I've been watching the conversation with interest, especially since I've
been Poshi's mentor for the past 8 years. I want to weigh in with a few
additional comments.
1. The patron has apparently argued that LC is best because he knows
it. This is a personal comment, and should not be the deciding vote in
decision-making.
2. The patron has also said that the synagogue library should use LC
because the Jewish Community Library in San Francisco uses it. The JCL has
approximately 20,000 titles (as former director I can vouch for this); the
synagogue probably will never approach that number. Just on size,
therefore, the situation is vastly different.
LC makes sense, in my mind, for libraries that have significant
research capacity and the intent to use it. Synagogue libraries, many of
which have only a few books in many disciplines (Art, music, sciences -- LC
classes M, N, Q, R, T) should focus on the Judaica world.
3. In one of her other lives, Poshi is synagogue librarian at Bnai Israel
in Sacramento. During all of the discussion of the re-creation of that
library after the bombing, I know of no serious consideration that, because
they received 20,000 or so donated books, they should move from Elazar to
LC. While I don't have any statistics, I do know that the new library has
a wide array of titles on all topics (Poshi and I discussed hundreds of
them as she went through the boxes.) Bnai Israel seeks to become the
"central" library for the Sacramento region, which includes Davis. If they
are using Elazar, I would not recommend that the smaller synagogue library
use LC.
I do understand Donnie Stuhlman's position, and I respect him (as I do all
of the other contributors to the thread). But on this one I think
practicality is more important than purity, especially for a small
synagogue collection.
Fred Isaac
Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author
and are not necessarily endorsed by the AJL
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