Dear colleagues, I wonder if any of you could help me respond to this Harvard Law School graduate who's co-authoring a paper that touches on the cataloging and classification of Holocuast denial literature.
He asks three broad questions (below) about documenting the movement to change subject access for these kinds of works. I checked the cumulative index to Judaica Librarianship, and was surprised not to find anything published on the topic after 1987. Let me know if you have any thoughts. Thanks. Daniel Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:37:25 -0500 To: "Jonathan Burton-Macleod" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: Daniel Lovins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: inquiry for HDL paper Dear Mr. Burton-Macleod, You ask an interesting set of questions. Unfortunately, I wasn't yet involved in AJL in 1996, and I don't know whether there was a debate among my colleagues at the time. It's hard to imagine that there wasn't. I checked the index to "Judaica Librarianship" which is AJL's peer reviewed journal. In volume 2 (1985), p. 49, there's an article called "Towards Improved Subject Analysis on the Holocaust in the Synagogue and School Library" by Marcia W. Posner. In volume 3 (1986-1987), p. 5, there's an article on "Classification of Holocaust Denial Literature by the Library of Congress" by Morton Weinfeld. Surprisingly, I didn't find any articles on this topic in later journal issues. The WEINE classification scheme, as far as I know, is used only by school and synagogue libraries, so I don't know too much about it. you might want to approach the other division of AJL, namely the "School, Synagogue, and Center" (SSC) division": http://www.jewishlibraries.org/ajlweb/about/ssc.htm In any event, I'm going to ask my colleagues on the Hasafran discussion list, and I'll let you know what I find out. I'm not sure I'm the best person to do it (given my unfamiliarity with the Holocaust denial classification debate and the Weine classification system) but I'm happy to review your draft if you'd like. Sincerely, Daniel At 10:16 AM 1/17/2008, you wrote: Dear Mr. Lovins, As head of the RAS Cataloguing Committee for AJL, I wanted to contact you regarding a few points of research. I'm a recent harvard law school grad writing a paper in collaboration with Prof Martha Minow (also of HLS) on the legal and policy aspects of Holocaust denial literature in U.S. public libraries. Seeking a perspective into the library policy side of things, I've been in contact with staff at LOC CPSO as well as Mr. Mark Ziomek of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Library. In fact, it was Mr. Ziomek who suggested I contact you. I've outlined three somewhat broad inquiries below. To the extent that your schedule allows, I would greatly appreciate your perspective and/or sources towards which you might direct me. Thank you! i) In 1996 CPSO adopted new LCSH, creating a classificaiton for HDL, and one for criticisms thereof. The proposal came initially from the USHMML. To what extent (and are there any sources I can quote) was there a debate and/or push for classification of HDL within the AJL? ii) Implementation of the subject headings seems to be, as Mr. Ziomek put it, 'a generational endeavor'. I noticed on the AJL webpage that your committee is responsible for advertising cataloguing changes in AJL publications, as well as at AJL events. Do you have a sense, or can you point me to any sources analyzing the implementation of LCSH changes covering HDL? More generally, have there been any debates within the Jewish Library community regarding the ultimate effectiveness of the LCSH changes? iii) I understand that the WEINE classification scheme for Jewish libraries distinguishes HDL literature. How long has this scheme been adopted? Thank you so much for your assistance. Further, if you would consider it, I would love to submit a draft of the paper to you for your edits and perspectives. That would likely be early next week. Thank you! Jonathan Burton-MacLeod Daniel Lovins Hebraica Team Leader Catalog & Metadata Services Sterling Memorial Library Yale University PO Box 208240 New Haven, CT 06520 [EMAIL PROTECTED] tel: 203/432-1707 fax: 203/432-7231 Daniel Lovins Hebraica Team Leader Catalog & Metadata Services Sterling Memorial Library Yale University PO Box 208240 New Haven, CT 06520 [EMAIL PROTECTED] tel: 203/432-1707 fax: 203/432-7231 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
