Dear SSC librarians and library staff. I read with mixed feelings the discussion that followed requests from a library committee member and a library staff person (that does not hold an ILS degree) for book suggestion for their synagogue libraries. It renewed the discussion that is often posted on Hasafran. One camp feels an experts librarian is a must in every library. The other camp feels, as Joyce Levine pointed out, that “this is not always feasible for reasons that may be not known to us”. As AJL VP I agree with the second camp. A part of AJL mission is to provide a community for peer support and professional development. I don’t dismiss the first camp “lead” by Daniel Stuhlman and the others that supported his opinion. We do our best to promote the profession.We send representatives to the conferences of the USCJ and the URJ to create awareness of the value of the library, the librarian and AJL, but we cannot impose on the synagogue’s and center’s leadership to hire an expert librarian. At the moment, in line with our mission, I would like to renew the mentoring committee. Rita Dahlke’s email should inspire you to volunteer to be a mentor. She sees the advice of AJL librarians as a “ true spirit of Chesed “. If you wish to be a mentor please email me your name, email address, phone number and type of your library. You don’t have to have a MLS degree to volunteer. Help us in keeping AJL a safe place for each Judaic library employee who seeks help and guidance. Please feel free to contact me with any suggestion or concern, Amalia Warshenbrot Vice President, Association of Jewish Libraries Phone: (704) 365-3313
__ 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.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran
