Bravo, Dina! Proud to be a member of AJL. Cheryl Banks
On Wed, Jan 22, 2020, 8:19 PM Dina Herbert via Hasafran < [email protected]> wrote: > The Association of Jewish Libraries is dismayed by the decision of the > YIVO Institute for Jewish Research to fire its librarians. > > The difficulty of funding is one that we feel deeply within the world of > libraries and archives, with few funders and many institutions applying for > the same funding. We would caution, however, that replacing expert > librarians with non-librarians also has results that could impact an > institution in the long run. There are the obvious concerns of divvying up > the jobs of four employees among employees that already have full-time > responsibilities. More than that, though, subject librarians are trained in > the nuances of a particular area of research. The YIVO librarians had an > expertise in Yiddish bibliography that, like YIVO’s Yiddish book > collection, is unsurpassed, and the loss of their curatorial expertise is a > loss for all YIVO users and for the collection. > > Librarians often have connections to colleagues in their area at other > institutions, and can connect researchers with relevant resources around > the world. This was made exceptionally clear through the joint partnership > of the YIVO librarians with the National Library of Lithuania to integrate > discovery for books in both collections. We certainly hope that the > decision to terminate their librarians was a temporary move on YIVO’s part, > and we look forward to hearing about how this august institution will > maintain its reputation and unique library collections in the coming weeks > and months. YIVO's decision to remove all Library staff is also a decision > to remove themselves from the larger active Judaica library community. As > the many responses from across the world have already shown in just a few > days, we already see the loss to the entire Judaica library and scholarly > communities. > > *As the leading authority on Judaic Librarianship, AJL stands with the > community in encouraging YIVO to reinstate the librarians to continue their > critical work.* > > Read the statement here <https://jewishlibraries.org/blog/id/432> and > please share widely. > > Dina > > Dina Herbert > President, Association of Jewish Libraries: The Leading Authority on > Judaic Librarianship > https://jewishlibraries.org/ > > -- > Dina Herbert > [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: > [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 >
__ 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
