The jewish theological seminary of america will partner with the association of jewish libraries to offer a professional certificate program in judaica and hebraica librarianship to prepare 30+…

The Jewish Theological Seminary of America received a $249,582 Project Grant award from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian (LB21) program (CFDA 45.313). The grant will support a 3-year partnership with the Association of Jewish Libraries to offer a professional certificate program in Judaica and Hebraica librarianship. The program will train over 30 specialists to help fill a documented workforce need in this specialized field. Certificate graduates will develop expertise in curating Judaica and Hebraica collections as well as state-of-the-art reference, cataloging, and archival processing skills. The project will result in course materials, presentation slides, and a white paper to serve as a model for similar training programs in other area studies specialties facing workforce shortages.

The jewish theological seminary of america will partner with the association of jewish libraries to offer a professional certificate program in judaica and hebraica librarianship to prepare 30+ specialists to help fill a documented workforce need for judaica and hebraica collection specialists. The certificate is a new 12-month series of eight online modules repeated in three cycles, offered free to qualified and highly motivated applicants who are completing MLS or PH.d. Degrees or working in jewish archives and libraries. Certificate graduates will learn from expert librarians to develop and curate collections of judaica and hebraica as well as learn state-of-the-art reference, cataloging, and archival processing skills. The project will result in a course syllabus, presentation slides, and a white paper documenting the lessons learned from this three-year project to serve as a model for other area studies specialties in librarianship that face similar workforce needs and could benefit from this kind of training program.