Visiting Libraries in Israel 2019
Six years ago,
August 2012, I visited three research libraries in Israel. On my trip this year (Dec. 31, 2018 – January
13, 2019) I wanted to visit libraries again.
I am not one who wanted to do the usual in Israel or hear from a tour
guide for two weeks. I visited the
National Library, University of Haifa, Schechter Institute and CDI
Systems. I visited the National Library
and the University of Haifa on the last visit.
I also visited museums as a professional development activity because I
make exhibits in my library and I want to see how they present materials.
In December,
many weeks before my trip I posted a message to the Hasfran discussion
group. I got several replies.
The
National Library of Israel הספרייה הלאמית
On Dec. 31 I
went to The National Library and met with Ahava Cohen and several of her
colleagues. Ahava is the head of the
Hebrew cataloging department and they also do Arabic. The National Library was
established in 1892 to collect works dealing with the intellectual heritage of
the Jewish people. In 1925 when the
Hebrew University was founded, and the campus was located on Mount Scopus, the
library severed both the University and as the national library. After 1948
when access to Mount Scopus was not allowed the Library had many homes until
the opening of the Givat Ram campus in 1960. In July 2008 the university and
national library separated into two libraries.
The Jewish National and University Library became the National Library
of Israel. The National Library’s master
plan is building a new 45,000 square meter building near the Knesset and is
scheduled for completion in 2020. The
$200 million project is being paid for by the Israeli government and private
donations.
As a national library
their mission is to collect, catalog, organize and preserve every kind of
print, digital, or non-print media related to the land and state of Israel and
most materials concerning Jews from the rest of the world. The copyright law of Israel requires deposit
of two copies of every work. One copy is
kept in the main library stacks and the other is sent for preservation to a
remote storage area.in the north. Collecting digital media is a particular
challenge. Automatic collection is done
for web pages with “il” as part of their address. Israeli companies that use “com” as a domain
are harder to keep track of. Sometimes
they need a little help.
The Library also collects e-books. Partly they depend on
publishers and authors to send copies to the Library. I have a friend who works
for an Israeli think tank, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (http://jcpa.org/).
They prepare books, smaller publications, and videos in Hebrew and English that
are only published in electronic formats.
Most of the e-documents were not in the National Library catalog. I helped get them together.
My meeting was
very productive. I learned about some of
the challenges of a National Library that don’t exist in an academic
library. The National Library is
responsible for name, subject and title authority at a level to set the example
for other libraries. This is similar to
the role of the Library of Congress.
Because they set the example and they frequently do the original
cataloging for Israeli materials, it takes them longer than other libraries to
catalog an item. While they try to
collect everything, ephemera is hard to collect. Materials such as museum catalogs, theater
programs, school publications, and guidebooks attractions are hard to collect. Since they are not usually submitted for
copyright registration the Library depends on organizations to send them
materials. They are so good with their
processing that their backlog fits in one book case. They have fewer items waiting for cataloging
than my personal collection.
As a national
library they are a member of a group of European national libraries. They have
regular audio conferences to discuss mutual issues. They wanted the Egyptian National Library to
take care of Arabic name authorities.
The Israel Library bluffed. They
said if you don’t do it, we will. The
Egyptians agreed to do the Arabic authority work and share the files with the
other libraries.
Under the rules
of AACR2 and RDA authors need a unique identity. If an author has the same name as a second
author, the cataloger differentiates them. One of the ways is to use dates of
birth and death (if deceased.) If this
information is not known from public sources or copyright application, the
library staff tries to contact the author.
Sometimes if the dates are not known, an occupation is used. Ahava told me that sometimes cousins have the
same name and occupation. Then the Library has to use the father’s name (ben
plony) as part of the name authority. I never heard of this way of
differentializing author names in American cataloging.
I also talked
to the cataloger for children’s literature about my project concerning
children’s literature during the first half of the 20th
century. In the catalog we found a
bibliography of German Jewish children’s literature[1]
that we ordered from the stacks. I retrieved the book from the Judaica studies
reading room. The furniture and reading
desks look the same today as 1970 when I was a student. I was not able to read any of the actual
German books because of time constraints and they didn’t fit my criteria of
examining America Jewish children’s literature, but it was helpful to know
books do exist. However, it seems there were more German Jewish children’s
books published than those in English.
The National Library
has a coordinated exhibit, Maimonides - There was None Like Moses, on
Rambam with the Israel Museum. The
Library has printed books written by Rambam and the printing press in this
picture. The online version is here: http://rambam.nli.org.il/en. [2]
The Israel Museum has artifacts such as a manuscript on his Mishnah Torah with
Rambam’s autograph attesting to accuracy of the copy. This is the kind of coordination that I have been just able to do in my college
library this school year. The Library and Museum can feature items that are
part of their expertise and the publicity can hit different audiences. Each
audience hears about the other institution.
In my college library I work with other departments.
