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Price Library of Judaica

Price Library of Judaica
Library Price Library of Judaica

Price Library of Judaica 

Charting the Course:

The University of Florida's Collection Management Policy for Jewish Studies
Robert Singerman

Introduction

The field of Jewish studies has as its focal point the Jewish experience, defined broadly here to encompass the history, religion, and literature of the Jewish people in all epochs and in all of the world's geographic areas. Although the Jewish homeland of Israel is central to Jewish theology and the modern Jewish experience, the Jewish diaspora has tremendous antiquity, with Jews typically enriching the culture of every country in which they have been afforded a modicum of religious toleration and civil liberty. The convergence of Western civilization and Jewish culture is of long duration and is so pervasive and intertwined that Jewish studies and Hebrew, even at the introductory level, have a secure place in the academic programs of over 300 universities and colleges in the United States.

The policy statement given here attempts to outline the broad realm of Jewish Studies and the reciprocal responsibility of the faculty affiliated with the Center for Jewish Studies program and the corps of bibliographers and selectors attached to the University of Florida libraries to enhance the collections through the timely identification, acquisition, and logical placement of supporting library materials.

Center for Jewish Studies

Although Judaica in Western languages was collected sporadically by the University of Florida Libraries as undergraduate and research collections were built in support of academic programs in religion, history, the arts, and literature, the impetus for a research-level collection containing Hebraica as well as Judaica was recognized only in 1973 with the formation of the Center for Jewish Studies. The Center has grown to eight core FTE (full-time equivalent) faculty drawn from the academic departments of History, Religion, Asian and African Languages and Literatures, and English. In addition to coordinating course offerings, the Center sponsors public lectures throughout the academic year and issues, in conjunction with the Price Library of Judaica, an annual newsletter, Amudim, mailed to some 5,000 potential friends and supporters. Dr. Kenneth Wald (Political Science Dept.) is currently the Center’s chairperson.

Program Description

A B.A. in Jewish Studies was approved by the Board of Regents in July, 1989. At the present time, approximately 850 students are registered in Jewish Studies courses each year; included in this number are generally around twenty majors and a smaller number of minors.

The Price Library of Judaica

The University of Florida Libraries' core holding supporting Jewish Studies are housed at the Price Library of Judaica, named for Isser and Rae Price of Jacksonville in recognition of an endowment created in 1977 in their honor by their sons, Jack and Sam, both UF alumni. The "3M" foundation collections (Mishkin, Marenoff, Morgenstern) were acquired between 1977 and 1979; to these have been added thousands of new and retrospective titles so that the Price Library, with over 75,000 volumes, is the largest collection of Judaica and Hebraica in the southeastern United States. For the most part a fully cataloged and circulating collection of twentieth-century monographs, these holdings are supplemented by over 450 current periodical subscriptions and an equal number of increasingly scarce serials that are no longer current. At least half of the collection consists of books and scarce pamphlets in Hebrew and Yiddish, while microforms of manuscripts and newspapers continue to be acquired as resources permit. Generally speaking, the Price Library is responsible for the humanities and social sciences as they relate to the Jewish experience or to Israel.

Other Local Library Resources in Judaica

Some Judaica in Western languages remains in the Libraries' Humanities and Social Science ("Main") collection and has never been transferred to Price. In addition, scattered materials related to Jewish art, music, and Israeli law may be found in the Architecture and Fine Arts (AFA) Library, the Music Library and the Legal Information Center, respectively. Maps of Israel, including a fine antiquarian Holy Land maps collection, can be found in the Map and Imagery Library. Rare Judaica and Hebraica, as well as antisemitica formerly held by the Price Library of Judaica, are now organized for use in the Rare Book Collection, Dept. of Special and Area Studies Collections.

