Report on the Library of Jewish Scepticism 191

Silke Schaeper Reportonthe LibraryofJewishScepticism

Beginnings

The Institute for Jewish Philosophyand Religion at the University of Hamburgwas foundedinMay 2014 with the creation of aChair in JewishPhilosophy and Religion for Professor Giuseppe Veltri (April 2014). In October 2015,the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies was founded under the umbrella of the Institute, with generous support from the German Research Foundation. Each of the two institutions has an annual library budgetfor the joint creation of aLibrary of Jewish Scepticism, a non-lending referencelibrarythatprovides the team of staffatboth institutions and visiting Fellowsatthe Centre with sourcetexts,secondary research literature, textbooks,and electronic resources. The library collections are recorded in the online campus catalogue of the University of Hamburg and made available on-site to members of the university and visitors.

Veltrilibrary

During the founding phase of the Institutefor Jewish Philosophy and Religion, Pro- fessor Giuseppe Veltri decided to make his privateresearch collection in Jewish studies and philosophyavailable to his team.Shelvedinproximity to the Centre’sown growinglibrary,the Veltri Library continues to serveasavaluable local sourceofre- ferencefor staff and visiting Fellowsatthe Centre.

The librarian

Silke Schaeper took up the position of librarian in October 2015.Her role at the Cen- tre is to createand managethe Library of Jewish Scepticism within the budgets of the Institute and the Centre, and to provide bibliographic servicestostaff and Fellows. She alsolends editorial support to the production of the Centre’sacademic publica- tions. Silke Schaeper studied Jewishstudies, modern history,library science, and the history of the Hebrew book in Berlin and Jerusalem, graduatingfrom the Hebrew UniversityofJerusalem(PgDip1989,MLS 1995). BeforecomingtoHamburg, she cu- rated Hebraica, Judaica, and earlyprinted book collections in Israel and the United Kingdom. In her own research, she has focused on libraryhistory,Hebrew bibliogra- phy, and German-Jewishhistory.

Since the opening of the Institute and the Centre, student assistantshavecon- tributed to the running of the library.Weherewith thank our first assistantsIlya Shvartsman, Marlene Heider,and Femke Isermann. Femke has recentlyreturned to the Centreafter ayear of studyinIsrael. From August 2016,she will be joined by Lina Kröhnert and Julius Mann.

Settingup

Managed by apart-time librarian, our special collection operates within acomplex networked academic environment.The challengeinour first academic year was to set up all the relevant technical and administrative procedures. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the colleagues involved, without mentioningindividual names (those we are thanking know who they are!): the team at the Central Library for Philosophy, our colleagues at the HamburgState and Uni- versityLibrary,the excellent IT support team at the Faculty of Humanities, the team from central universityITsupport,and, last but not least,our wonderful colleagues from the university’sOperational Purchasingteam. Manyother colleagues also held our hands in the first months, providingadvice,and technical, administrative,finan- cial, and professional support. By the end of December 2015,wehad succeeded in obtaining the requisite hard- ware, software,barcode readers, passwords,and permissions necessary for cataloguing and contributingrecords to the HamburgUniversity Library System (‘Cam- pus-Katalog Hamburg’). Since May2016,our collections are listed in the Hamburg Library Guide (‘HamburgerBibliotheksführer’). Between September and November 2016,the librarian will attend aseries of training sessions for users of the acquisi- tions and cataloguing modules of the local library management system.

Fellows first

Fellows stayatthe Centre for periods of varyinglength. It can be mutuallybeneficial if the library prepares in advancefor the arrival of aFellow who intends to work on a particulartopic, as some books can provedifficult to obtain. Fellowseither register for theirown librarycard at the HamburgState and UniversityLibrary or requestbor- rowingand book return services on campus from our student assistants. Interlibrary loans are managed by the librarian.

Librarycollaboration

Library provision in the fields of Jewish studies and philosophyisexcellent in Ham- burg, and manyliterature requests can be satisfied by obtaining copies from the Report on the LibraryofJewish Scepticism 189

State and University Library or from other libraries in the university,such as the Cen- tral Library for Philosophy, the library of the Asia-Africa Institute, the library of the Department of Protestant Theology, and the library of the Centre for the Studyof Manuscript Cultures. One of Germany’sleadinglibraries in the field of Jewish history and culture is found at the Institutefor the History of German Jews (‘Institut für die Geschichte der deutschenJuden’ =IGdJ), which was foundedinHamburgin1966.The library of the IGdJ todayholds around 70,000 titles, including manyworks relevant to our Centre’sfocus. Fellows and Research Associatesofour Centre frequentlyuse the library of the IGdJ.Since comingtoHamburginOctober 2015,the librarian has re- ceivedvaluable technical and practical support from the librarian of the IGdJ,return- ing these favours by offering Hebraist cataloguing expertise.

