Yasher Koach, Zachary, you are so deserving of this award. Many thanks to the committee for picking such a worthy recipient. I am in awe of your resume!
Kathy B. On Mon, Apr 6, 2020 at 3:39 PM Zachary M Baker via Hasafran < [email protected]> wrote: > Dear Colleagues, > > I had hoped to join you at this year’s AJL Conference in Evanston, which > for understandable reasons has been canceled along with so many other > activities and functions. With Passover imminently upon us, here we all > are, sheltering in place, hoping that this frightful pandemic will soon > pass. > > When Elliot Gertel called to inform me that I am the recipient of the > Fanny Goldstein Merit Award, I was deeply touched — and I am very grateful > to AJL and to the committee members for the recognition. In a subsequent > e-mail exchange, Elliot asked me to send him a few paragraphs that might > summarize my career highlights, for inclusion in the conference program > book. In the end, I sent him a couple of versions: one long and one short. > > Presumptuously and with apologies, I am sharing the long version of my > career summary. Please feel free to jump to the next e-mail in your in-box! > > My first paid library job was during the year following my college > graduation (1972), when I worked as a clerk in the reference department of > the Hennepin County Library, which then served suburban Minneapolis (now > HCL covers both the city and its suburbs). HCL in those days was one of the > most innovative public library systems in the U.S. Its visionary adirector, > Robert Rohlf, hired Maurice (Mitch) Freedman as head of Technical Services; > Mitch, in turn, brought in Sanford (Sandy) Berman as the library’s Head > Cataloger, after Sandy and his family were ejected from Idi Amin’s Uganda > in 1972. One of the librarians with whom I worked in County Reference was > Rosalind (Roz) Reisner, who is now an active member of AJL. > > I put in a second stint at HCL, working my way through library school at > the University of Minnesota (1974-75). As I neared the end of my studies I > wondered what I might do next. A few months before graduation I received a > brochure from the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, announcing course > offerings for its academic unit, the Max Weinreich Center for Advanced > Jewish Studies. One listing particularly caught my eye: Internship in > Judaica Librarianship, co-taught by Dina Abramowicz and Bella Hass > Weinberg. I showed the brochure to Sandy Berman, who encouraged me to > enroll in the internship program — and to inquire about job prospects at > YIVO for an entry-level librarian. In January 1976 I began the internship > and the following June was hired as assistant librarian, to catalog Yiddish > books in the YIVO Library’s Vilna collection. > > It was during my first stint at YIVO (1976-1981) that the genealogical > craze, spurred by the TV series “Roots,” really took off. In that > pre-internet era, with access to Soviet and East European archives still > largely cut off, specialized institutions such as YIVO were important for > family history research. Dina Abramowicz asked me to attend a meeting of > the nascent Jewish Genealogical Society in late 1977 and when I reported > back to her the following morning, she duly delegated the responsibility > for genealogical reference service to me. I began to write for *Toledot: > the Journal of Jewish Genealogy*, whose editors, Arthur Kurzweil and > Steven W. Siegel, encouraged me to update David Bass's bibliography of > Eastern European Jewish memorial books (*yizker-bikher*), which had been > published in *Yad Vashem Studies*. I followed suit, and that bibliography > went through several iterations —including its being included in the two > editions of the anthology *From a Ruined Garden*, edited by Jack > Kugelmass and Jonathan Boyarin (1983 and 1998). > > It was while I was working at the Jewish Public Library in Montreal > (1981-1987) that our Association’s flagship journal, *Judaica > Librarianship*, was launched. Bella Hass Weinberg (founding co-editor, > with Marcia Posner) solicited my participation as the journal’s “Responsa” > columnist. Thus began my longstanding connection with the journal, as > Contributing Editor, Style Editor, and (eventually) Editor-in-Chief. > > Not long after I returned to YIVO in 1987 as Head Librarian, Bella and I > began to edit the *Yiddish Catalog and Authority File of the YIVO Library*, > which was published by G. K. Hall, in 5 volumes, in 1990. We anticipated > that the eventual retrospective conversion of the Library’s catalog would > not entirely supersede this facsimile of the Library’s Yiddish card > catalog. Of my other publications during that period I take special pride > in “The Case of the Soviet Sholem Aleichem: A Bibliographic Detective > Story,” which was published in *The Book Peddler* (as the Yiddish Book > Center’s magazine was then called) and subsequently, in expanded form, in > the *YIVO Annual*, where it bore the title "Sholem Aleichem's 80th > Birthday Observances and the Cultural Mobilization of Soviet Jewry: A Case > Study.” I