Primary Collecting Responsibilities

With few exceptions, the Price Library of Judaica's acquisitions program concentrates on 20th-century materials (monographs, pamphlets, periodicals), as well as microforms, in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, and the major European research languages in the following major divisions of Jewish Studies:

  1. Judaism, broadly interpreted to include Jewish theology, rabbinical literature, Jewish classical texts and commentaries, liturgy and customs, religious law, mysticism, movements and sects, relations with other religions, homiletics, philosophy and ethics, rabbinic biography, and synagogue history.
  2. Jewish history, a far-encompassing field spanning 4,000 years of Jewish life in Palestine, modern Israel, and all countries of the Diaspora, with emphasis on the major population centers of Western and Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, North America, and Latin America. Sefardica, Palestinography, community history and demography, antisemitism, Zionism, Jewish-Arab relations, and the Holocaust (e.g., community memorial books) are but a few collecting highlights and strengths.
  3. Israel, with emphasis on the pre-State period synonymous with Turkish rule and the British Mandate, and more selectively (yet broadly) for the modern State of Israel in its social, and cultural aspects. English-language materials are preferred for more general treatments of Israel for use by undergraduates, while works in Hebrew are selectively chosen for specialized yet non-technical treatments of Israeli life seldom covered by English-language materials. Literature on the Palestinian Arabs in Israel and the Occupied Territories (Gaza, West Bank) may be found in both the Price Library and the "Main" collections.
    Very few works in Hebrew or other foreign languages relating to Israel science, industry, banking and economics, agriculture, technology, civil and criminal law, medicine, military, etc. are acquired by the Price Library; by and large, only introductory or survey treatments of these subjects in English intended for non-practitioners will be considered for acquisition, and then only selectively. Statistical series and government documents, including those issued by municipalities and regional councils, are not currently being collected beyond the published Israeli census and the Statistical Abstract of Israel.
  4. Bible, including texts, commentaries, and criticism of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament); biblical history, theology, institutions, personalities, geography, archaeology, etc., provided the works are informative of the growth and development of early Judaism and the Jewish people in the Biblical period and/or said works are from a Jewish perspective or written by authors in the mainstream of scholarly research. Bible is increasingly a difficult area in which to select because of Christianity's claim on the Old Testament as a source of inspiration and dogma; works of a Christian doctrinal or devotional nature, or by authors writing primarily for a non-Jewish audience in the fields of Old and New Testament are typically acquired for placement in the "Main" collection. The Price Library continues to collect in the fields of Apocrypha, the literature on the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran community, Essenes, etc.
  5. Hebrew language and literature; Yiddish; language and literature; other Judeo-languages. The expanding Hebrew program requires creative writing in Hebrew as well as English translations from the Hebrew, while the linguistic component of the program (grammar, lexicography, morphology and syntax, phonology, semantics) is supported by appropriate treatises. In the absence of a Yiddish program, very few purchases are being made in Yiddish literature, but linguistic studies of Yiddish and Yiddish literary criticism are routinely added. Studies of other Jewish languages - Judezmo, Aramaic, Judeo-Persian, Judeo-Italian, Hakitia, Samaritan, etc. - are required as they may support broader ethnographic, interlingual, or sociolinguistic research.

Secondary areas of collecting responsibility in the realm of Jewish culture, and collections of potential interest to academic programs beyond Jewish studies:

  1. Ancient Near East; Orientalia. Isolated works may be acquired in the context of supporting the study of ancient Israel and its neighbors, Biblical archaeology and epigraphy, Hebrew Scriptures, or Hebrew and Semitic linguistics. Titles acquired in this cognate category tend to be scholarly, multi-author collections and festschriften transecting several subject disciplines and typically containing essays of Jewish interest.
  2. Biography; Genealogy. The Price Library generally attempts to retain individual and collective biography and autobiography only of Jews active in the Jewish sphere of activity; thus autobiographies and biographies of Jews recognized for their contributions to the professions, the realms of entertainment, sports, and the media, arts and sciences, or literature should typically be considered by other subject or discipline-based bibliographers/selectors. Only commercially available genealogies and family histories are routinely sought for acquisition by the Price Library, but privately-distributed materials related to Florida Jewry may be sought and retained.

