July 25, 2006
Dr. Doron Avital
Hebrew University
POB 39105, Jerusalem 91390
ISRAEL
It has come to our attention that further development of the Bibliography of the Hebrew Book may be in jeopardy.
We consider the Bibliography the most comprehensive and reliable source of information on Hebrew-language monographs published between 1470 and 1960. Its authority file and associated biographical data offer a wealth of information for Judaica librarians and readers around the world. As you know, each entry in the Bibliography was made with the actual book in hand at the time of cataloging. This ensures a level of accuracy and detail unmatched by other reference tools. Moreover, the Bibliography offers indexing and keyword searching of approbation author names, which is particularly useful when trying to identify works for which a title page or colophon is mutilated or missing.
Our understanding is that Bibliography currently contains 90% of the Hebrew titles through 1960, and that, given an additional 2 years of development, the remaining 10% could be added. We would greatly appreciate any efforts to obtain continued funding for this project which is of great importance to our libraries.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Sincerely,
Daniel Lovins,
On behalf of the Association of Jewish Libraries Cataloging Committee
This file last modified 07/25/06