Handbook for Establishing a Jewish Library
OPE (Society for Promotion of Culture Among Jews in Russia)
1914
Chapter 1. Arrangement of the Library Premises
The library should be set up in the center of the district it serves, preferably on a quiet street where there is less noise and dust. Dry premises must be selected, since dampness can badly damage books. The walls should be painted white or covered with light-colored wallpaper.
It is good to have three rooms for the library: books are kept in one; books are issued in the second; and the third serves as a reading room.
If the library is housed in a single room, it should be arranged as follows. Divide the room into two parts with a wooden counter running the full length, one part to serve as the book repository and the other for the public. The counter should be made wide enough to hold catalogues and to register books being checked out.
The books should be installed on shelves attached to the book repository walls. Moreover, the books should be placed vertically in a single row [with their spines out] so that they are easier to find. Shelves are cheaper and more practical than cupboards. They should be made no more than 2 arshins1 long and not too wide, since otherwise the shelves can easily buckle under the books’ weight. If single wall-attached shelves are insufficient for holding the books, then two-sided, open shelves should be installed in the book repository where books are placed spine out in two rows. Leave an aisle of 2 to 3 arshins between the shelves, as well as between the shelf and wall. It is more convenient to place the aisle opposite the windows so that some light shines on the books on the shelves.
Closed shelves are essential only if the library does not have separate premises and has cause to worry about the books’ safety and preservation.
The public area should have chairs or stools for those waiting. Library rules and announcements, notices to readers, and book covers or lists of books newly acquired in the past few months should be hung on the walls. Maps and portraits of famous writers can also be hung.
Chapter 2. Book Selection. Purchasing, Registration, Rebinding, Arrangement, and Storage of Books. Storage of Removed Books
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.
Book Purchasing
The purchasing of individual books is done more conveniently locally, so as to avoid shipping costs. Booksellers ordinarily give libraries a 10 to 15 percent discount. For more significant orders, it is better to turn to a large firm, which ordinarily guarantees the order’s speedy and correct fulfillment. Many books of Russian classics published by Niva can be acquired from used booksellers at half-price and even more cheaply, but at the same time one must make sure the books are in good condition. The discount for Hebrew books is usually more (25–40 percent). If a book exists in several editions, one can select the least expensive one if in all other respects it satisfies the essential requirements for the quality of the translation, typeface, and so forth. Larger libraries should have two copies of the best and most popular books (for a list of bookstores, see the Appendix, p. 102).
Periodicals are best subscribed to directly from the publisher, thus guaranteeing their timely delivery. One should observe caution when ordering new, newly appeared magazines and newspapers, since abuses have become frequent of late. Therefore, it is better to subscribe to them on a short-term basis, and in questionable cases refrain from subscribing altogether.
Notes
[An arshin is a Russian unit of length measuring 28 inches (71 cm).—Eds.]
Credits
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 7.