am also proud of the collaborative work that the YIVO Library and > the Yiddish Book Center did together during those years. > > Perhaps the most important example of that collaboration was the > fact-finding trip that Neil Zagorin, on behalf of the Yiddish Book Center, > and I made to Buenos Aires in November 1994, in the wake of the terrorist > bombing of the AMIA Jewish community building. The New York YIVO’s sister > organization, Fundación IWO, had its headquarters in the AMIA building, and > much of its library and archival collections were damaged or destroyed as a > result of the bombing. Being guided through the ruins firsthand was one of > the most powerfully moving experiences I have ever had. > > My time as YIVO’s Head Librarian coincided with my most active involvement > in the Association of Jewish Libraries, when I served on its Council and > Board in several capacities, including as AJL’s President (1994-1996). > Subsequently, I served as President of AJL’s sister organization, the > Council of Archives and Research Libraries in Jewish Studies - CARLJS > (1998-2002), whose annual meetings took place at AJL’s conferences. > > And it was during those same years that I traveled to Kiev as part of a > YIVO delegation (early 1992), to visit the Vernadsky Library just at the > moment that its incredible collections of Judaica were being opened. In > early 1997 I was part of a survey team commissioned by the Foundation for > Jewish Culture to document the National Library of Lithuania’s Judaica > holdings, in Vilnius, and explore possible avenues of cooperation with that > library. The other members of the team were Herbert Zafren and Pearl Berger. > > Although I have always considered myself a “research librarian,” in was > only during the later phase of my career that I worked in a university > setting, namely, Stanford. I soon came to appreciate just what a privilege > it is to be a subject specialist in a great university library. At > Stanford, I was able to work on several notable acquisitions, including the > Ira Nowinski photograph archive, the Samson-Copenhagen Judaica Collection, > the Eliasaf Robinson Collection on Tel-Aviv, and born-digital portions of > Amos Gitai’s film archive. > > While at Stanford, I edited two book-length publications, *Judaica in the > Slavic Realm, Slavica in the Judaic Realm: Repositories, Collections, > Projects, Publications* (Haworth Information Press, 2003), and *Ira > Nowinski: The Photographer As Witness *(Stanford University Libraries, > 2004), and — somewhat belatedly — produced The Lawrence Marwick > Collection of Copyrighted Yiddish Plays: An Annotated Bibliography > <https://www.loc.gov/rr/amed/marwick/marwickbibliography.pdf> (Library of > Congress, 2004). My collaboration with the Yiddish Book Center continued as > well, in connection with its *1000 Essential Yiddish Books > <https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/digital-yiddish-library/1000-essential-yiddish-books> > *website > (2006). These last two publications, like my “Resources in Yiddish Studies” > research guide (In geveb <https://ingeveb.org/>, 2017), were online-only. > > > I think that it was a combination of just showing up every year (and > occasionally giving a paper or chairing a panel) and also being affiliated > with Stanford University, that led to my serving on the Board of Directors > of the Association for Jewish Studies for ten years (2007-2017), including > four years on its Executive Board, as Secretary-Treasurer (2013-2017). I > feel that my serving on the AJS Board represented recognition by the > field's leading learned society, of the value that librarians and > archivists contribute to Jewish Studies scholarship. > > > From 2010 to 2017 I was privileged to serve as Stanford’s Assistant > University Librarian for Collection Development (Humanities and Social > Sciences). For me, the pain of having to submit and defend annual budget > proposals was more than outbalanced by the opportunity to work with and > learn from an incredible team of subject librarians, whose passion and > devotion to their areas of specialization was every bit as intense as mine > was (and remains), to the Jewish Studies field. > > > Since retiring in early 2018, I have pursued a multi-pronged — and very > enjoyable — research project in an area of particular interest: the history > of the Yiddish theater in South America, especially Argentina. You can find > some of my “findings” on the Digital Yiddish Theatre Project > <https://web.uwm.edu/yiddish-stage/>’s website. > > > חג שמח — Happy Passover! > Zachary > > Zachary M. Baker > [email protected] > [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 > -- Kathleen M. Bloomfield Vice President/President-Elect Association of Jewish Libraries: The Leading Authority on Judaic Librarianship https://jewishlibraries.org/ Founder *forwords*books: kids books that matter. Find me on Instagram at *therealkathybloomfield* "The fact of knowing how to read is nothing, the whole point is knowing what to read." - Jacques Ellul
__ 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