  3. Creative writing with Jewish themes or characters. Although the Price Library has a rather dated collection of American and German novels with Jewish content, responsibility for collecting newer Jewish creative writing (broadly interpreted to include both books by Jewish authors and books by non-Jews with Jewish themes) resides with bibliographers/selectors attached to the appropriate national literature of the world. The Price Library will have primary responsibility for original creative writing in Hebrew or Yiddish as well as translations of same into English. Research literature on the delineation of the Jewish stereotype in literature and film, or studies of Jewish writers as a class, continue to be acquired by Price.
  4. Hebrew and Yiddish theatre history.
  5. Jewish art history; Jewish liturgical objects and ritual art; Synagogue architecture; Sepulchral monuments. Note: "Secular" art; that is, works with little no Jewish content by individual Jewish or Israeli artists, regardless of media, are collected by the Architecture and Fine Arts Library.
  6. Jewish education. The Price Library collection will stress the history and development of Jewish education, religious and secular, at all levels and in all countries of the world. Curricular materials intended for professional educators, and textbooks for school use, are not collected, nor are audio-visual materials for classroom or recreational use.
  7. Jewish folklore, tales, proverbs, humor.
  8. Jewish law. The Legal Information Center often duplicates English-language material in this area. Israeli civil and criminal law is the responsibility of the Legal Information Center.
  9. Jewish medicine; Jewish medical law; Medical ethics.
  10. Jewish music. The Price Library collection emphasizes the history and criticism of Jewish sacred or popular music, ballads, and folk music. Although Price retains some basic music anthologies and hymnals in book form, sound recordings, tapes, and musical scores for advanced students and musicians are organized by the Music library. American Yiddish sheet music is held by the Belknap Collection for the Performing Arts (Dept. of Special Collections).
  11. Jewish numismatics. Only modest selections of monographs and standard catalogs are made, together with the primary periodicals in English.
  12. Jewish philately. Only modest selections of monographs and standard catalogs are made.
  13. Jewish onomastics; Jewish epigraphy.
  14. Jewish press history. An extensive collection of anniversary issues of newspapers and journals is maintained.
  15. Jewish printing and publishing history; Book arts; manuscripts. Although neither bibliophilic nor limited, signed editions are routinely purchased, the Price Library supports an extensive collection devoted to Jewish bibliography, Hebrew printing and typography, Jewish publishing, and library catalogs of Hebrew manuscripts.
  16. Jewish sociology, i.e. attitudinal studies, demographic reports, voting behavior, intermarriage, assimilation, identity, mobility, occupations, the Jewish woman, etc. Materials in English are stressed, but foreign language works are often acquired within the context of community histories.
  17. Semitics. Isolated works may be acquired in the context of supporting the study of Hebrew etymology, linguistics, or Biblical studies.

Selection Guidelines

The Price Library aspires to be a comprehensive research collection (level 4), collecting not only for present needs but also for the future in anticipation of additional growth in the Jewish Studies program culminating in graduate-level research. Price is generally a Level 4 in terms of English-language materials and a Level 3 (instructional support) for Hebraica, and more selectively for works in other foreign languages. In developing this collection, the following considerations to guide decisions are applicable:

