My genealogical efforts center around two activities, research into my family history and the compilation of an exhaustive bibliography on the Jews of Posen, today Poznań, Poland. In the course of researching both, I frequently look for such printed items as a single issue of an obscure newspaper or a rare book. This article describes the steps that you can take when seeking rare library holdings, especially those in libraries with large collections of Judaica or items likely to be relevant to Jews, sometimes even including archival holdings.

In this article, it will be impossible to list every library in the world or even every library in the United States which might hold relevant material. It will be possible only to suggest the most likely, and the researcher must then check other relevant research libraries. Here is the sequence that I often follow:

Check for Online Catalogs

Begin by accessing WorldCat for U.S. and a limited number of important foreign libraries. Not all items are always in WorldCat, so if the item is not found there, check in the following libraries in the order listed, as relevant:

1) U.S. Library of Congress catalog

2) Library nearest the location of the topic or place involved

3) New York Public Library

4) The catalog of the Center for Jewish History for YIVO, Leo Baeck Institute, Sephardi Foundation and American Jewish Historical Society holdings

5) Other world-class libraries in the United States

If not in any U.S. Library, try:

1) Israeli libraries, especially the Jewish National and University Library and Sourasky Central Library

2) Gabriel for European national libraries

3) Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog for German and other research libraries

4) KaRo for Poland

5) Compact Memory for full-text German-Jewish items

6) Slavic Reference Service in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois

WorldCat

WorldCat, located at www.worldcat.org or www. worldcatlibraries.org, searches the collections of thousands of libraries all over the world at the same time to find books and other resources, such as prints and archival holdings and finds articles and digital items (such as prints) that may be viewed directly or sometimes downloaded. Usually, access requires an active offline membership in a WorldCat library to view or download content or to check out material viewed through the website. Many libraries permit users to search WorldCat from the online catalogs on their website, although logging in with a valid library membership may be necessary. Not everything from all catalogs is included in the online library; therefore, if a more detailed search is desired, go to a local library. When physically at the local library version of WorldCat, a search of WorldCat using the FirstSearch reference service can be done. FirstSearch adds “Advanced search” and “Find similar items,” extra features often useful when seeking particularly obscure items.

U.S. Library of Congress and the

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Library

It is the world’s largest online library catalog; therefore, if WorldCat does not have the information, search for a book, serial, print (illustration), motion picture, musical score or any other item printed from anywhere in the world with the U.S. Library of Congress at http://catalog.loc. gov. For newer catalog entries, those after 2004, the Library of Congress has a system of links designed to offer the researcher an easy connection to additional information about an item of interest, if such additional information is within the parameters of the research offered by the library. Generally, the Library of Congress will link to additional sources on the specific subject if relevant to library research.¹ The Library of Congress also has a Microform Reading Room that holds many items preserved from the Library of Congress collections or acquired from other libraries around the world. Although the Library of Congress does have some CD-ROMS, it does not specialize in collecting them. Items in these categories are also in the online catalog.

If an entry is listed, the same author and title usually can be used as the Library of Congress entry, because most libraries, even many non-U.S. ones, use the Library of Congress cataloguing rules. Once an item is listed in the Library of Congress catalog, the exact author and title spellings are known to the researcher. Many libraries around the world use the identical or similar call numbers as well.

Because of the size of the Library of Congress, many people often incorrectly assume that a copy of everything published in the United States is deposited there; therefore, its Hebraic Section must have the most complete collection of Jewish publications. Although the Library of Congress does have the largest collection of Judaica and Hebraica in the United States, it does not hold everything.²

Since many people visit the Library of Congress, it is useful to know how it is organized. Books in foreign alphabets (not foreign languages) are placed in specialized reading rooms. Thus, the Hebraic Section, aside from a few reference works in English and German, holds only books in Hebrew characters, such as Hebrew, Yiddish and Aramaic. Non-rare Judaica written in the Roman alphabet is stored in the general collections, not in the Hebraic Section. Works in the Hebrew alphabet are stored in the African and Middle Eastern Division reading room, a separate storage area near the Hebraic section’s reading room. The holdings are quite complex, being classified in different old card catalogs as well as in the online catalog. For example, there is a closed card catalog of uncataloged holdings, which can only be perused onsite.³ In this case, “closed” means that no new items are being added to that collection, and some items listed there are also cataloged although the original card in that collection is not removed. So merely searching the online catalog is insufficient. Some items are also in the old regular card catalog and were not listed online through various oversights and errors.

In Washington, DC, check the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum library, www.ushmm.org/research/ library. Although most of what that library holds relates to the Holocaust, it also holds some earlier items of genealogical interest and has archival holdings.

Local Libraries as a Resource

If the Library of Congress does not have the desired publication, the next step is to check the local area of the subject matter in case it is not listed in WorldCat. For example, a researcher seeking a publication on Abraham Abrams, who lived in Silver Spring, Maryland, should check the Silver Spring library to see if it might hold what turns out to be the only copy of an item on him in public hands. If the local library is not a contributor to WorldCat, it is most unlikely that such a single copy will be listed in the online search engine, but it might be listed in the local library’s catalog.

The local library may have a copy that no one else has, sometimes even an item in typescript. Authors often do small projects and do not actually publish the item in the commercial sense, but give a copy to a local library or archives.

New York Public Library

If a relevant title is not found locally, then the next place to check for a Jewish publication is New York City, which has a number of potential sources.⁴ Most important is the catalog of the New York Public Library, http:// www.nypl.org. The New York Public Library says that all of its items are online now, but this writer has occasionally found some items in the printed New York Public Library Dictionary Catalogue of holdings or in the printed catalog of its Judaica that are not in the online catalog. If the item is not in the online catalog, it is also unlikely to be in WorldCat, so check the printed catalogs to be sure.

The New York Public Library holds many items of 19th-century Judaica that the Library of Congress does not have. Unlike the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library houses all items that are primarily about Jews in the Dorot Jewish Division. The Jewish Division holds items in any language if they are primarily about Jews.

Other New York City Libraries

The next place to look in New York City is the Center for Jewish History, www.cjh.org, which holds various collections of Jewish genealogical interest in the Sephardi Foundation, the Leo Baeck Institute, YIVO and the American Jewish Historical Society. Because not all items held by these institutions are listed in online collective listings of holdings, such as WoldCat, it is always best to check the Center for Jewish History catalog for holdings. That catalog, newly online, allows a search of all holdings or of selected holdings by institution, author, title or subject.

Next in New York City is the Klau Library of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), only about 10 blocks south of the Center for Jewish History and worth a visit. For security reasons, however, visitors may need an appointment to enter. Klau Library has a counterpart in Cincinnati, Ohio, and two other branches, one in Los Angeles and another in Israel. Accessing any one of the catalogs, such as http://library.cn.huc. edu:8000/cgi-bin/gw_46_3_2/chameleon?skin=NewYork&lng= en or http://library.cn.huc.edu:8000/cgi-bin/gw_46_3 _2/chameleon?skin=Cincy&lng=en, gives access to the other catalogs of HUC-JIR.

For example, for items associated with the west coast of the United States, it may be useful to contact the Sutro Library in San Francisco, www.onelibrary.com/Library/ calslsut.htm, renowned for its genealogical collections, including items specific to west coast Jewry. Further south the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley CA, www. magnes.org/collections/blumenthal.html, might be able to help with items of local interest as well as for the larger area around Los Angeles.

