ABOUT
the Jewish Studies Library Collections

GENERAL DESCRIPTION AND GUIDELINES

The Jewish Studies Librarian is responsible for selection, acquisition, and processing of all materials from Israel in all languages. He is responsible for the selection of all materials about Jewish Studies in Western languages and shares selection responsibility for materials in Slavic languages.

We collect both trade and scholarly materials, including books, serials, government documents, audiovisual items, etc. The holdings of the libraries in the area of Jewish Studies are well over 125,000 titles. Selection of material to be acquired is based on the following criteria:

1. Subject
   

   We collect in virtually all areas relevant to Israel and Jewish Studies, with the exception of modern Law (although the Law Library does have some), Science and Technology, Medicine, and finally children's books, cook books, and textbooks. There is a strong emphasis on collecting in the fields of History, Religion (with exception that we do not collect most Rabbinical works), Language and Literature, and the Social Sciences. A special interest of ours has been Israeli-Arab relations, and we have an extensive collection in Arabic, English and Hebrew on this topic. Finally Reference works and Biblographies are collected extensively.

2. Languages
   

   By far the largest of the non-English collections in Jewish Studies is Hebrew, followed by Yiddish, with some books in other Jewish languages such as Ladino. For books in vernacular languages, we collect only those with some relevance to Israel, Jews (anywhere in the world), Judaism, etc. For example, we would not acquire a book in Hebrew on Greek philosophy. We try to be as comprehensive as possible in collecting English language books dealing with Jewish Studies. While we collect extensively in other Western languages, they normally have to be relevant to the subject, e.g. most of the collection's books in German deal with Jews in Germany. There is also an important component dealing with Jews in the former Soviet Union and throughout Eastern Europe, including many works in most of the languages of the region (e.g. those housed in the Former Soviet Nationalities Collection).

3. Geographic Area
   

   The geographic area covered consists of Israel and the full reach of the Diaspora.

4. Historical Period
   

   While we collect Jewish Studies materials from earliest antiquity, the emphasis of our collection is on the modern period. We make every effort to keep up with current publications and to acquire every new book of scholarly merit in this field.

5. General Considerations
   

   -Largely due to the lack of bibliographic control of the area, we rely heavily on Blanket (or Approval) orders to cover publications from the region. We have a blanket order for all scholarly works published in Israel, with a separate blanket order for Yiddish books. We also acquire Arabic books published in Israel and the West Bank through the Library of Congress Affice in Cairo. In addition Jewish Studies are part of the profiles for all of our Approval Plans for monographs published in the United States book, UK, Europe, Russia, etc.

   -As a general rule vernacular materials are never duplicated. Western language materials and especially those in English may have added copies or copies in more than one library according to perceived need. When new editions appear, they are purchased if they are not in CLIO (the Columbia Online Catlog) or if they substantially enlarge, update or improve the previous editions. The same is true for reprints of earlier editions.

   -Periodicals and newspapers are collected selectively. Periodicals are cataloged for the appropriate library and bound volumes are in the stacks. Newspapers from Israel (e.g. Ha-Aretz) are housed in Lehman Library and in the electronic journals section of the Jewish Studies Web (e.g. Jerusalam Post). Microfilms of newspapers are cataloged.

   -Columbia has several cooperative agreements with other institutions. The main one is with New York University. Students and faculty of either institution have access to the other's libraries. In a like manner, we have a close cooperative relationship with the Jewish Theolgoical Seminary and our students can use their library. Finally everyone in New York City has access to the vast resources of the Jewish Division of the New York Public Library.

   -Columbia is also a member of the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago. While not as strong in Jewish Studies materials as in other areas, the Center does have many expensive sets and long runs of newspapers on microfilm. These can be borrowed on Interlibrary Loan and provide a great supplement to our own holdings in these areas.

   -Gifts are welcomed as long as the donor realizes that the Libraries may or may not add all the material to its collections. The final decision rests with the Jewish Studies Librarian. Materials not added to the collections are used for exchange, sold to students and faculty, etc.

   -Suggestions for additions to the collection are always welcome from students and faculty. If it is a book that is recommended, and it is still available, every effort will be made to acquire it. If it is a periodical or newspaper that is being recommended, a decision is made in consultation with the library that will house it, as they must pay for the subscription, mailing, and binding costs as an ongoing commitment.