Getting to Know the Wilf Librarians Part I
Last year, The Commentator published a series of articles introducing its readers to some of those who work behind the scenes to enrich students’ academic journeys, the Hedi Steinberg librarians. This year, The Commentator continued by sitting down with librarians on Wilf Campus to share their thoughts and experiences working in the Pollack and Gottesman libraries.
Tina Weiss, Head Librarian of Hebraica-Judaica, Mendel Gottesman Library
Josh Makovsky: What is your role in the library?
Tina Weiss: It’s Head Librarian of Mendel Gottesman Library. It's a multifaceted role, as you see, like interacting with students, whether undergraduate, graduate levels, doctoral students, rabbinical students and beyond, obviously faculty and staff. We get requests from outside institutions, we have visitors come in and researchers come in. I also deal with finances, so budgetary issues related to Gottesman library and just a host of other things that come up.
JM: Why did you want to be a librarian? Did you always know that this is what you wanted to do?
TW: It was not a thing I always knew. As an undergrad, I studied Jewish studies and I wasn't 100% sure what to do and I had some decent mentors who were really helpful in helping me figure out what my potential options were. I was actually encouraged to visit various academic libraries, to speak with librarians and library directors, specifically in Judaica, to figure out what their roles are or what types of things go on in these institutions, and to see if it could be a good fit. From then I studied for my master’s in library science and then I went on for a master's in Jewish history.
JM: What was your relationship with reading growing up?
TW: I was one of those kids who had a library card from an early age and my parents allowed me full access to the adult sections; I wasn't limited to just reading children's books. I was interested in things that were perhaps beyond my typical age range, so I had a very positive relationship with libraries and books.
JM: Do you have any tips or advice for students?
TW: Come to the library, that’s first. I would also say we're all here to help you. Always feel that you can come to us and ask us questions in any format. We can sit and shmooze or just guide you if you have research questions or try to understand things. If you want to see rare materials that pertain to your area of interest or something you're writing a paper on, [if] you wanna delve into your family history. We are here to help show you. There are so many riches that people might not know about and we're happy to introduce you to that world.
JM: What unexpected challenges do you face as a librarian?
TW: As a Judaica library, there are only a few libraries of our caliber in the world, let alone in the U.S. or in New York. We want to try, as best as possible, to maintain that level of materials that are available and to continue acquiring, to maintain and sustain and to realize growth. People are looking for the most cutting edge. You don't normally say that in Jewish studies, this is not medical science and research. But if someone wrote an article, you want to be able to get it, because that's the most recent research, whether it's archaeology or some sort of commentary, you want the most recent. So we want to be able to have what's available. Sometimes there are financial limitations, whether it's databases, whether it's physical material, journals, or seforim or books. We're always actively making choices.
Wendy Kosakoff, Public Services and Outreach Librarian, Pollack Library
JM: What is your role in the library?
Wendy Kosakoff: My official title is Public Services and Outreach Librarian. So what that is, is public services like reference, reference-librarian and outreach. I try to make sure that people know what's going on and I reach out, as needed, to other faculty and to students.
JM: Why did you want to be a librarian? Did you always know that this is what you wanted to do?
WK: I wasn't always a librarian. I was a violinist, a musician, for many years and then I had children and I stayed home with them for a bunch of years and then I knew I had to go back into a career. I knew that I liked libraries and I knew that I like books. A friend of mine was going to library school and it sounded very interesting, so I decided that that would be a good route to take, so I did.
JM: Do you have any tips or advice for students?
WK: Come, come to the library. We, the librarians, are very open to helping. That's what we do, that's why we get paid — to help. But we love it and that's why we're librarians. So don't be afraid to ask if you have questions.
JM: What is your day to day like in the library?
WK: It depends on the day, but there are days that I teach classes. We run a chat service so there are days that I am on chat and I'm receiving chat questions. There are times that it's quiet, so that's nice, I have time to get some stuff together in my office and prepare for the classes. I have run the student library research award since I've been here, so I coordinate that.
JM: Is there a book you’re reading right now that you would like to recommend?
