Fellow Safranim: I used to work at a temple library in Los Angeles that was converted to a day school library and all the adult books were basically thrown into a "reading room" which was left open to everyone for various meetings, etc, and that was the end of the adult use of the library.
But now I work at Sinai Temple, which is unequalled in its support of libraries and librarians. This is due to three factors: my predecessor's accomplishments (Rita Frischer), support from our board of directors, and our senior rabbi, Rabbi David Wolpe, known as Los Angeles' most literary rabbi, who probably would have enjoyed being a literary critic had his path not led him to where he is today. I have been here 7 years and I am considered a member of the senior staff, a department head ( I supervise 5 employees: the Judaic librarian, the library office manager, the school librarian and her assistant, and one more library assistant), and in charge of a variety of classes and programs dealing with Jewish literature. We also have received support in hosting the yearly Jewish Children's Literature conference now for 4 years, where we bring in speakers and authorize class credit from the BJE. The board of directors here enables me to attend various important conferences yearly, run a "Library Committee" , and also have a full expectation that all our professional staff should be able to attend the AJL conferences yearly. I suppose some can suggest that this kind of support can be expected from a "rich" temple in Beverly Hills, but I don't believe that is the case, as there are a number of wealthy temples in my area and I know all the librarians--if they even have one. So the reason I am writing this is to show that not all is so dismal and there are some out there who really support us, and in turn, we are quite grateful. Lisa Lisa Silverman Library Director Sinai Temple Blumenthal Library 10400 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90024 310-481-3215 [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
