The Sydney Taylor Book Award is presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience. The award memorializes Sydney Taylor, author of the classic All-of-a-Kind Family series.

Michael J. Rosen and Robert Sabuda, author and artist of Chanukah Lights, Susan Goldman Rubin, author of Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein, and Robert Sharenow, author of The Berlin Boxing Club, are the 2012 winners of the prestigious Sydney Taylor Book Award. The awards were announced at the mid-winter meeting of the Association of Jewish Libraries.

The winners were revealed at the 2012 council meeting of the Association of Jewish Libraries in January, 2012 in Manhattan, NY. Awards chair Barbara Bietz made the official announcement, and shared her thoughts on this year’s winners in this interview, originally recorded for The Book of Life at bookoflifepodcast.com and cross-posted here by permission.

Click here for the 2012 press release and full list of award, honor and notable books.

13 min 11 sec

At the annual awards banquet, authors, illustrators and publishers are recognized for their excellent work. This presentation includes acceptance speeches by the 2011 winners of the RAS Bibliography and Reference Awards, the Sydney Taylor Book Awards, and the Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award.

Presented at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.

56 min 38 sec

The Sydney Taylor Book Award committee shares insights of the many books received in 2010, from picture boooks to young adult novels, as they worked to select the 2011 winners. Categories of books discussed include: "Chickens and Roosters and Hens, Oy Vey!" "Learning About Our Neighbors and Ourselves," "Woulda Coulda Shoulda," "Sneak Peaks," "Teen Picks," "Holocaust books/series for Libraries," "WWII Perspectives," and "Hot/Not Books."

Presented by members of the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.

1 hr 39 min 50 sec

Author Howard Schwartz discusses his book Gathering Sparks, illustrated by Kristina Swarner, the 2011 gold medal winner of the Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Younger Readers category.

Presented by Howard Schwartz at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.

28 min 07 sec

Author Dana Reinhardt discusses her book, The Things a Brother Knows, the 2011 gold medal winner of the Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Teen Readers Category.

Presented by Dana Reinhardt at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.

24 min 35 sec

In the spring of 1943, odds of a Ukranian Jew surviving World War II were less than 5%. Hitler's final solution had reached a furious climax with no safe place left to hide, except below ground in a cave. This is the story of how several families, some of whom eventually settled in the Montreal region, chose this option, and fought to survive during one of the darkest times in history. Through the use of slides and an accompanying natrative, Chris Nicola tells this amazing story of survival, as well as his 10 year search for those who lived this remarkable story and his subsequent work in the making of a documentary, featuring himself and some of the Priest's Grotto survivors, based on his book, The Secret of Priest's Grotto: A Holocaust Survival Story.

Presented by Chris Nicola at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.

1 hr 12 min 32 sec

One of the most popular and most influential children's adventure books in Irael in the 1950s and 1960s was HaSaMBaH (an acronym for Havurat Sod Muhlat Be-HeHlet/The Gang of the Ultimate Secret), authored by Igal Mosehnzon. Led by a teenager named Yaron Zehavi and his aide Tamar, this group of teenage boys and girls set out to secretly assist the adults intent on ousting the British and on setting up the modern State of Israel. While promoting values such as courage, camaraderie, and freedom, the series also dealt with political ideologies, gender equality, and ethnic diversity. This presentation illuminates the creative modes of delivering societal norms and political ideologies in pre-State Israel and the lasting impact of the series as evident in its recent revival in Israel.

Presented by Yaffa Weisman at the 2011 AJL Convention in Monteral, Quebec.

27 min 19 sec

Of all the legal issues libraries face in the digital world, copyright is certainly the most important. Issues abound, from legislative reforms that impact library operations to mass digitization projects or digital licensing of materials. Libraries and the professionals who care for them must build an understanding of how digital copyright imposes new constraints on our institutions.

Presented by Olivier Charbonneau at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.

