Handbook for Establishing a Jewish Library

Book Selection

Book selection, especially given our libraries’ negligible funds, poses a challenging task. For our Jewish libraries, this task is further complicated by the fact that books must be acquired in three or more languages at once. Sample catalogues, a list of which we attach, can help a great deal in this, of course, but even they are not equally useful for all libraries. The level of development and characteristics of the public the given library is called upon to serve have to be taken into account. In so doing, the following must be kept firmly in mind:

The library is a school for adults and an ally of the school for young readers. The library should expand their horizons, help them develop their own worldview, and give them the opportunity to find answers to the questions that excite or interest them. Only good books can satisfy these requirements. Works that speak to man’s basest instincts, as well as every kind of vulgar and criminal novel—even though there is demand for such on the part of readers—should be avoided at all cost. One must also be wary of selecting anything brand-new, since popularity often temporarily promotes the kind of book that, based on its content and inherent worth, does not merit this at all. A library has no right to spend its meager funds on satisfying those readers who see in a book only a light and pleasant pastime, to the detriment of others seeking in a book useful knowledge about the world and people. A useless book is harmful simply because it takes up time that could be spent beneficially in reading a different book.

There is no need to fear that due to the absence of this kind of “lure”—in the form of sensational novels—the reader will abandon the library. Anyone who is interested in books will remain, and the library will know that it is honestly fulfilling its duty, that it is developing the reader’s artistic taste, teaching the reader to see subjects in their true light, touching people’s souls and activity, and consciously addressing the life of the individual, society, and the world.

Our experience demonstrates that, above all, a library should take pains to acquire books of literature in Russian and the conversational Hebrew language. In Jewish libraries, one notes a fairly significant demand for translations of Jewish authors, which should be taken into account, of course, in the purchase of books. No less essential is the acquisition of children’s literature, since children are the steadiest and quantitatively most significant component of the readership. At the same time, one must allocate a suitable place in the children’s catalogue to the ancient Hebrew book. With respect to ancient Hebrew books for adults, it must be said that the number of readers in this language varies extremely depending on the location; however, every Jewish library should at least have the classic works, such as Mapu, Smolensky, Mendele, and so on.

Popular scientific literature is read quite well, relatively speaking, so its acquisition should proceed accordingly. Moreover, an effort should be made to ensure that all branches of knowledge are represented as much as possible.

Books of serious scholarly content ordinarily find only a very few readers. Therefore, when purchasing them one must consider the number of requests made for a given book. Best read of all the books in this category are books of literary criticism and history.

As a general rule, one must remember that a library’s complement of books should lack any and all tendentiousness; all movements of public and artistic thought should have a place in the library; the opinions of the readers themselves about desired books should be taken into account if they do not run counter to the principles of the library’s acquisitions.

If compiling a catalog or any section of the library proves difficult for its directors, they can turn for assistance to an educational institution. (We provide a list of such institutions among the appendices.) When doing so, however, it should be indicated more or less in detail the makeup of the population for which the library is intended and the types of occupations and general characteristics of the population and local conditions, as well the sum of money the library possesses to purchase books. Often bookstores and publishing houses take on the job of compiling catalogues, but this presents the disadvantage that they try to include in the catalogue as many of their own publications as possible and in so doing, do not always take the facilities and needs of the library itself into account.