Minutes were taken by Judith Jagoda.
Present: Sandy Birch, Robin Coller, Lorelei Ennis, Heidi Estrin, Judy Feldman, Sylvia Firschein, Sheila Fleischer, Sol Friedman, Frank Hemphill, Joan Hood, Judith Jagoda, Harriet Perer, Ava Phillips, Saresta Rolland, Barbara Shur
This special joint meeting took place on January 15, Martin Luther King Day, at Temple Shalom in Naples. It was an easy ride for those of us who went from Dade and Broward. 15 members attended, 7 from the east coast, 8 from the west. Our host was Frank Hemphill the librarian of Temple Shalom in Naples.
Our meeting began with a D'var Torah given by Norm Keivasha, President of the Temple. He chose a passage from the parsha of three weeks ago about Jacob finding out that Joseph is alive and their meeting, in which Jacob says,"I see your face and you are yet alive." He explained that even though Jacob knew Joseph was alive when he went to see him what he actually meant was that he could look into Joseph's eyes and see that in his heart he is still a Jew and has not been converted by his experiences. How important it is to remain Jews in our hearts regardless of the temptations and trials we face.
Our agenda included a lovely lunch, open discussions regarding common issues in libraries; Heidi gave out the list of winner of the Sydney Taylor Book Award winning titles (for Jewish children's and teen books) and explained how the book award process works. These books are recommended for both secular and non-secular libraries. The list is available online at www.SydneyTaylorBookAward.org.
Heidi's Podcast "The Book of Life" can be found at www.jewishbooks.blogspot.com Do yourselves a favor and listen to them; they are excellent. [This is a "radio show" available via Internet, all about Jewish books and music.]
We spent some time discussing difficulties of our profession. One common problem that affects us as librarians is the under-use of our materials. Librarians spend a great deal of time keeping their shelves stocked with the newest and best books available and very few books seem to get circulated. This seems to be especially true in the temple libraries. School libraries, just by their location, have larger reeadership as they serves the research needs of students and faculty. Each library holds activities to bring readers in.
Another discussion came up about Ex-president Jimmy Carter's new book and whether or not it has a place in our libraries since it is so obviously pro-Palestinian. The consensus seemed to feel that it would make for a great discussion group if paired with works of the opposite and in our minds more accurate view.
Inter-library borrowing was another subject: would it work, how this would be done, what are the pros and cons of this type of project. Frank Hemphill is going to research this and keep us apprised of the possibilities.
A great film recently shown on PBS titled; "Anti Semitism in the 21st Century" is being released next week and is available for purchase from PBS or Two Cat Productions. The film runs for 1 hour and is perfect for use in classrooms.
Hasafran is a library listserv on the AJL website. A good source of information, answers, guidance and since it's the national site, ideas from many places.
"FLAcat" is the Site of the Florida State Library system and has an extensive photo gallery.
The meeting adjourned at 2:30.
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