Collection Development

The Collection Development Committee was founded in 2000 to formulate an overall collection development policy; to address issues of duplication, collection overlap, large purchase items, selection of electronic publications, and central fund purchases; and other issues as they arise, such as building an integrated reference collection (print & electronic).

Current members

Melanie Meyers (AJHS), Renate Evers (LBI, chair), Stefanie Halpern (YIVO), Bonni-Dara Michaels (YUM), Eric Fritzler (CJH), Rachel Miller (CJH), Lauren Gilbert (CJH)

Policies

Partner Collection Scopes

Overview

The library, archives, and museum collections at the Center for Jewish History support research and study of the history and culture of the Jewish people. They are comprised of the repositories of five institutions: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and Yeshiva University Museum. Generally, the collections focus on the modern period and specialize in East European, German-speaking, Sephardic, and American Jewry. The primary languages of the collections are Yiddish, German, Hebrew, English, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic. Materials in the collections include books and periodicals, unpublished paper documents, artifacts, and other non-print materials; the Museum has a sizeable archeological and ethnographic collection, spanning ancient, medieval, and modern periods.

American Jewish Historical Society

The Society’s library, archives, and art and artifact collection includes books, periodicals, newspapers, and manuscripts in several languages, family histories, agency records, photographs, microfilm, sound recordings, paintings, works of art on paper, textiles, sculpture, ritual objects, cultural objects, and material in other media, all of which document the western hemispheric American Jewish experience.

While the Society’s collections include material from the 16th through the 20th centuries, its holdings are particularly strong for the late 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries.

The subject strengths include:

   #1. The American colonial and Revolutionary eras.
   #2. Immigration, settlement, and adaptation to America.
   #3. American Zionism.
   #4. American Jewish cultural life, especially Yiddish theater.
   #5. Jewish philanthropic and social service organizations.

Also collected is documentation on genealogy and family history, antisemitism, political action groups, and later 19th and early 20th-century newspapers serving Jewish communities throughout the United States.

American Sephardi Federation

The American Sephardi Federation Library and Archives aims to consolidate and build a comprehensive repository for the preservation and transmission of Sephardic memory, including oral histories and genealogy, representing the richness of the different Sephardic communities. Holdings and services will reflect the overall mission of the American Sephardi Federation.

The collections will include print, sound, and visual materials from the Golden Age to the present, on the history, literature, and culture of and about the Sephardi and Mizrahi communities. The collections will represent all languages including Ladino and Judeo-Arabic, and any country with a Sephardi/Mizrahi presence, including the Americas, the Balkans, the Iberian Peninsula, the Middle East, the Mediterranean countries, North Africa, and Turkey.

Leo Baeck Institute

The Institute’s library and archives include books and periodicals (microform preferred), non-published materials, and a collection of art and artifacts related to the history of German-speaking Jewry. Included in the collection are manuscripts, official and personal documents, photos, diaries, letters and correspondence, writings on life and daily experiences, documents on births, marriages, divorces, circumcisions, bar mitzvahs, family trees, diplomas, certificates and membership cards of all kinds, visas and emigration documents, newspaper pages/clippings on specific events, posters, prayer books, rabbinical documents, writings from the lives of religious organizations and schools, records of German-Jewish organizations and Jewish communities, etc., as well as non-book materials including videotapes, computer files, records, audio tapes (e.g. oral history projects), etc. Books by non-Jewish authors on Jewish subjects are acquired.

The language of the collection is primarily German, followed by Judeo-German and Hebrew, as well as other languages (e.g. English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, etc.) if German-speaking Jewry also uses these languages, or if the subject matter of the material concerns Jewish communities in German-speaking lands and lands to which German-speaking Jewry have emigrated.

The time period covered is from the early Jewish settlements in German-speaking areas until today. The main focus is from the Middle Ages to the Holocaust (including the revival of Jewish life in post-war Germany and Austria), but emphasizes the period that begins with the 17th Century (Enlightenment). The post-World War II period until today is also included.

The subject strength of the collection is the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry largely unrestricted as to subject. Special emphases are:

   #1. History and legacy of Jewish communities in German-speaking lands.
   #2. Local history and genealogy.
   #3. History of cultural and religious life.
   #4. History of Jewish daily life including social and family structures and institutions.
   #5. Emigration.
   #6. The Zionist and Anti-Nazi movements.

