Daniel, I don't understand the strenuous objections of you and your esteemed colleagues. The cash-strapped Rabbi, on the advice of his very smart mother, is asking our professional organization for help in finding an intern. "Intern: a student or trainee who works, sometimes without pay, at a trade or occupation in order to gain work experience." (Google) What is wrong with a library student from Rutgers or other school in the area getting some practical experience, in consultation with trained faculty, while helping this library? The Rabbi is correct in stating that many library schools require internships. I agree with you that interns or volunteers should not replace paid workers, but in this case there is no paid position. Bensalem Kollel simply wants to get its libary in order. Good for them for not getting rid of the books and turning the room into something else! Anna Levia From: "Daniel Stuhlman" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, September 2, 2014 5:00:34 PM Subject: Re: [ha-Safran] Library intern
I discussed this with my fellow librarians here at the college. What I have to say may sound mean, but we have to stand up for our profession. We put in a lot of time training to be librarians and trying to keep up with the latest developments. Cataloging is as complex as all the books published. While most contemporary commercially published books have cataloging from Library of Congress or another vendor, many Judaica books need special attention. Without a proper catalog, a circulation system will not work. Without a classification system no one will find a particular book on the shelf. Librarians are professionals. I would not expect my car, my plumbing, my electricity, my roof, or my teeth to be fixed for free or by a volunteer intern. I would not want a medical student treating me without supervision. Students and interns are learning how to be professionals. They work under the careful supervision of seasoned professionals. They have to learn "first do no harm." Don't demean our profession. Don't condone using volunteers for professional work. It is hard enough to get people to understand that libraries don't get created and don't operate by magic. This "rabbi" is essentially asking someone to steal from one of us. Please do not become a party to his theft. Stand up for our expertise. Let everyone know we desire to be rewarded for our knowledge. There is a story -- A person called for a plumber to fix his noisy pipes. The plumber arrived looked around for a few moments, asked a few questions, then took his hammer and hit a pipe. He announced that he was done and prepared a bill for the homeowner. The homeowner was thankful for the job, but didn't understand why a 2 minute visit cost $150. The plumber changed the bill to: $5.00 for the hammer stroke; $145 to know where to hit the pipe. Thank you for your attention. <blockquote> Subject: Library intern Reply-To: < [email protected] > <blockquote> Bensalem Kollel, Synagogue, and Outreach Center 2446 Bristol Road Bensalem, P.A. 19020 Phone (215) 752-5032 • Fax (215)752-2340 www.bensalemoutreach.org [email protected] ____________________________________________________________________________________________ August 29, 2014 To whom it may concern, My name is Moshe Travitsky, I have a small Congregation in Bensalem, Pa. We have over the last several years built a Synagogue, established a full time kollel where Talmudic law is studied, and have an active outreach program where many people are connected to their Jewish tradition. Starting from scratch, we have built up a library of a few thousand (English) books. Things were totally out of hand as far as having books borrowed and returned, with no good record of what was out. One lady in the community tried to make a system with cards that were in each book,… but it really did not work. This summer my mother put bar codes on most of our books. She lives in NY, but came here to volunteer for a while. At this point we are at an impasse as we try to get our library functioning again. The bar coding is still not finished for the hundreds of new books that were never entered, nor with old books as they come back. We also have not yet set up a system to actually start using the scanner that we have here. In addition my mother has told me that I must have a librarian come in once a week to simply keep the library in order. Of course, paying a librarian is something that I simply don't have funds for. I've been trying to get a local person to volunteer, but haven't succeeded yet. I know that in many fields schools encourage their students to spend some time interning, as that gives them experience. Someone suggested that I contact you, if you might be aware of or possibly be able to help me find an intern and at the same time help us get our library together? Thanks for your time and consideration. Sincerely, Rabbi Moshe Travitsky [email protected] 267-228-8774 </blockquote> </blockquote> Daniel D. Stuhlman ddstuhlman at earthlink.net Chicago, IL Blog: http://kol-safran.blogspot.com/ __ 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: [email protected] To join Ha-Safran, update or change your subscription, etc. - click here: https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran Questions, problems, complaints, compliments send to: [email protected] Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.service.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html Earlier Listserver: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org -- Hasafran mailing list [email protected] https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran -- Anna M. Levia Assistant Curator, Judaica & Hebraica Collections Interim Bibliographer, Linguistics Green Library 321, Stanford University Tel: 650-736-1306 Fax: 650-725-1068
__ 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: [email protected] To join Ha-Safran, update or change your subscription, etc. - click here: https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran Questions, problems, complaints, compliments send to: [email protected] Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.service.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html Earlier Listserver: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org -- Hasafran mailing list [email protected] https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran
