Thank you for supporting American Jewish history and our unique and vital American library, for the love of books and the worlds they contain. Our 2023/34 Turn the Page Campaign was a success!
Caring for the collections housed at AJHS is our primary mission, and stewarding the items in our care is the driving force behind all that we do. In 2022 and 2023, our 378 and Heritage fundraising campaigns focused on digitization as a vital part of our endeavor to expand access, so we decided to take a year to turn back to our roots and focus on an important and magnificent brick in our foundation, our library collection. The AJHS library collection is deep and unique; it features some of the earliest materials donated to AJHS in the infancy of the Society, and was due for some special attention, preservation and acquisition work.
Our library collection has been developed and maintained over a century of stewardship, through the tireless work of AJHS librarians and curators who took the time and care to select and acquire its components. A library is not static — not simply books on a shelf. A library is an ecosystem unto itself, and one that needs constant care to preserve for another century and beyond. Our Turn the Page Campaign allowed for a systematic library evaluation: identifying items in need of preservation assistance, assessing shelving and storage, and thinking strategically of practices around description and access for greater discoverability. We also looked at areas for acquisition so we may grow and improve our library collections in key areas that you, and all our current and future researchers, will appreciate; and added new materials that will bolster study and illuminate the landscape of American Jewish history critical to our mission.
We thank you for your support during this exciting campaign, and for helping us honor our legacy of thoughtful and purposeful collecting, preservation and sharing. We exceeded our $40,000 goal, and every gift was significant.
Thank you again for helping us Turn the Page to a new era of AJHS library support and acquisition! Learn more about select books found in the AJHS library on our Blog:
- Grace Aguilar: 19th Century Poet, Religious Commentator & Romance Author
- Making new “Friends”: A generous gift from the Friends of the Oakton Library