April 6, 2010

The Center for Research on Dutch Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Selects the IDEA@Lib System by IDEA to Automate the Center’s Library Databases

The Center for Research on Dutch Jewry, which was founded in 1968, deals with the history, culture and traditions of Dutch Jewry, including the community’s literature and art in and outside of the Netherlands. The general aim of the center is to stimulate and initiate scientific research on Dutch-Jewish history, in the broadest sense of the word. The organization’s book collection and archive is comprised of thousands of books and personal archives, journals, documents, maps, photographs, newspaper clippings and audio-visual material, and is the largest collection on Dutch Jewry in the Dutch language in Israel. The collection includes a number of magnificent prints made by Jewish printers in Amsterdam in the 17th century, and rare Judaica books.

The library director, Ms. Dina Goldschmidt stated “The wide array of material types in our library require maximum flexibility in an information management system. In IDEA@LIB we found the capabilities that we need in a library management system: great flexibility in defining the library’s needs together with support for international standards of academic libraries. Thus we are able to intelligently manage our multifaceted databases and expose our collections to the general public on-line. In addition, we wanted to work with a system that is already in use at other institutions that deal with Dutch Jewry, such as Yad Vashem and Beit Lohamei Haghetaot Ghetto Fighter’s House Museum, to facilitate future collaborations”.

The project, which was incepted in February 2010, included the conversion of cataloged items in Hebrew, Dutch and English from an Access system. The IDEA Web interface is used to expose the materials online and the center takes advantage of IDEA’s advanced hosting services (ASP) and the IT department’s professional services, including database maintenance and additional services such as backup, data reconstruction, updates and information security.

Mr. Gil Lin, CEO of IDEA Information Systems stated: “We are pleased that the Center for Research on Dutch Jewry has chosen IDEA@LIB to automate the institute’s library. There is growing recognition that the system supports all the academic requirements of library management systems, including compliance with international library standards (Z39.50, MARC/MODS, Dublin Core), thesaurus management, and a user-friendly and advanced Web interface which includes an array of personal services for end users such as support for Web 2.0 features.”

The Center for Research on Dutch Jewry joins a long line of research institutes and academic libraries that have chosen IDEA solutions for computerizing their libraries, including The Israel Democracy Institute, IRAC (Israel Religion Action Center), Shalom Hartman Institute, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, The Agricultural Research Organization (ARO) Volcani Center, Lander Institute Jerusalem Academic Center, Ben-Gurion Heritage Institute, and The Israeli State Veterinary Services and Animal Health (VSAH).

About the Center for Research on Dutch Jewry

The Center for Research on Dutch Jewry, established in 1968 at the initiative of Dr. Jozeph Michman z''l, became part of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1972. The center deals with the history, the culture and the traditions of Dutch Jewry. This includes Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews, their social and cultural history, their literature, their philosophy and art, both in the Netherlands and outside of the Netherlands. The general aim of the Center is to stimulate and initiate scientific research on Dutch-Jewish history, in the broadest sense of the word. The Center houses a unique book collection, consisting of thousands of books and archives, including periodicals, documents, and audio-visual material.

To the Center site