History:
The Education Library started its journey in Terra Santa, in1958 it was moved to Givat Ram and in 1975, after the renewal of the campus on Mount Scopus, the library moved to the building of the School of Education where it resides to this day. The libraries of Social Work and Jewish Education were also situated in the same building. In 2003 the three libraries merged into one library which is part of the Library Authority.
The Library's Collections:
The library's print and electronic media collections focus mainly on Education and Social work, but also include materials in related fields: psychology, psychotherapy, art therapy and sociology, among others. The collections in the main disciplines are the most inclusive and important collections in Israel.
The Jewish Education collection includes books, periodicals and electronic media in the fields of Jewish education research, teaching Jewish subjects (in Jewish schools in Israel and in the diaspora), teaching Hebrew as a second language and Holocaust education.
Other collections: two collections of books for pleasure reading, one for adults and one for children, including children's books in Arabic.
The media collection houses approximately 2000 films and film series related to the fields of education, Jewish education and social work.
The Israeli textbook collection includes textbooks for levels k-12 (some from before Israel's independence in 1948).
In addition there are collections of educational games and posters.
The Bina Gewirtz collection includes books illustrated by Gewirtz, her original illustrations and furniture from her estate.
A new collection of Arabic textbooks will include textbooks from the Palestine Authority, East Jerusalem, the Israeli-Arab sector, and the Israeli-Druze sector. The collection will facilitate research on textbooks and comparative curriculum.
Coming soon: a collection of digitalized slides unique to the Education and Social Work Library, with historical slides featuring the land of Israel and Jewish communities around the world.
Student Services:
- Professional librarians provide students with personal reference assistance.
- Inter-library loan services, from other academic libraries, provide access to books and articles not located in the Education and Social Work Library.
- The library lends laptop computers, electronic dictionaries, and earphones to students for use in the library and provides facilities for printing, photocopying and scanning.
- In addition to large, pleasant reading rooms, there are three rooms for group study, a video screening room, and a pouf room equipped for rest or exercise.
- The newly renovated student's room with a refrigerator, a microwave oven, and hot drinks at a symbolic cost, allows students to eat or drink while studying.
- The library hosts special events such as exhibits, film screenings, book launchings and events for the Jewish holidays.
Progress and innovation are the Library's main goals.
Student satisfaction is the highest consideration and the library staff is always attentive to student needs and requests.
Projects:
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The entrance floor was redesigned and renovated.
It is hoped that the upper two floors will be renovated soon. - Two new study rooms were built to house the book collection of the late Professor Seymour Fox. The rooms are technologically equipped for group study.
- All Hebrew University of Jerusalem M.A. and Ph.D. theses in the fields of education, social work and Jewish education were scanned and are now available electronically to students and faculty.
- The Arabic textbook collection with textbooks from the Palestine Authority, East Jerusalem, the Israeli-Arab sector and the Israeli Druze sector is currently in progress.
- The slide collection of more than 10,000 slides underwent digitalization.
The library staff is always attentive to the needs of students and researchers and is dedicated to developing the library for their benefit.