Association of Jewish Libraries - New England

NEAJL Spring 2011 meeting

2011-05-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

We had a very good meeting this past Friday, at Gann Academy!   Thanks to Julie and all the Gann staff!

As I said at the meeting, I'll post, here, some of the things we talked about, with the relevant websites:

1. Gil reviewed the Sydney Taylor winners, and most of the honor books. They can all be found here.

2. Gil also reviewed some new titles, for adults, including:

A) David Biale's History of Secular Thought

B) The Washington Haggadah

3) Cathy recommended Rebecca Goldstein's 36 arguments for the existence of God

4) Toby recommended   Nathan Blows out the Hanukkah Candles, by Tammy Lehmann-Wilzig a book that focuses on a child on the autism spectrum,

and, Dorie Witt's Guide to Surviving Bullying, by Brigitte Berman   , whose title speaks for itself.

5) Ann recommended How to understand Israel in 60 days or less
       by Sarah Glidden.

6) Ann led a discussion about programs we run at our respective libraries. Some of the ideas were:

Running events in tandem with other community events
Summer programs: "Breakfast and Books"
Jewish Book Month lectures
One synagogue one book
Author talks
Custom-made bookmarks to promote a library

7) Ann led a short discussion (because of time constraints) about what to do with old books, and/or books
      that no one's borrowed for years. She mentioned that she hired an appraiser to come and appraise
      about 50 titles in her collection, as a way to help in her thinking about whether to keep, sell, or give them
      away.

8) We were delighted to welcome Jonathan Krasner, who spoke to us about
     The Adventures of K'tonton and Hillel's Happy Holidays: Children's Books and the Making of
     American Jewish Identity,  which focused on the authors, Sadie Rose Weilerstein and Mamie Gamoran,
     and the  artist, Temima Gezari; he then connected this talk with the subject of his latest book,
     Samson Benderly and his 'Boys': Masters of American Jewish Education and their 'Dream Not Yet
    Come True'

Steven Bernstein on Making Your Library Visible in the Social Networking Age

2009-07-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Steven Bernstein, Assistant Catalog Librarian at the Elihu Burritt Library of Central Connecticut State University for his illuminating presentation entitled "Making Your Library Visible in the Social Networking Age."

You can view his presentation here.

Cathy Balshone-Becze: What Public Libraries Can Do For Special Libraries: Presenting an Overview of Services in Massachusetts

2009-07-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Cathy Balshone-Becze for presenting on "What Public Libraries Can Do For Special Libraries: Presenting an Overview of Services."

This presentation is part of a joint session, "What Public Libraries Have to Offer Special Libraries – Massachusetts & Connecticut," presented with Laura Vasselle. It is a fantastic comprehensive overview of the organization of Massachusetts libraries and the services available available to Massachusetts residents, with a focus on those helpful to library professionals working in a Jewish institution. Stay posted for Marie's summary of the session. We appreciate Cathy's sharing her time, expertise and enthusiasm to expand the presentation's audience by allowing it to be posted here and are delighted that she and Laura were able to join forces in the spirit of the conference theme.

Cathy Balshone-Becze is Reference Librarian at the Newton Free Library in Newton, MA.

2009-06-25T13:44:00.000-07:00

Here is the group photo that was taken at the conference last week. Today Jane Zande emailed out a link to the very nice article that appeared in the Jewish Ledger about the conference, including this photo as well as a list of everyone who attended, including those not pictured.

You can find the article, photo and list of attendees pictured (and not) here.

Stephanie (Sara Leah) Gross: Social Media and Social Networking for Librarians

2009-06-22T17:04:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Stephanie Gross of Yeshiva University for her presentation at NEAJL, "Social Media and Social Networking for Librarians: Sandbox Lessons Before 'The Real Thing'".

Laura Vasselle: Electronic Resources available to Connecticut residents through iCONN

2009-06-21T07:35:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Laura Vasselle for presenting on "Electronic Resources available to Connecticut residents through iCONN."

This presentation is part of a joint session, "What Public Libraries Have to Offer Special Libraries – Massachusetts & Connecticut," presented with Cathy Balshone. It is a rich sampling of the myriad resources available to Connecticut residents, with a focus on those helpful to library professionals working in a Jewish institution. Stay posted for Marie's summary of the session. We appreciate Laura's sharing her time, expertise and enthusiasm to expand the presentation's audience by allowing it to be posted here and are delighted that she and Cathy were able to join forces in the spirit of the conference theme.

Laura Vasselle is Information Technology Librarian at the Town of Bloomfield Libraries, Bloomfield, CT.

Steven Bernstein: Making Your Library Visible in the Social Networking Age

2009-06-21T07:10:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Steven Bernstein for presenting on "Making Your Library Visible in the Social Networking Age."

This presentation is a great overview of how Web 2.0 can be used to build on traditional Jewish models of collaborative learning. Stay posted for Marie's summary of the session. We appreciate Steve's sharing his time, expertise and enthusiasm to expand the presentation's audience by allowing it to be posted here.

Steven Bernstein is the Assistant Catalog Librarian, Cataloging and Metadata Services at the Elihu Burritt Library of Central Connecticut State University.

Who are we?

2009-06-21T07:04:00.000-07:00

The conference provided a great opportunity for members to meet personally, attaching names and faces.

To help us bring that to the virtual world and our patrons, please comment to this post with your library and/or institution's name and website so we can develop a list of links to member institutions in the sidebar.

Welcome to the Conference!

2009-06-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

Watch this space all day for live updating.

Follow @bostonbibliophl and hashtag #neajl09 on Twitter for micro-blogging now and then, and join in the conversation!

If you're Tweeting, or have a Twitter account, leave a comment with your username so we can connect!

Our Spring Conference

2009-05-27T09:44:00.000-07:00

Right now volunteers are hard at work planning our upcoming conference:

Maximizing library services through resource sharing

at Congregation Beth Israel, West Hartford, CT, Friday, June 19 from 10:00 - 3:00.

If you are interested in registering, please contact Ann Abrams at aabrams@tisrael.org.

We will have great speakers, cool giveaways and more.

Registration is free but forms are due no later than June 1. Please bring a dairy/parve lunch.

Watch this space for more updates, plus live blogging from the conference!