WK: I just finished “Remarkably Bright Creatures” just yesterday, about an octopus, a very smart octopus who makes things happen in an aquarium. Just kind of a very interesting, very different, not historical fiction. That's one that I really liked. I loved “The Women”, by Kristin Hannah. I read that recently, it’s about women working as nurses in the Vietnam War and what happened after they came home, how they integrated back into society and how they were viewed. That was a very interesting book. That's historical fiction, I mean it's a little more current, but yeah I kind of like that kind of book.
JM: Is there anything else you would like to add?
WK: Something about being a librarian is that all of your experiences matter if someone's interested in becoming a librarian. Because I had a liberal arts college education, I went to a conservatory, I have a music education, I raised children, I did all kinds of things. And all of that contributes to the work that I do. My musical background really does speak to what I do because if you are in a conservatory, you're working, very focused on what you are learning and how you're trying to do the best that you can do and that kind of focus carries over for me with everything I do. It's not like everything is about music, but it’s that way of thinking and just the kind of background that I have sort of feeds the library work.
Rabbi Moshe Schapiro, Reference Librarian, Mendel Gottesman Library
JM: What is your role in the library?
RS: I am a reference and research librarian, that’s my primary function. That means that people who ask questions about Judaic resources, those questions come to me and I try to help them find either Jewish materials or locate sources, in many cases to help them do research on a whole topic, so that means sometimes brainstorming how to go about doing the research, how to find those materials, what materials are good, what materials are not good, reliable, not reliable, things like that. The other thing I do is I work with reserves. Professors ask for certain materials to be put on reserves. I have to go through the syllabi and I get this professor to send the syllabus, I go through it, I see what's already on e-reserves, what needs to be done, I have to find the materials, I have to see to it that they're scanned. I send them off to the person who really runs the e-reserve system itself and then they upload them to the system. There’s little things that come up here and there but that's the main thing.
JM: Why did you want to be a librarian? Did you always know that this is what you wanted to do?
RS: I definitely didn’t always know that I wanted to be a librarian. At some point I decided I wanted to go into a Jewish educational field. I tried formal teaching for a little bit but it wasn't really my cup of tea, so then I was trying to think what would be like another Jewish educational field though that was not formal classroom teaching. An old friend of mine once said to me that you would be a good librarian, they said, because I like seforim, I like dealing with sources and I also like helping people find things. And I would say that primarily I see librarianship as a really awesome way to help people. As librarians, so, someone comes, they're looking for a piece of information, they're looking for help writing a paper, they want help studying for a test or whatever it is and I help them find a sefer. I help them find the source. I help them find something. It's useful, it's helpful for students, for even beyond students — faculty members, people coming from the outside. There are a lot of people coming from the outside doing different kinds of research into their family history or into any topic, to give a shiur or to whatever it is and if I'm able to help them find what they need, so that's a good feeling.
JM: What is your favorite part about working at Wilf? What is your favorite part about working in the library?
RS: The fact that we have a student body and a faculty and even alumni who are very well-educated in Torah and Jewish-related topics means that the level of questions, the kinds of research are much higher and more interesting and more stimulating than you might get in another library where people don't really have that background, so it's exciting when a Rosh Yeshiva wants something or some visiting rabbi wants something. One of the side benefits to the job is I find out all sorts of really interesting things I wouldn't have known otherwise by way of helping other people do their research. That's really the most amazing thing about working in this institution's library.
JM: Is there a book you’re reading right now that you would like to recommend?
RS: There are wonderful seforim, they come out all the time. I'll tell you that I've recently noticed a new trend. It's been going on for a while that in halacha seforim, you have this specialization. They’ve started coming out — I don't know if it's gonna be a pattern or not, but this is the second sefer that I've seen so far — seforim that are about the halachos of specific kinds of surgeries. So now we just got this sefer yesterday about kidney donation in halacha, so there’s every halacha you need to know about donating a kidney. So obviously there’s somethings very specific to kidneys but then it's really just about things that, you know, if you're in the hospital getting kidney donations so you have to worry about Shabbos or whatever. It's targeted at very, very, very specific kinds of things that I've just noticed. I just think it's fascinating the kinds of patterns you see sometimes in the publishing world.
Editor’s Note: This article was edited for clarity and brevity with the approval of the individuals interviewed.
Photo Caption: Pollack and Mendel Gottesman Library Staff (from left to right): Tina Weiss, Wendy Kosakoff and Rabbi Moshe Schapiro.
Photo Credit: Yeshiva University
