pinchuck]

Behrman House holds the rights to this book.  Is it already on the 
"Reprint Wish List," or should it be?

KSP



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[ha-Safran]: Convention blog 2007

[Bill & Merrily Hart]

Colleagues,

I hated to miss convention but a bat mitzvah in the family took
precendence. So I checked the blog in the morning and in the evening
and listened to the podcast daily. Sheryl, Heidi et. al. did a
wonderful job of summarizing sessions, describing author events and
conveying the flavor of the gathering. Hearing the voices via  podcast
makes the conference come alive.  I look forward to seeing more
pictures from convention. Congratulations to all involved in moving
AJL toward Library 2.0 (with or without technical frustrations!)

Congratulations also to all the members who worked so hard to create
another wonderful convention.

Merrily F. Hart
Librarian
Siegal College
Cleveland, OH
216-464-4050 x132

[ha-Safran]: 2007 Convention Photos

[Ulric, Karen]

Safranim -

Thanks for a wonderful convention.  It was a joy and a pleasure to see
so many of you,  the sessions were great, and I learned so much as
always.

I am collecting Convention photos to post for our enjoyment.  So a
couple of requests.

I have created a Flickr Group called Association of Jewish Libraries.
If you have a flickr account, you can join this group and post photos
directly to the Group Photo Pool.
Please tag all convention photos "ajl2007" and "convention".

If you do not have a flickr account, consider creating one at
www.flickr.com and doing as suggested above.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, or want me to do the
work, please send photos by email to [EMAIL PROTECTED], and I
will post them to the Flickr group.

Photos can be found at http://www.flickr.com/groups/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ or
just go to www.flickr.com and search for  ajl2007.

We will also post this link to the Convention page, and the convention blog.

Thanks!

Karen Ulric
AJL Advertising Manager
SSDS of Essex and Union
1418 Pleasant Valley Way
West Orange, NJ 07052
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
973-669-8000 x253

RE: [ha-Safran]: Blogs

[Ulric, Karen]

Convention Blog comments do not require logging in - Name and web page
are optional fields.  If you do not have a Blogger account, just
choose Other if you wish to leave your name, or Anonymous if you
don't.  Comments WILL NOT show up immediately because Sherry set the
comments to "moderated" to avoid spam.  She or Heidi have to approve
comments before they show up on the blog.  I'm sure they will approve
all comments by AJL members, but they may not be able to do so
instantaneously!

It all has a learning curve, but playing with this stuff is the only
way to figure it out!

Karen Ulric
AJL Advertising Manager
SSDS of Essex and Union
1418 Pleasant Valley Way
West Orange, NJ 07052
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

[ha-Safran]: Congratulations on a great convention

[shoshanah (rose) seidman]

To all the organizers and presenters:

Thank you for a great convention.  I think everything was very good - the
sessions, the atmosphere, the food and the hotel.

To all the participants - Thank you for making AJL conventions so
informative, friendly and pleasant.  I enjoyed myself and realized HOW much
I had missed being there last year!

See you in Cleveland next year and in Chicago after that!

I wish you a fun summer!

Shoshanah Seidman

[ha-Safran]: Scottsdale- Thank you!

[Miller, Philip]

My warmest congratulations and thanks to one and all who put together
such a wonderful (and for me especially, a most memorable) convention!

For those who heard the Feinstein Lecture I presented Monday afternoon,
let me say that I had a most interesting "reference experience" with an
agent of the TSA at the Phoenix airport.

I'll be writing it up and posting it on the HUC-JIR librarians' blog as
soon as I can.

Again, thank you. You have set a high bar for conventions to come!

Phil Miller

Re: [ha-Safran]: Molly and the Sabbath Queen

[Susan Dubin]

"Molly and the Sabbath Queen" was my favorite book as a child. I recently
gave my much-loved copy to my granddaughter. That book is one of the reasons
I became a Judaic librarian.
Susan Dubin
Off-the-Shelf Library Services