Aug 24, 2022 By: pglassman
COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY | August 18, 2022
I. MISSION
Yeshiva University Libraries' mission is to nurture excellence in pursuit of the liberal arts and sciences, support professional education, promote faculty scholarship, and advance the university as a center for Jewish studies. The libraries achieve this through commitment to service, accessible collections, comprehensive information resources, engaging programs, and an inviting, functional, and flexible physical environment.
II. VISION
Yeshiva University Libraries will assume a central role in the academic enterprise by nurturing discovery, critical thinking, and interdisciplinary information exchange to help students and faculty collaborate, grow intellectually, and acquire skills for life-long learning. The libraries will maintain a global dimension in advancing research and scholarship in Jewish studies.
III. LIBRARIES
The Pollack Library, Landowne-Bloom Collection, Mendel Gottesman Library of Hebraica-Judaica, and Hedi Steinberg Library, comprising Yeshiva University Libraries, maintain the central goals of supporting student success, the curriculum of each school or college, academic centers, and the mission of Yeshiva University. To accomplish these goals, the aim is to build and maintain a collection that meets the needs of both undergraduate and graduate programs. Although physical collections continue to be maintained and augmented, the focus is primarily electronic. Both physical and electronic items are selected based on demonstrated need and anticipated use. Head Librarians then critically evaluate these materials to determine their authority, comprehensiveness, and validity, after which they add the materials to the collection in the format that is most useful to students and faculty members.
The Mendel Gottesman Library of Hebraica-Judaica collection principally supports advanced instructional and research programs in Jewish studies. The breadth, depth, and diversity of the collection correlate to educational and research needs, more specifically to the undergraduate and graduate curricula at Yeshiva University. The library is consulted and utilized by scholars and researchers both within and external to the Yeshiva University community. The library's collection development efforts are collaborative, and faculty members, staff members, students, and administrators are encouraged to suggest materials for addition to the collection.
IV. CONSPECTUS
The Pollack Library and Landowne-Bloom Collection of Yeshiva University focuses on materials in support of the curricula of Yeshiva College, the Sy Syms School of Business, the Katz School of Science and Health, and the Wurzweiler School of Social Work. It also collects and maintains non-Judaica material in support of the academic programs of the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. Material is almost exclusively English-language.
The Hedi Steinberg Library collects materials in the liberal arts and sciences in support of the undergraduate curricula of Stern College for Women and the Syms School of Business. A collection strength is women's studies. Its Hebraica-Judaica collections are geared to support the curriculum of the Rebecca Ivry Department of Jewish Studies at Stern College for Women by acquiring materials on Rabbinics, Jewish history, Bible, Jewish thought, and the State of Israel. These acquisitions include reference works, scholarly monographs, and edited anthologies of historical sources and critical essays. Languages are primarily English and Hebrew.
The Mendel Gottesman Library is a research library in the field of Hebraica-Judaica. It collects in the subject areas of Rabbinics, Bible, Jewish liturgy, Jewish philosophy and mysticism, Jewish history, Holocaust studies, modern Israel, Semitic languages, and Hebrew and Yiddish literature. Primary formats are monographs, serials, periodicals, and newspapers, both electronic and in print. The library aspires to comprehensive-level collecting in Jewish history worldwide. The library aspires to research-level collecting in these areas:
- Rabbinics and Jewish law: globally and in all languages.
- Bible, Jewish liturgy, philosophy, mysticism and theology, Jewish history, modern Israel, Semitic language. Primary languages are English, Hebrew, German, French, Italian and Spanish. Secondary languages are Dutch, Hungarian, Russian, and Swedish.
- Holocaust studies: scholarly works and personal narratives that contribute to the study of the era beyond the personal experience of the author.
- Hebrew and Yiddish Literature: primary and secondary sources of established authors, in the original and in English translation.
- Format availability
- Capacity to support the current curriculum
- Relation to current holdings
- Scholarly value and reputation
- Reviews
- Language
- Intellectual freedom and diversity
- Authoritative scholarship with varying viewpoints and opinions
- Availability of materials at neighboring institutions
- Yeshiva University material, primarily official university records generated by administrators in their official capacities. These materials are acquired by transfer from university offices. There is currently no formal policy for depositing records in the Archives. The Archives also collects official university and student publications.
- The Archives holds organizational and institutional records and private papers relating to modern Jewish history and culture in the United States and abroad. Archival manuscript collections reflect areas of special interest to Yeshiva University: the history of the Orthodox Jewish community, particularly in the United States in the twentieth century. Collections relating to the Holocaust are also emphasized. These focal points are reflected in the types of collections in the archives: a. Records of organizations that served and helped shape the American Jewish community, as well as organizations based in the United States that assisted Jewish communities abroad through rescue and relief work. b. Collections of individuals (lay leaders and rabbinic figures) who were active in the Orthodox community. Special focus is on collections of graduates of Yeshiva University.