Other World-Class Libraries in the United States

One example of a world-class collection of Judaica is the soon-to-be fully online holdings of the American Jewish Archives. Now, substantial portions of the catalog are available at www.americanjewisharchives.org/aja/ catalog/index.htm. Some items are shown only in the old card catalog but not online. There is a print version of the old catalog.⁵

For the New England area, check Harvard University,⁶ which has an extensive collection of items of Jewish interest, including some very old and rare, and covering the entire world. Many of these items are unique. Harvard has even received copies of rare items held only by the University Library in Frankfurt-am-Main, one of the premier libraries of the world and having a first-class collection of Judaica. While most of Harvard’s holdings should be in WorldCat, if an item is not listed there, check to see if Harvard has cataloged something under a different title or so recently that it is not yet in WorldCat even though the item itself is old. Alternatively, Brandeis University, http://alfred.mainlib.brandeis.edu:8991/F/?func=file &file_name=login&local_base=mbb01pub, also in New England, is an excellent source of Judaica.

These are merely examples, of course, although they are some of the most prominent collections of Judaica relevant to Jewish genealogy.

Online Resources for the United States

As a last resort, if the item you are seeking cannot be found, try the publicly available online resources for items of genealogical interest. For an attempt at a comprehensive catalog of those online resources throughout the United States, see www.waketech.edu/library/digcol. html.

Israeli Libraries and Others Worldwide

For available Israeli sources, as well as links to other libraries of Jewish interest around the world, see the Jewish History Resource Center, http://jewishhistory.huji.ac. il/Internetresources/libraries.htm. Some links to libraries, however, no longer are current. In that case, use Google or another search engine to find the current link. If what you want is not found at the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem http://aleph500.huji. ac. il/F/?func=file&file_name=findb&local_base=nlall &con_lng=eng, try the Sourasky Central Library⁷ in Tel Aviv.

European Libraries

The next option is to check the national library for the country of interest. One easy way to do that for all of Europe is via Gabriel, http://libraries.theeuropean library.org/libraries_en.xml. Gabriel is a collection of websites for all of the national libraries of Europe, enabling searches of both general information about each such library and also a search of its catalog. All sites accessible from this website have an English-language interface and are available in at least the national language of the country as well. Some sites offer additional language choices. The book or other print item discovered will be presented in the language in which the material was published. If the item was printed in a non-Roman alphabet, the description also will be in the same non-Roman alphabet.

Let us now take two examples of European metasearch engines—those that search multiple search engines simultaneously—likely to be of interest to many genealogy researchers. The first is the Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog from the University of Karlsruhe,www.ubka.unikarlsruhe .de/hylib/en/kvk.html. Unlike FirstSearch, it is available on the Internet, free of charge, in English and other languages.⁸ The link also allows searches of a large number of other important national and other research libraries and union catalogs,⁹ such as multiple websites of different kinds for Austria, Switzerland and even Australia, as well as commercial bookseller sites in Germany.

A similar metasearch engine for Poland on KaRo, http://karo.umk.pl/Karo/karo.php?al=x&lang= en,¹⁰ permits a simultaneous search of any combination of up to 90 libraries around the world. The choices offered include 79 research libraries in Poland with the rest in such places as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom—anywhere having significant groups of Polish expatriates, their descendants, or significant collections of Polish materials.

Online European Resources in Full-Text

For those who can read German, or are at least able to hunt in some fashion through that language, an incredible resource is CompactMemory, www.compactmemory. de.¹¹ Eventually, the sponsors hope to have an English-language interface. What they have now are searchable databases of all of the nationally distributed German-Jewish periodicals, an immense resource, currently 117 periodicals in full-text, searchable and printable online. Apparently all are in the public domain. Some of the German-Jewish press covered the entire world from a Jewish perspective. One example is the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, which is online for its entire run, 1837–1922, on CompactMemory. Researchers can do some forms of searches of the text.

A different kind of resource with an English interface is the reproduction of old and rare books and other print publications in Polish libraries. Accessing any version of the Digital Library, such as the Digital Library of Wielkopolska, www.wbc.poznan.pl/dlibra/collectiondescrip tion?dirids=3,¹² will allow the user to choose to view online holdings in all of the participating Polish digital libraries or just the one accessed.

Slavic Reference Service

    If what you seek isn’t found and it deals with a Slavic-area country, contact the Slavic Reference Service¹³ for help. Slavic-area countries include such non-Slavic places as Albania because it is in the region.

If You Do Find Something, What To Do Next

If something is found, remember that, like the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library will not interlibrary loan and neither will the members of the Center for Jewish History. Most reference libraries, however, will make photocopies or microform copies for a fee, so check the relevant website. A number have a minimum charge. The New York Public Library will make free copies of chapters or sets of pages (less than 50 pages in length) from items that are classified in its online catalog as “OFFSITE” and then post them online, providing a password to access the copies for two weeks. There is no charge for this service, but it applies only to items listed in the catalog as “OFFSITE.” Contact freidus@nypl.org for items listed as OFFSITE for Judaica. This service is only for items which are less than a whole book and which are in sufficiently good condition to be copied. The researcher must furnish the exact citation. The New York Public Library offers this service for all publications matching the above description, not just for items assigned to the Jewish Division, so contact the relevant division for further details about requesting copies in this manner. The catalog records indicate the relevant division.

Books may be borrowed at many reference libraries via interlibrary loan. Consult your local reference librarian for details.

Notes

1. Many other research libraries offer a similar, seamless connection to other information available on recently cataloged items found in that library’s collections. For more information, see “Looking for a Book or Periodical Article Online at a Library Research Facility,” AVOTAYNU, Vol. XXI, No. 1, Spring 2005, p. 18.
2. For a detailed explanation of the uncataloged collection, see “Using the Uncatalogued Collection in the Library of Congress Hebraic Section to Find an Ancestor in Subscriber Lists,” Stammbaum: The Journal of German-Jewish Genealogy, New York: Leo Baeck Institute, Issue 25, Summer 2004, pp. 38–40.
3. Unless it holds the only known copy of a book in the United States, in which case it will loan the book to another library not to an individual, thus making that library responsible for the return of the book. At the request of individuals, the Library of Congress, for a fee, has a program to supply photocopies or microform copies of publications.
4. See Guzik, Estelle M., ed., Genealogical Resources in New York: The Most Comprehensive Guide to Genealogical and Biographical Resources ins New York City and Albany, New York, NY: Jewish Genealogical Society, 2003, 418 pp. At New York Public Library, *P-Desk 03-879 and Sc F 03-695. See Table of Contents at www.jgsny/newbook. htm. Also available at many other reference libraries.
5. American Jewish Archives, Manuscript Catalog of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Boston: G. K. Hall, 1971, 4 vols., and Reference/Hebraic, along with two supplements: Manuscript Catalog of the American Jewish Archives on the Cincinnati Campus of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion: First Supplement, Boston: G. K. Hall, 1978, 908 pp.; and Manuscript Catalog of the American Jewish Archives: Second Supplement on Microfiche, Boston, MA: G. K. Hall Micropublications, 1991. 51 microfiches. Accompanied by printed list of fiche headers, Entitled: Manuscript Catalog of the American Jewish Archives: Second Supplement on Microfiche: A Guide to the Microfiche. MicRR Guide No.: 324. Microfiche 94/2009 (Z).
6. http://lms01.harvard.edu/F/G1K9RT6DHSDuP6 PJAIQ2BRMTUYFLGYCRBL1SVBSFRGX312CRA8-00003?func=find-b-0&local_base=pub [Editor: This is a single citation with no spaces between.]
7. http://genesis.tau.ac.il/F/UGQ4R3FG21K76UD5 Q7UM12MFN8IASPIF82HTFXXF4EJ6C17GDQ-02873? func=file&file_name=find-b&local_base=aaclb& con_lng=eng.
8. Available in German, English, Spanish, French and Italian interfaces. The link shown is to the English interface.

9. A union cataloge is a combined search engine, in this case for all of the major libraries in a given country or lan