RE: [ha-Safran]: Early Jewish children's books
Here in Toronto, we have a collection of old important children's books housed at one branch of thepublic library. Is there something similar somewhere in the U.S? Yes, the University of Minnesota has the Kerlan Collection. Andrea --- 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...@osu.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
RE: [ha-Safran]: Early Jewish children's books
Jewish children's books, like all children's literature, present a historical mirror of childhood. Children are indelibly molded by the tales they read and hear. These are also the stories that one day they will share with their own offspring. Jewish libraries should collect and preserve old children books. As time goes by, they as they become source material for literary and historical research. Please don't discard your old children's books. If you have no space for them, You can offer them to Jewish academic research libraries. Aviva Astrinsky YIVO --- 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...@osu.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
RE: [ha-Safran]: Early Jewish children's books
Hi, Fred-- Since you're setting up an archive with books, I thought you might appreciate a rare book librarian's perspective. Assuming that you are talking about a situation where your library purchased multiple copies of a particular title deemed to be popular, they are probably identical. Nonetheless I would check each one. I don't think you need to keep all of them, but I would look out for: 1. The copies in best condition 2. Hardcover copies in their original dust jackets 3. First editions and first printings 4. Any copies presented to the library by private owners, particularly if there is evidence of provenance of importance to your own collection (i.e. a teacher, principal, rabbi, or donor with a special connection to your library) 5. If you have evidence of variations in form of issue (i.e. different bindings, for example. This is less likely than if you were working with mostly nineteenth century pieces, but it's worth keeping an eye out none theless) Presumably the copies you retain will be used mostly for displays and class presentations and be available to researchers, rather than to be issued to general borrowers. I wish you all the best. Dan Rettberg Daniel J. Rettberg, Ph.D. Rare Book and Manuscript Bibliographer Klau Library Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion 3101 Clifton Avenue Cincinnati, OH 45220-2488 drettb...@huc.edu --- 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...@osu.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
RE: [ha-Safran]: Early Jewish children's books
Dear Fred, Nice to hear your "voice". Your e-mail got me thinking. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have one place where early Jewish children's books could be housed? That way, anyone doing research in that field could go there instead of traveling about the country for bits and pieces. Here in Toronto, we have a collection of old important children's books housed at one branch of the public library. Is there something similar somewhere in the U.S? Perhaps this could be a project of the AJL, where the collection could be housed at one of our member libraries. What do you think? Cheers, Anne Dublin --- 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...@osu.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
Re: [ha-Safran]: Early Jewish children's books
Andrea has raised an interesting question that I'm facing. My library, as some of you know, was closed for the past 6 years, for a variety of reasons. We've recently moved back into a new facility, and there's a wonderful library. The new room has much more shelf space than the former one did, but not nearly enough for everything. So what I've decided to do is to stock it with the most important books, and new items I've purchased since we went into boxes. Of the rest (and there are MANY of those), I'm creating an Archive and Research center in another part of the complex. We have a substantial amount of archival material, and I'm adding to it a signuficant number of older adult books. It occurs to me that we also have a number of important older children's books that might go into the archives, rather than sit unread on the new library's shelves. It may be appropriate to save some of our historic children's titles, as well as the adult books. Has anyone else done this with their older (pre-1960, for example) children's books? What criteria do you use? For instance, are you saving all copies of multi-copy titles, or only 1 or 2? Fred Isaac Temple Sinai Oakland, CA --- 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...@osu.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
