Dear all, I am hoping that I could get some feedback on this query. The University of Maryland has recently established a new rubric of a professional degree programs, which could be either MA or a Certificate in areas that commercially can sustain such programs. For more information please see http://www.professionalstudies.umd.edu/graduateprograms/.
We in the Jewish Studies program at UM are interested in creating a professional certificate in Judaica Librarianship, knowing how hard it is to find Judaica librarians of all kinds of sorts. Last summer we discussed a certificate that looked like the following. 1. Judaica Technical Services (6 credits) 2. Introduction to Judaica Bibliography (3 credits) 3. Internship or special project (for job-holders) (3 credits). Here are our questions: = is there an interest in the professional certificate in Judaica Librarianship as we are defining it? = Should MLS be required as a prerequisite for such a program? The question here is who this program is more likely to serve: those of us who ended up at academic institutions or those of us who went to temple libraries, for example. = Should reading knowledge of Hebrew or Yiddish be required before admission? = Would it make more sense to have this program in classroom or online? Even if we do it as a residence program, we are thinking that the first two courses could be done within 3 or 4 weeks of all day classes, and Internship could be flexible in terms of locations. So we think one will be able to finish this certificate in a relatively short time. The professional degree programs are very flexible in terms of how they allow courses to run. I should also mention that at the University of Maryland we do have a Library School and one can earn an MLS degree with a non-degree graduate certificate in Jewish Studies. This means that a person will have to complete a usual MLS degree but can take a concentration in Jewish Studies (history, literature, philosophy, ect.) on a side. For more information on this please see http://www.clis.umd.edu/programs/non-degree.shtml. However our library school at this time is not interested in creating a specific degree in Judaica librarianship. Many thanks for your help. If you reply to this message (and I hope you do), could you please identify what kind of organization you are working now. This might help us in a number of ways. -- Yelena Luckert Librarian for History, Jewish, Slavic and Women's Studies University of Maryland Libraries College Park, MD 20742 Phone: 301-405-9365 Fax: 301-314-2795 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.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
