Presented to Fall 2020 Kick-off event with Yeshiva University Libraries & AJL-NYMA

1. Sponsors: Yeshiva University
Libraries and AJL-NYMA
YAIR (Yeshiva Academic Institutional
Repository) : Retrospective Theses
& Dissertations (RTDs)
Collaboration under Covid
In Memory of Rabbi Dr. Mayer
Herskovics, z”l (YU’50B), author of
HALAKAH AND AGADAH IN
ONKELOS Ph.D. dissertation Revel
1950.
Thursday, October 15th
@1 PM EDT
ZOOM
Presenter:
Stephanie L. Gross, Librarian
Electronic Reserves & Scholarly
Communication

2. AJL-NYMA: Thank you!

3. Today’s program
Welcome Note on PDE
What is YAIR?
• Focus on 5-6 slides
• Rest: lightening talks
Biography:
Human interest
story in pictures
Productivity tools
& websites
Q&A

4. Collaborative digital project
by Yeshiva University Library
staff (Summer 2020)
During Covid: Opportunity in Chaos

6. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
Reset &
retool &
rejuvenate!

7. “Every cloud has a silver lining”

8. SDA: Self-
Directed
Achievement

9. AJL
Mentoring:
Be a
mentor; be
a mentee

10. ACRL/NY
Mentoring
• Mentor
• Mentee
• Events & Program (December Symposium)

11. Library Juice
Academy

12. Lynda.com

13. Funding: 1199SEIU Training &
Employment

14. Mayer(Majer)
Herskovics, z”l
,
Survivor, THRIVER,YU scholar ,
mentor, father

15. Why an IR? (OSU)
Types of content included:
•Journal articles—Peer reviewed
•Preprints
•Supplemental data
•Working papers
•Technical reports
•Conference papers
•Presentations
•Posters
•Monographs
•Book chapters
•Culminating projects
•Undergraduate theses
•Conference proceedings
•Journals
•Research collections
•University publications

16. TouroScholar:
Digital
Commons

17. Touro Scholar : User-friendly, visuals
• Author follow (handle)
• Plumx Metrics
• Digital Commons (Jewish
Studies)
• Share buttons
• Recommended citation
• Publisher’s Statement

18. Jewish Studies
Commons (Digital
Commons)
• Subject Repository vs. Institutional Repository
• Digital Commons vs. DSpace vs. Islandora
• Consortia vs. OpenSource platform without
• Vs. STEM arXiv

19. Bernard
Revel
Community
in YAIR

20. YAIR: Yeshiva
Academic
Institutional
Repository

21. Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies
(BRGS)
• Scholarly publications
• Podcasts and videos
• Journals
• Faculty CVs

23. ProQuest:
No Full-Text
Available!
Our work
begins!

24. Virtua (opac)
record of
print &
digital
formats

25. Early record
on YAIR

26. ILL Request is crowdsourced

27. Metadata Services
and Processing :
Status of Author
• QUESTIONS:
• Where to find the author?
• Who will sign the release form?

28. Genealogy to
the rescue!

29. Historic twist: The
1st Dissertation

30. A trip to the basement stacks to
retrieve the dissertation …..
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

31. Photocopier with
copyright advisory
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

32. Bibliographic references--- Still a way to go!

33. Bibliographic
References (GG)
• Bibliography
• Wikipedia (Hebrew): updated

34. Bibliography
• Hadarom
• Gilyonenu
• Or Hamizrach
• Talpiyot
• Sinai
• The History of R. Zvi Hirsch
Chayut and His Scholarship

35. Wikipedia
[Hebrew]

37. Linking YAIR to
Wikipedia
Full-text, Open Access to Dr. Herskovics’ 1950 YU Dissertation

38. Acknowledgment
from Menahem
Kasher ( ‫תורה‬‫שלמה‬ )
" ‫בלא‬‫עזרתו‬‫של‬‫הרשקוביץ‬‫היה‬‫מתקשה‬‫בהוצאאתו‬‫לאור‬ " (Preface.
Vol. 35)

39. Release form
• Open Access (OA): Creative Commons
Attributions 3.0:
• Non-Commercial
• No-Derivs
• YU Distribution Rights
Alternatives:
Restricted: Embargo 2 years
Opt-Out: No visibility to the public

40. YAIR RTD (retrospective
theses and
dissertations) Project
ProQuest to
YAIR:Connecting the
dots

41. Dissertation on Onkelos, YU Revel, 1950
Dissertation in memory of author’s mother, who perished in the Shoah

42. Abstract of
the
dissertation
• Onkelos, a descendant of many Roman Officials, became a righteous convert to Judaism.
Living in the early Mishnaic period, he became a close student of the famous Tannaim R.
Eliezer ben Hurkanus and R. Joshua ben Hananiah. He became famous for his translation
of the Old Testament into Aramaic, the common language of Jews at that time. It
remains as the standard translation and is continuously studied today. It was meant to
be a translation. This thesis shows how the Targum Onkelos is more than just that. Very
often halakhic rulings can be derived by the choice of words or phrases Onkelos used. It
also serves at times a commentary by added phrases or Midrashic quotations given. The
author takes selected passages from the Torah with the Targum and examines their
content.