Other areas such as the Holocaust and antisemitism are collected selectively.

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

The Institute collects print and non-print materials, printed and electronic books, documents, photographs, films, sound recordings, artifacts, artworks, and ephemera relating to all aspects of Jewish history and culture around the world. Of particular interest are materials relating to the everyday life, culture and history of East European Jews and their descendants in the United States.

The holdings of the YIVO Institute reflect its collecting policies, overall mission and scholarly interests in the past 75 years. The collections concentrate on four main areas:

   #1. Yiddish language, literature, and culture, including significant holdings on Yiddish theater and music.
   #2. History and culture of East European Jews.
   #3. History of the Jews in the United States, focusing on 20th-century immigration and acculturation.
   #4. The Holocaust and its aftermath.

The YIVO Institute is primarily a modern historical repository. The bulk of its holdings pertain to the 20th century. There are groups of materials that date from the 17th through the 19th centuries and discrete items from the 15th and 16th centuries.

The primary languages of the documents are Yiddish, English, Hebrew, Russian, Polish, French, and German, with a significant collection in Ladino.

Yeshiva University Museum

The Museum’s collection is comprised of over 6,800 artifacts and documents which represent the cultural, intellectual and artistic achievements of over 3,000 years of Jewish experience.

Formats include fine and folk art (including sculpture, paintings, and works on paper), photographs, amulets and jewelry, clothing and accessories, posters and synagogue models. Holdings are particularly strong in ethnographic material, costume, and ephemera.

Collection Development Scope Grid for Books and Periodicals

The Partners of the Center for Jewish History are involved in active acquisitions of library, archival, and museum materials to maintain outstanding research collections. The partners acquire archival and museum materials, which are essential components of their collections, based on bequests and availability. Subject areas of books and periodicals are included in the attached grid.

Collection Grid

CJH Electronic Resources Collection Development Policy

The Center for Jewish History is committed to fostering a dynamic and engaging environment for researchers and the general public to view the physical and digital holdings of the five Partner institutions. However, the Center has reevaluated the feasibility of returning to historical budgets for electronic resources as both a poor allocation of scarce funding that could directed elsewhere and a misalignment with why visitors come to the Lillian Goldman Reading Room. Traffic to the reading room and online library systems is driven by the outstanding and unique concentration of library and archival holdings available in a centralized location with an impeccable array of general and subject-specific professionals at the Center and Partner institutions.

Our goal, in close consultation with the Partner institutions, will be to work within a capped budget of roughly $35,000 in 2019 and accommodate the annual rise of each selected resource thereafter.

Electronic resources will be prioritized for renewal or first-time subscription on the following basis:

• While resources are intended for both onsite public and staff use, the resources are primarily intended for researchers and the general public.
• The resource is routinely used by or on behalf of researchers and the general public to locate material salient to their query; usage statistics support the need to maintain the availability of resources within the Reading Room.
• The cost of the resource aligns closely with usage.
• The resource relates to current and persisting trends in scholarship and genealogical research.
• The resource is of general interest related to Jewish history, culture, and contributions broadly complements the Partners’ holdings, or is likely to be used by or on behalf of researchers and the general public.
• The resource is non-proprietary or free of cost, is likely to be used by or on behalf of researchers and the general public, and can be added to either our find database listing or electronic resources available on our website.

Likewise, annually, electronic resources will be reviewed and reassessed based on the considerations listed below. A resource may be withdrawn from the collection when:

• The resource is available at a nearby research institution in New York City or widely available through common academic institutions where visiting scholars are affiliated.
• Usage statistics indicate a declining level of interest.
• Cost drastically outpaces usage.
• Further budget reductions force additional resource cancellation.
• The resource is no longer available, maintained, or supported.
• The resource falls outside of the general research needs within the CJH user community.

For specific resources that fall outside of the Center’s prioritization of general and routinely used resources, the Partner institutions are invited to consider the purchase of the electronic resources that are critical to their unique mission and areas of collecting strength. The Center will do everything within its power, including assisting with vendor relations, to ensure that the resource can also be made available to researchers and the general public within the reading room.

[This policy was updated from the previous version adopted at the CDC meeting on February 12, 2019.]