  1. Cost. The Price Library does not generally purchase expensive rarities or signed, limited-issue bibliophilic or facsimile editions; as a rule, subject to case-by-case exceptions, single books or sets, regardless of date and with a cost exceeding $500, are not purchased unless "adopted" by a private donor. For microforms, see paragraph 4, below.
  2. Format. Manuscripts, sheet maps, or audio-visual materials are not held at this time by the Price Library, as the processing, storage, public service, environmental, and security considerations would dictate that other library units on campus are more secure repositories for organizing and servicing these formats.
  3. Ephemera. Special efforts are made to identify and retain ephemeral pamphlets, institutional reports, research reports, newsletters, lecture series, eulogies, keepsakes, calendars, broadsides, etc. Although some titles are only available through purchase, preference will be given to gift acquisitions.
  4. Microforms. Microforms (fiche or roll film) are the preferred format for newspapers and older periodicals that are invariably embrittled, bulky, or occupy a great deal of shelf space. As extraordinary resources become available, numerous brittle serials already in the collection will be replaced with microforms, while additional titles or microform packages of primary source material will similarly be added as funds permit.
  5. Language. Original works in English, Hebrew, and Yiddish will naturally comprise the bulk of the collection, though works in other languages appropriate to the subject matter are routinely added, as in the case of rabbinics, Israel, community and synagogue histories, biography and personal narratives, etc.
  6. Translations. Translations into Hebrew or Yiddish from other languages are typically not acquired; exceptions might be classics or world literature or translations that could be important because the translator is a noteworthy figure, or owing to new prefatory/critical apparatus. Translations into English of Hebrew and Yiddish creative writing and non-fiction are comprehensively acquired within the subject scope of this policy statement.
  7. Dissertations. Unless devoted to a subject area not extensively covered by published literature American doctoral dissertations are only acquired selectively or unless specifically requested by a faculty member or a graduate student. Israeli dissertations, typically published in exceedingly small editions for institutional and private distribution by the author, are acquired in appropriate subject areas to the extent they are available commercially. The Center for Research Libraries will be relied upon to supply all other foreign dissertations.
  8. Juvenile works and primers are not collected, but exceptions may be made when a well-known author is already well represented in the collection with adult-level books. Abridged works in simplified Hebrew, for adult learners, are added to the collection.
  9. Serials are an important and valuable component of the Price Library of Judaica; the majority of these holdings are unique in Florida, if not the entire Southeast.
  10. Electronic resources will be considered for campus networking contingent on cost, the delivery system, special fonts or printing considerations, enhanced searching capabilities, and the anticipated use of the product by the UF community.
  11. Audio-visual materials are typically purchased only in response to a faculty member’s recommendation or within the scope of special fundraising opportunities geared to collection enrichment.

Cataloging Priorities

For the most part, everything of lasting research value published in English and the Western research languages since 1970 should be fully cataloged, beginning with items of more than 50 printed pages; the remainder may be controlled on LUIS by means of provisional records whenever there is a clear statement of authorship, or organized in bulk in archival boxes or "vertical file" envelopes, by subject or institution. Hebraica and Yiddish materials, particularly brittle titles and smaller pamphlets, are likewise controlled on LUIS by means of provisional records, with cataloging priority given to newer books as Library of Congress cataloging copy is found, and more selectively for modern Hebrew literature, Jewish philosophy, rabbinics, Bible, critical editions of classic texts, Israeli politics, etc., with shared OCLC copy.

Preservation Priorities

As part of the Preservation Department’s brittle book program, over three thousand of the Price Library’s older volumes have been reformatted as part of ongoing efforts to make these fragile holdings available.

Coordination with Other Institutions

Materials not held by the Price Library of Judaica because of insufficient funds, unavailability, or because of their peripheral nature in relation to known instructional and academic needs can be routinely requested on interlibrary loan; this well-established network also supplies Hebraica and Yiddica lent by comprehensive-level (see below) institutions such as the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Jewish Theological Seminary, New York Public Library, Brandeis University, Harvard, Yeshiva University, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Stanford University, etc. Decisions made by the Jewish Studies bibliographer not to purchase monographs or not to subscribe to a serial are made in the context of short- and long-term academic needs as well as the availability of these titles on interlibrary loan.

Revised: 6 November 2007. Seth Jerchower, Head, Price Library of Judaica. 352.273.2792. Office: 538 Library West.
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