In summary it
was interesting and informative visit to learn and share information with the
librarians at The National Library. They have a mission that overlaps academic
research libraries, but also has responsibilities to the library world and
nation that academic libraries don’t have.
Hopefully, on a future trip I can
see the new building and learn how the new building is affects their mission.
University of Haifa Library - אוניברסיטת חיפה
The University
of Haifa was founded in 1963 to operate under the academic supervision of the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and became an
independent institution in 1972. It is
one of eight major Israeli public universities[3].
Located on Mount Carmel the outstanding feature is a thirty-story classroom and
office tower. The first picture below is
a view looking north from six years ago. The second was taken on January 1,
2019. It would take expert photo
analysis to figure out the differences between the pictures (other than the
shadow of the tower and the clouds.)
The University has a
diverse student population including international students who study in
English, secular and religious Jews, Christian and Muslim Arabs, and Druze. In
additional to excellence in the sciences, humanities, social sciences, law,
education, medicine, they have a maritime research program. Part of their mission is to foster academic
excellence in an atmosphere of tolerance and multiculturalism.[4]
I took the
train from Jerusalem because I wanted ride the new high-speed train and I like
trains better than buses because the ride is smoother and faster. On the last visit I had to stand all the way
home because the bus was crowded. None of the young soldiers would give up a
seat for an “old man.”
I met with Yosef Bronse, Yardena Levenberg, and Sharon
Glaubach who all work cataloging and technical services. I met with Yosef on the previous visit six
years ago however the others who I met with have retired. Most of our
conversation centered on comparing how they process materials. I told them about my visit to the National
Library on the previous day. One very
impressive feature of their infrastructure is they have their own IT
department. The department solely works
with the library, not like at my college where the IT people are in another
office or building. Six years ago, I was
very impressed with the study rooms that students or faculty could book. Now my library has them and it is a marvelous
tool that encourages collaboration. I was very impressed with the main reading
room which also has the reference and circulation desks. The stacks also have
study desks and some comfortable chairs.
Here are two pictures of two different areas of the stacks.
While they said
they don’t do much in the area of exhibits, I saw some posters in the corridor
that was outside of the Library but one could look into the stacked area. One of the people in the pictures, Professor
Irun Cohen is the son of someone who was a member (who has passed away) of my
shul in Chicago. Professor Cohen is professor emeritus, an immunologist at the
Weizmann Institute of Science.
 |
| Reference desk |
The Library has
a collection of Hebrew children’s books to support the education programs. The collection is mostly contemporary works.
The library is only open three hours per day on Mondays, Tuesdays and
Thursdays. Because of my interest in
historical children’s books, we checked for woks written before 1948. They had next to none since they purposely
collect recent materials. Even though
they have more than 5000 books, it is not a collection of historical children’s
literature.
On campus is
the Hecht Museum of archeology (http://mushecht.haifa.ac.il Click here).The
The visit to the
campus and the meetings with the librarians was very useful. Most of the conversations were not on a level
that is easily summarized in an article. While I was impressed with the number
of staff and expertise they have, they did report that budgets are tight. The Library is open 8:00 am - 6:00 pm because
of budget restrictions.
Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies למדעי היהדות מכון שכטר
The Schechter
Institute (http://www.schechter.edu/ )is
a small school of about 600 students with their Jerusalem campus in the Nayot neighborhood
near the Israel Museum. They are affiliated with the Conservative Movement and
their mission is to connect Israelis with Jewish heritage while nurturing the values
of tolerance, pluralism, learning, and dialog.
Their library
has a staff of two, Shaya Fishman and Esther
Blatman, who both met with me. The collection has more than 30,000 volumes of
mostly Judaica (that is Jewish history, Bible, rabbinics, commentaries, and literature) and Hebraica spread
out over several rooms. The main stack
area is also the reading room and staff office. Decades ago this room was the
beit midrash and beit knesset for students studying in Israel from Jewish
Theological Seminary. [6]Some
of the rooms were once offices. They
have a large collection of periodical back issues that contains many treasures
not easily found in other libraries. The
library rare book room, which is in a locked room that is also the bomb shelter,
has treasures more than 200 years old. I could smell mold as soon as I entered
the room. The room needs a dehumidifier to
protect the books from mold and deterioration.
Esther and
Shaya had a list of questions for me concerning issues of cataloging and
library operations. The library catalog’s web site is:
http://infocenters.co.il/schechter/ . The library is not part of the Israel Union Catalog (ULI), which means if you will have to check their catalog directly to view the holdings.
http://infocenters.co.il/schechter/ . The library is not part of the Israel Union Catalog (ULI), which means if you will have to check their catalog directly to view the holdings.
They want to
make sure their catalog follows national standards such as Library of Congress
classification and current standards of descriptive cataloging. They also want to make the collection more relevant to the current faculty and student needs. (This is a never ending task for academic and school libraries.) I shared some
of what I learned at the National Library and much from my experience. After
many years of experience some aspects of librarianship are just automatic with me.