43. Full item
record :
Dublin Core

44. The dissertation in YULIS online
catalog

45. ProQuest Form for
Dissertation Submission
Author provides Subject Categories,
Keywords AND Contact information

46. Prof. Mayer Herskovics : Photo Album

48. Prof.
Herskovics
@ Kehillat
Jeshurun
• From YU Digital Collections

49. Mayer
Herskovics,
with students
@Yeshiva of
Flatbush HS

50. Prof.
Herskovics,
YU Masmid

51. YU
Appointment
to
Professorship
1972

52. YU Award
1975-1976
from student
government

53. Erna and Jakob Michael Award
Full view of plaque Zoom of text: 1975-1976

54. President
Lamm
confers
professor
emeritus
status 1979

55. Prof. Herskovics remembered in
2006 YU publication (R. Carmy)
• “’Who is wise? He who learns
from all human beings.”…[If we
remembered this], then you,
who probably hadn’t heard of
Dr. Meir Herskovics until a few
minutes ago, would become a
link in his continuing legacy.’”

56. Prof. Shalom Carmy
remembers him
fondly
(Note:
YAIR author ‘handle’ on YU
Faculty page)

57. Rabbi Dr. Mayer
Herskovics:
Honored by Israel
President & Mrs.
Herzog @
Beit Ha-Nasi, 1992

58. Sampling of YU
holdings authored
by Prof.
Herskovics

59. Mayer Herskovics, typing scholarly works on manual typewriter
• One more thing:
• I have very “raw” Word files of the Onkelos work my father did in the last year of his life.
Breishit and a bit of Shmot.
• I believe that my father, who was very meticulous and edited and proofread his works many
times before submitting them for publication, would NOT want this material made public. -GG

60. Appendix
Forms, Software, etc. (ongoing)

61. Creative Commons
3.0 License
• Website: CreativeCommons.org
• Good source of CC images!

62. Dublin Core &
DSpace

63. OAI-PMH

64. YAIR wufoo
self-deposit
form (pp. 2-
3)
10 MB file maximum

65. ISSN
application
(Library of
Congress)

66. SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic
Resources Coalition)

67. Wikipedia: Looking for
‘hackers’
• Editing
• Hackathons
• Reference Tool

68. JewishGen.org:
• Our Mission
• To preserve our Jewish family
history and heritage for future
generations.

69. IAJGS: Int’l Assoc.
of Jewish Gen.
Societies
• The International Association of Jewish Genealogical
Societies (IAJGS) is an independent non-profit umbrella
organization coordinating the activities and annual
conference of nearly 90 national and local Jewish
Genealogical Societies (JGS) around the world.

71. ABBYY FineReader 15 OCR
software for Hebrew
• Interfaces with Adobe
Acrobat
• Import PDF file, renders
searchable Hebrew text
• Resave project as PDF

72. YouTube: How-to advice
• Help Desk Geek

73. Working from Home (WFH)

74. Help Desk Geek
• Software
• Tools
• Products
• Reviews
• DIY Tech Support
(WFA)

75. Cnet: Reviews & Community

76. Annotate images with TechSmith Capture

77. Design ideas: For a gallery look

78. Thank you! ‫ישר‬‫כוח‬ !
BGU, BA, Teaching Certification
SMC, MATESOL
Pratt Institute, LIS & NYS Board Certified School Media Specialist

79. Mentor
Member
AJL
ACRL/NY
ALA
ART
NYTSL
NYLC
*Author CR&L News (3/21)
• Find me on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanielgross/
• Love to share ….Love to learn 

80. Q&A: Topics
for
discussion /
future
workshops
• Wikipedia hackathons
• Dublin Core
• Institutional Repositories (IR)
• LibGuides and Quick Reference wikis
• Presentation tools & best practices
• Zoom vs. other webinar platforms?
• Online teaching (DL listservs, etc.)
• Remote reference / chat (H3lp), Questionpoint
• Web compliance: copyright, ADA WCAG
• Personal information on the web: Confidentiality,
safety

81. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
Leave your
comfort zone