Dear Ellen, Your question was forwarded to me by Alba Toscano, a member of the USCJ Prez-list and a fellow librarian in the Association of Jewish Libraries, of which I am the Past President. I'd like to share my thoughts with you on synagogue libraries.
First, I commend you for maintaining a library in your shul! It has surely been a valuable resource to your members for many years. However, you've noticed that as the availability of books by mail order or digital download has increased, library borrowing has, unsurprisingly, gone down. In this day and age, large general collections are less needed by our communities. Your best bet is to create a more tightly focused collection for your library. Think about the needs of your particular community. If you have lots of families, maybe you want to focus on children's literature or parenting books. If you have a strong education department, you might focus on scholarly works or history. A "Jewish pride" library could collect biographies, New Jersey Jewish history, best sellers by Jewish authors, or perhaps books on Israel. You could have a Jewish holiday library, a Jewish spirituality library, a Jewish self-help library, a Jewish music or film library. There are many possibilities, it really just depends on what would be of interest to your shul. And of course, once a specialized collected is created, you'd want to market the library with programs aligned with that focus. If you don't currently have a librarian, you might want to hire one to help you transition and refocus your library, and to promote it once that's been accomplished. If that is not possible, you might consider hiring a librarian as a temporary consultant to assist with this transition. Librarians are trained in the painful task of "weeding" unwanted books, and have skill in economically developing new collections. If you do decide to retain a librarian, ask them to become a member of the Association of Jewish Libraries, a professional network that provides support and education for librarians working with Judaic collections. Thanks for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you. I hope you find these ideas helpful! Best, Heidi Rabinowitz Estrin Past President, Association of Jewish Libraries Library Director, Feldman Children's Library, Congregation B'nai Israel of Boca Raton, FL he...@cbiboca.org<mailto:he...@cbiboca.org> ELLEN Wertheim of Fair Lawn Jewish Center ( 380 member units) wrote: We have always had and maintained a large library space in our building. In recent years, many fewer people have taken advantage of our library but we continue to keep it open on a limited basis. However, due to a rental opportunity that will generate a considerable amount of income, we are being forced to move the library out of the space it is currently in. Here are some questions that will help guide us: * Does your shul currently have a library? If it did, but doesn't now, why? * Has your shul reduced or eliminated a library? If so, how was it handled? Our intent is to try to find a different space to house a more modest library but we don't really know how to downsize it. Any help or suggestions are appreciated. Thank you! Ellen Wertheim- Synagogue President ellen...@hotmail.com<mailto:ellen...@hotmail.com> Fair lawn, NJ 07410
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