36 min 17 sec

The Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana has invested considerably in the digitization of its collections. The Rosenthaliana hosts a large biographical database of Jews in the Netherlands during the 20th century, containing more than 6,000 biographical entries. On the occasion of the exhibition of the Swiss private collection of Rene Braginsky in the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana in 2009, several dozens of the most important Amsterdam holdings were published on the web. In 2011, some fifty online inventories of Jewish archival collections will be published. Further digital collections planned to be published include the incoming correspondence of the charitable organization "Pekidim and Amarkalim" of Amsterdam, Dutch-Jewish newspapers, and a substantial section of the Hebrew manuscripts of the Rosenthaliana, including its small but important collection of medieval manuscripts (in cooperation with the Naitnoal Library of Irael). The Rosenthaliana will also upload its holdings to the Judaica Europeana project. The presentation not only showcases the ongoing project, but also discusses technical and strategic aspects of the library's digitization efforts.

Presented by Rachel Boertjens at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.

27 min 10 sec

In the past 50 years, a new Sephardic migration originating from Mediterranean countries, specifically Morocco, has settled in Quebec. This new community was mainly French speaking and had to find its place within the Anglophone Jewish establishment and in the land of the two Canadian solitudes, French and English. Innovative solutions have been found on the institutional level and important cultural events have allowed the expression of artists in the wide spectrum of literature, theater, movie making, music, and arts. The themes, topics, and languages of expression reveal the deep desire to connect the past experiences of the old country, the new reality of Israel, and the religious dimension with the new Jewish, Quebecois and Canadian identity.

Presented by Dr. David Bensoussan at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.

30 min 05 sec

The previous two decades have witnessed a revolution in scholarly communications and learning: a massive migration to a digital and virtually connected world. Many of us have been thinking about and studying the impact of electronic information resources and technologies on Jewish Studies. Within the cross-discipline arena of Jewish Studies, alongside the traditional print journals, conference proceedings, and academic presses, are appearing new forms of digital scholarship, discourse and output that are challenging scholars to reorient the way they think about and conduct their work. Going beyond the massive and proprietary digitization projects, digial reformatting, and new digital editions of print and analog works or simultaneous publication of digital and print materials, this includes work and methods of communication that have been "born digitally." This presentation examines scholarly and creative output and methods of discourse that have been generated entirely digitally and do not, or cannot, have a print or analog version. Some of them may have even been initiated outside of the academy or by students.

A paper by Heidi Lerner, presented in absentia by Anna Levia, at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.

29 min 15 sec

The University of Pennsylvania's Rare Book and Manuscript Library serves as home to one of the most important resources for the study of the Alfred Dreyfus Affair in North America. The Lorraine Beitler Collection of the Dreyfus Affair is a monument to one of the most shameful incidents in modern French history. Collection materials include dramatic and disturbing anti-Semitic posters and periodicals, as well as some of the most powerful calls for human rights and equal justice ever composed. Possessing a collection of this nature presents many opportunities, but also poses significant challenges for curators and users. The purpose of the session is to describe the collection and these challenges, focusing on its scholarly potential, its uses in the classroom and in exhibitions,and on the collection website. The presenters wished to engage the audience in discussion of topics including: the collection's acquisition policies, the roles and function of the website and its future development, the presentation of controversial and offensive materials online, in exhibitions, and in the classroom, and the place(s) of the library and of librarians as social advocates and stewards.

Presented by David N. McKnight and John Pollock.

25 min 47 sec

A book's cover is often the first thing one notices about a book when skimming a catalog or browsing in a bookstore. Although they help form an initial impression about the book, covers are seldom mentioned in book reviews or recognized through awards. This session aims to bring attention to the art and skill of book cover design by highlighting both effective and problematic Judaica book covers using a variety of examples, formats, and genres (picture books, graphic novels, fiction, biography, and history).

For images of the book covers discussed in this presentation, please visit jewishbookcovers.blogspot.com.

Presented by Steven M. Bergson at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.

