The Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem

Abstract

The origins of the Jewish National and University Library go back to 1892, more than 50 years before the State of Israel was born. It survived as a small public library in Jerusalem with national pretensions until 1920, when it was taken over by the Zionist Organization and assumed a further role as the library of the newly founded Hebrew University. In 1930 it moved to its new building in the HU campus on Mount Scopus, and in 1960, after 12 years of exile, it settled down in its present building in Giv'at Ram. Its function as a central library for the university has changed following automation and networking of the HU library system. The library collects all publications printed in Israel or about it; all works related to history and culture of the Jewish people as well as all works in Jewish languages or Hebrew script; and works in other fields, mainly the humanities, for general research. It is entitled by law to two depository copies of all Israeli printed publications, while obligation to deliver non-print material still awaits enactment. Its holdings of some 3,000,000 volumes of printed material (i.e. excluding maps, manuscripts, archives, sound recordings and more) include 500,000 bibliographical units of Hebrew/Israeli/Jewish works. Current and retrospective microfilming projects comprise Israeli and Jewish press, Hebrew manuscripts, and more. Digitization of special items has started. Cataloguing was automated in the early 1980s, but retrospective conversion is still going on. Publications include the current national bibliography and a current index to articles in Jewish studies.