Some classification numbers I have memorized.
(Of course there are many that I have to look up.) I was able to help
them with several kinds of solutions to make their catalog better. I told them about some of my work with
electronic exhibits and outreach. Shaya,
a recent hire is very attuned to social media and web sites. He is a recent graduate of Bar Ilan
University and he learned a lot about use of electronic resources for library
operations, outreach, and communications. Education to be a librarian today is
much different than when I was in school or even 11 years ago when I taught
library school courses. As someone who grew up using computers, Shaya has a
different perspective on them than I do.
CDI Systems
CDI
Systems’ customers include book
publishers in many disciplines, universities, law offices, and book vendors.
They have offices in Europe and China. Recently
they launched www.peterbooks.com/en[8],
a platform for the sale of print on demand, print and digital books. The Bar-Ilan
Online Responsa project is also their product.
This project is the world’s largest collection of Torah literature and
responsa. CDI products in the Jewish domain include The Bibliography of the Hebrew
Book, Cotar, Institute of Talmudic Research, The Holocaust Responsa and
more. Judaica librarians know about these
databases, but the company behind them is less known. I learned about their business and model and
products. I gave them a few suggestions
of where they may seek new customers. Of
concern to libraries is how publishers deal with digital rights. CDI Systems solution includes also their
own Digital Rights Management proprietary technology, thus offering publishers
a solution to protect the usage of their electronic publications (intellectual
content) and limit it to authorized users only. Vendors (publishers and their agents) can sell
digital copies without concern about unauthorized distribution. For example a
library will purchase an e-book. Digital
Right Management will allow the library to lend electronic copies to authorized
users. My college library is not a potential customer
because we have no Jewish studies, but a rabbinical or Jewish scholarly organization
may be able to subscribe to the Judaica databases for their members.
Summary
I
visited places that very connected to world beyond Israel. While the National Library has national
interests as a major mission, as a national library they have connections to
libraries worldwide. Bibliographic records
created by the National Library are available via WorldCat to libraries around
the world. Decisions made concerning Hebrew cataloging affect other libraries
that catalog in Hebrew. The University
of Haifa is a model of diversity and their library reflects this in their
collection building. They are a
tri-lingual (Hebrew, Arabic and English) operation where Jews and non-Jews,
Israelis and foreigners learn. The Schechter Institute is much smaller in their
academic reach. However, since they are named after one of my academic
heroes, they have a special place in my universe.
CDI Systems as a for profit company is totally on
a different financial model than government agencies and academic institutions,
but they are dependent on them for their living. They seek excellence in ways that colleges
and universities cannot. They also can
reach out to East Asia and Europe in ways that non-profit Israeli institutions
cannot. While the news media would have
viewers and readers believe Israeli society is full of clashes, there are companies
that just want to help society and make
money in the process, universities that want to teach the next generation of
scholars and citizens, and a national library that wants to make sure human
knowledge is gathered, saved and shared. All of these places that I visited
want to spread knowledge. With knowledge
comes truth and with truth comes a better appreciation of the world around us.[9]
[1] Jüdisches Kinderleben im Spiegel jüdischer
Kinderbücher : eine Austellung der Universitätsbibliothek Oldenburg mit dem
Kindheitsmuseum Marburg / herausgegeben von Helge-Ulrike Hyams [and
others]. Oldenburg : Bibliotheks- und Informationsssystem der Universität
Oldenburg, 1998. This book is the "Catalog
for the 17th Exhibition of the University Library as part of the Oldenburg
Children and Youth Book Fair 1998 in the Stadtmuseum Oldenburg ..."
[2]
A joint web page for the exhibit.
[3]
Weizmann Institute of Science is one of the eight, but it is only a graduate
institute, not a comprehensive university.
Ariel University, founded in 1982, is the youngest institution. Israel
has 40 colleges that primarily award undergraduate degrees and 26 teacher
training colleges that primarily award
bachelors of education degrees. Four American colleges have campuses in Israel.
[4]
This multiculturalism is evidenced even in the Israeli cinema. In the 2006
film, The Syrian bride = ha-Kalah ha-Surit
written by Eran Rilkis, the sister of the title character wanted to study
social work at the University of Haifa.
She had to overcome family objections and limited Hebrew abilities to
succeed.
[5]
They close at 1 pm on Fridays but are open on Shabbat. Many museums even in
Jerusalem are open on Shabbat.
[6]
In school year 1970-71 I spent many hours studying Talmud there. However, I have no memory or pictures of what
the room looked like then.
[7]
Mobileye is owned by Intel.
[8]
The Peter Books site is in Spanish and English and is based in Spain.
[9]
A draft of this document was offered to the organizations that I visited. I made changes based on the comments received. It was also reviewed by the dean of my college, who oversees the library.
Last revised Feb 14, 2019.
Last revised Feb 14, 2019.
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