The New JTS Library

Here is what you can expect to find in the new Library of JTS:

• The Best of Traditional and Digital Resources: Today’s outstanding libraries must offer resources in multiple formats. Therefore, our print collection continues to be deep and rich, while our electronic resources will be first-rate. Access to online journals and research tools, within the fields of focus at JTS, are extensive, and there are appropriate e-book offerings in the same fields.

• A Substantial Print Collection: Approximately 50,000 volumes now circulate on site. This collection  includes all books within our fields of study and research published in recent years, as well as enduring, classic works. Some 300,000 other works are stored off site, available for next-day delivery via our electronic catalog. With the latest and most enduring scholarship on site, most users will rarely need to order books from off site.

• A Place for Intellectual Discovery: The new Library continues to offer a book-filled environment that encourages users to browse the shelves and make unexpected discoveries. They can “virtually browse” our catalog, as well, scanning all the books in our collection.

• Space for Diverse Activities: The new Library has room for all types of users, with ample space to work alone, in small groups, or with classes. It saccommodate work with rare and conventional materials, along with digital resources. It is a place for community, including gatherings that bring more people from outside of JTS to view and learn about our historic treasures.

• Rare Materials: The new Library shouse our entire collection of rare materials, including 11,000 manuscripts, 25,000 rare printed books, and thousands of other materials such as scrolls, broadsides, and ketubbot.

• Support for Scholarly Research: The Library’s rare, and in many cases unique, collections are crucial for those doing research in almost any field of Judaica, and the new Library scontinue to strongly support such research. We have created a dedicated, secure, and climate-protected space in which scholars can work comfortably while our rare materials are properly protected.

• A Place to Share Rare Materials with the Public: The Library’s rare materials offer ever-fresh, exciting insights into the complex and diverse realities of Jewish life and thought through the ages. Therefore, our special collections must not be the realm of scholars alone; everyone—from our students and faculty to community visitors to school children—must have the opportunity to learn from and be enriched by these jewels of Jewish culture. In the new Library, this will indeed be the case, with special collections programming, a regular exhibit schedule, and special space for the presentation of our rare treasures.