Networking

Library managers from the university’sFaculty of Humanities have formedaHuma- nities Faculty Library Committee which meetsonamonthlybasis in order to take stock and discuss budgetand library policy decisions. Our special collection is repre- sented by the manager of the Central Library for Philosophy.Every second month, the circle of the committee is extended to includeamemberofteaching staff from every department in the Faculty.Since October 2015,the librarian has regularlyatten- ded the Extended Humanities Faculty Library Committee meetings on behalf of the Institute for Jewish Philosophy and Religion, in lieu of Professor GiuseppeVeltri. On 1December,2015,the librarian attended ameeting of Judaica librarians at the Centre for JewishStudies in Berlin (‘ZentrumJüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg’) in order to learn more about anew web portal for JewishStudies (‘Bibliotheksportal Jüdische Studien’)created for the library network of the Berlin-Brandenburg region (‘KooperativerBibliotheksverbund Berlin Brandenburg’ =KOBV). On 8September,2016,the librarian will give apresentation about the library of the Centre at the fourtieth annual meeting of the German Association of JewishStu- dies Collections (‘Arbeitsgemeinschaft Jüdische Sammlungen’)inBerlin.

Cataloguing standards

New original cataloguing records are being created according to ResourceDescrip- tion and Access standard (RDA),the latest Anglo-Americancataloguing rules for electronic and printresourcesadopted by the Western library world, includingthe Ger- man National Library.When adding our holdingstorecords that were catalogued to previous standards(AACR2,RAK-WB), the decision of whether to upgradearecord to RDAistaken ad hoc. The cataloguingofbooksprinted in Hebrew characters is under- taken to the standard of the American Library Association and the Library of Con- 190 SilkeSchaeper

gress (Paul E. Maher, Hebraica cataloging—aguide to ALA/LC romanization and de- scriptive cataloguing, Washington: Library of Congress, 1987), which became the Ger- man standard in 2006 (DIN 31636:Information and Documentation—Transcription of the Hebrew Alphabet).

Electronic resources

The Centre has purchased access to Oṣar ha-Ḥokhmah Online and the Bar Ilan Re- sponsaProject,two electronic full-text databases comprised of more than 75,000 He- brew editions. Together,these two databases de facto represent avery large rabbinical library,giving quick access to important sourcetextsinHebrew,such as Bible commentaries and supracommentaries, editions of rabbinical law(Mishnah, Talmud) with commentaries and supracommentaries, Responsa literature, and avariety of referenceworks.Physicallyassembling such alarge library in ashort period of time would have been well-nighimpossible. From October 2016,researchers at the Centre will be able to use twovaluable resources thataggregate full-text content from periodicals in Hebrew and JewishStu- dies: JSTORHebrew Journals and the JSTORJewishStudies Collection. These twocol- lections were not previouslyaccessible to members of the University of Hamburg. Users will be able to access this content via anew web portal created by the Subject Information Service Jewish Studies (‘Fachinformationsdienst Jüdische Studien = FID’). This service is funded by the German Research Foundation.

Book donations

The library has receivedtwo particularlyvaluable and generous book donations: from Michael Studemund-Halévy (Eduard-Duckesz Fellow,IGdJ,Hamburg) and Giu- seppe Veltri (UniversityofHamburg). We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Karin Hörner (Asia-Africa Institute, UniversityofHamburg), JanWiebers (Cen- tral Library for Philosophy, University of Hamburg), Susanne Küther (IGdJ,Ham- burg), Barukh Yonin (Schocken Institute for Jewish Research of the Jewish Theologi- cal Seminary of America,Jerusalem), Dorothea Massmann (Massmann Internationale Buchhandlung GmbH, Hamburg), and Giada Coppola (University of Hamburg) for their donations. Report on the Library of Jewish Scepticism 191

Statistics

Institutefor Jewish Philosophy and Religion Bibliographic units(editions)  May  to June  Of which: Donations (editions)  Periodicals (larger runs)  Physicalvolumes  Full-textdatabases 

Maimonides Centre forAdvanced Studies Bibliographic units(editions)  October  to June  Of which: Donations (editions)  Periodicals (larger runs) – Physicalvolumes  Full-textdatabases –

Newsletter

The librarian publishesanoccasional newsletter entitled ‘Library News’ containing information about importantacquisitions (databases,referenceworks) and guidance about the library system of the University of Hamburg(retrieval, interlibrary loan, document delivery). The newsletter is distributed by email to Fellows, ResearchAs- sociates,members of staff, colleagues, and affiliates of the Instituteand the Centre.