DEPARTMENT & COURSES

The Brooklyn College Department of Judaic Studies consists of six faculty members including the Chair Sara Reguer, the Graduate Deputy for Judaic Studies Herbert Druks and Professors Sharon Flatto, Jonathan Helfand, Sid Leiman, Robert Shapiro.
Robert Shapiro serves as the library representative for the department.

The Department of Judaic Studies offers undergraduate major and minor in Judaic studies, an optional minor in Hebrew, and Judaic studies concentration for majors in the following programs: early childhood education teacher (birth-grade 2); childhood education teacher (grades 1-6). The department also offers a master of arts in Judaic studies and graduate courses for students in other fields. The offered courses cover Jewish religion and tradition, Jews of Central and Western Europe, Jews of Eastern Europe, Holocaust and Nazi war crimes, Jews of America, Jews of Israel and the Middle East, Modern Jewish thought and more. Special topics, seminars, and independent studies courses require advanced research.

FUNDING

The Judaic Studies Collection is funded through state-leaved money that comes through the annual budget of the Library.
The Morton Vogelson gift fund was devoted to Judaic Studies.

GENERAL APPROACH TO MATERIALS SELECTION

A. ACQUISITIONS STRATEGY

Print and non-print resources are identified through review resources with broad subject area coverage including printed resources Choice, Library Journal, Booklist, online resources including Books in Print, Amazon, and specialized journals in the Brooklyn College Library collection that include book reviews. Publisher catalogs are checked for recent publications in the field. The online catalogs of other university and research libraries are checked for appropriate resources in specific areas. Books are also identified in the Strand Bookstore.
Electronic Web-based resources identified for subscription access will be recommended to the Department of Judaic Studies for consideration. Items that may be of interest to the entire City University of New York (CUNY) will be brought for consideration before that CUNY Electronic Resources Advisory Committee. Web resources that are available at no cost will be identified through their mention in other printed and electronic publications (including Web sites, listservs, and e-mail correspondences). These sites will be evaluated for appropriateness and, if accessible, added to the subject guide for Judaic Studies on the Brooklyn College Library home page.

B. LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY

Materials will be collected on a college level to support undergraduate and to a lesser degree graduate course work through the master's level. Faculty research is supported as resources are available.

C. LANGUAGE

Most materials will be collected in English, Hebrew and Yiddish. Materials in other languages as Spanish, French, German, Russian, Polish or any other language related to Judaic Studies maybe considered to order if they support the course work.

D. GEOGRAPHIC AREAS INCLUDED/EXCLUDED

Collection includes primarily United States Jewry issues as well as the rest of the Jewish world.

Current publications are of primary importance and account for most ordering activity. It is extremely important to locate out-of-print titles, because these titles may be the only materials available on various subjects, and often may be considered rare items.

F. FORMAT OF MATERIALS COLLECTED/EXCLUDED

Printed and non-printed resources will be collected. Videos will be ordered if requested by the department for classroom use. CD-ROMs may be ordered on a limited basis if they offer information not readily available in some other format. Electronic resources requiring a subscription for access as well as free electronic resources will be included.

G. REFERENCE POLICY

Bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, indexes and abstracts, standard reference tools, and materials that would normally circulate but are in "high" demand because of their importance should be included in the reference policy. All formats will be considered including paper, microform, CD-ROM and online.

H. DUPLICATION:

As is generally the policy of the Library, books will be not ordered in duplicate. Exceptions are made, however, for titles that will be in heavy demand.

I. WEEDING POLICY

Weeding should be done on a yearly basis to replace lost or stolen items and to remove popular materials that can be replaced by scholarly materials. Inventory should be made when organizations publish lists, or bibliographies are published, of core collections.

J. SELECTION ACTIVITY

The subject bibliographer for Judaic Studies alerts the department library representative when funds become available for purchase and will encourage him/her to inform department colleagues of the availability of the budget. The bibliographer's goal is to balance with faculty requests.

SELECTION ACTIVITY/PROBLEMS

At this time, there appears to be no problems with selection.

COMMENTS

A system for alerting library and classroom faculty of important new acquisitions in Judaic Studies and all areas could be beneficial. An alerting system may be integral with the newer version of the library catalog, as well as the newly constructed database of its uncatalogued electronic subject resources.

Updated: December 17th, 2006
Prof. Paraskeva Dimova-Angelov