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World Jewish News
Patrons Ignore 'Russian' Stock of the National Library of Israel
13.06.2009
The National Library of Israel is one of the biggest and most important cultural centers of the country. There are about 50,000 editions in Russian among five million volumes of its archives. While funds are regularly donated to the library itself, the Russian stock remains unnoticed by patrons.
According to Masha Goldman, D.Sc. who is responsible for the Russian stock, over 200 books in Russian are published in Israel annually. These are not only belles-lettres but serious scientific and religious works as well. In compliance with legislation, whether it be sales literature or a book published at the expense of the author, two copies of each edition should be given to the National Library.
"In most cases, no difficulties arise," Ms. Goldman, D.Sc. says, "but we sometimes happen to face with strange unwillingness of some publishers to give us books as determined by legislation." The library itself exists already more than one hundred years. The Russian stock is almost of the same age. It was initiated by Yosef Khazanovich from the town of Belasok in 1892. He donated a large collection of books to the library and then repeatedly helped it.
Books stored here can be conditionally divided into several parts. In the first place, there are Israeli editions in Russian, Jewish Sciences in Russian, literature dedicated to the history and culture of the Russian people (Ukrainians and Belarusians are conditionally included here) and books of the corresponding subjects and authorship published in the Diaspora in Russian to the end of the 20s of the 20th century. The stock keeps many rare exemplars published on the territory of the former USSR and former Russian Empire: hundreds of titles of the Jewish literature were published in Odessa and Saint-Petersburg annually to the end of the 20s.
At present, the National Library aims at copying the catalogue with the bibliographical description of books to the Internet but this work is still far from being completed. Besides, there are attempts to create a digital copy of the library but the Russian stock will be touched nearly last of all.
"It is important to note here that search by the catalogue is fulfilled according to the Cyrillic alphabet," Masha Goldman points out. "our readers often enter the title in the Roman alphabet and for this reason, cannot find anything."
There are no least noticeable oppressions concerning the stock but there are no special privileges either. Ms. Goldman notes that money always lacks: financial security was affected not so much by the crisis but by the process of separation of the National Library from the Jewish University. Besides, money is practically not donated to the Russian stock, mainly, books are.
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