30 min 42 sec

The ways that women have been portrayed in comics during the past 75 years has led to criticism by fans, scholars, and creators in the industry. At one extreme, there are unrealistic superwomen who are shown being able to juggle both their career and their household, while still finding time to use their superpowers to save the world time and again. At the other extreme are women characters who are victimized, brutalized, and/or sexualized to a greater extent than their male counterparts. Although Jewish women characters are a minority in the comix genre, dozens of examples of such characters may be found. This session highlights several examples of such characters from various comix genres (e.g. Bibllical, superhero, biographical, war, graphic fiction, travelogues) and illustrate what types of values these characters embody.

NOTE: At the end of this recording, speaker Steven Bergson mentions the following speaker, Barry Deutsch, author of Hereville, whose presentation may be found here.

For the visuals from this presentation, please visit http://jewishwomenincomix.blogspot.com.

Presented by Steven Bergson at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.

27 min 51 sec

Monique Polak discusses her novel What World Is Left, a work of historical fiction based on her mother's experience as a teenager in Theresienstadt. Polak will discuss the sad secret that lies at the heart of her novel: that the father of her young protagonist, Anneke, has been forced by the Nazis to produce propaganda drawings. Anneke will grapple with this revelation and it is this moral dilemma that helps to make Polak's novel resonate with contemporary tweens and teens. Polak will also explain the personal journey she undertook to produce this novel, as well as the delicate task of melding fact and fiction, especially when exploring a subject as painful and important as the Holocaust.

Presented by Monique Polak at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.

24 min 08 sec

Authors Margie Gelbwasser and Sarar Darer Littman have both written novels which feature characters struggling with their Jewish identity within the constructs of the everyday life of today's teens. This panel explores the portrayal of Judaism in middle grade and YA fiction, using both past and contemporary examples.

Presented by Margie Gelbwasser and Sarah Darer Littman at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.

27 min 03 sec

The National Library of Israel (formerly the Jewish National and University Library within the Hebrew University) became a fully independent "community interest company" in January 2011. The transition from a university library to a National Library demanded certain organizational changes, including the creation of a technical services branch. This paper presents current and planned policy changes and new and continuing projects emanating from this branch. Amongst them is a new policy concerning Hebrew personal and place names, the transition from an in-house Dewey based classified catalog to LC subject headings, use of LC classification for shelving some special collections, various retrospective conversion projects, and a major effort to clear out the Library's cataloging backlog.

Presented by Marina Goldsmith at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.

39 min 57 sec

The National Library of Israel (NLI) has traditionally provided subject access to its mostly closed stack collection via a classified catalog based on the Dewey Decimal and Universal Decimal systems, with special expansions for Judaica, Israelitica and Islamic studies, and with additional keywords. This unique system was very difficult to understand (particularly by remote users of the catalog) and expensive to maintain. In early 2010, the NLI decided to adopt English language subject headings based on the Library of Congress subject heading list with some adaptations in Judaica and Israeli topics. IN a period of one year, almost 1 million records were enriched with subject headings. This paper presents the unique problems of an Israeli library adopting LCSH and the experience of the NLI in making such a major change in a very short period of time.

Presented by Elhanan Adler at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.

36 min 44 sec

Our panel of library administrators discusses the financial challenges facing libraries in today's economic climate and their strategies for success.

Presented by Helen Fortin, Evy Raby, Steven Spodek and Lynn Verge at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.

1 hr 13 min 52 sec

The colophon is a section of text found at the end of manuscripts and early printed books. It often includes the date of completion of the work, the place where it was written, the name of the copyist, the source of funding, the cost of the composition, personal experiences, poetry, etc. This paper presents the history of the colophon in Hebrew manuscripts, the historical record contained in them and its importance to the history of the Jewish book. It also uses examples of colophons from the Columbia University Hebrew Manuscript collection. In addition, the paper describes the role of the colophon in Hebrew Manuscript Cataloging.

Presented by Yoram Bitton at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.

29 min 34 sec