Center for Jewish History Hosts Global Scholarship Conference

NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Center for Jewish History launches a two-day conference this afternoon in which global leaders in the digital humanities will explore and discuss the intersection and future of scholarship and technology.

From Access to Integration: Digital Technologies and the Study of Jewish History welcomes leaders from the Library of Congress, Princeton University, NYU, the Smithsonian, the National Library of Israel and many other distinguished institutions, who will discuss how to develop institutional collaboration between archives, libraries and museums worldwide. In an age when people depend — and expect — instant access to information, how do you create an all-inclusive and dependable search?

Speakers include Deanna Marcum of the Library of Congress; Oren Weinberg of the National Library of Israel; Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett of NYU; Douglas Greenberg of Rutgers University; and Stanley N. Katz of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School. Anthony Grafton, professor of history at Princeton University and frequent New Yorker contributor, will be delivering the keynote address at 7:30 on Thursday evening.

"The Center for Jewish History takes great pride in presenting this extraordinary initiative," says Michael S. Glickman, the Center's chief operating officer. "As leaders of almost every Jewish archive, library and museum come together in New York City to explore the digital humanities, the Center is committed to building a thriving network of communication among professionals to ensure greater institutional collaboration as we collectively work to further democratize the primary documents of the Jewish people."

Together with its partners — American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research — the Center holds the world's largest archive of the modern Jewish experience. It is also at the forefront of employing technology to preserve the past.  The Center, having created the world's most robust single-search online public access catalog, enables researchers and the general public to access over 100 million documents, 500,000 volumes and tens of thousands of pieces of art, artifacts and photographs through www.search.cjh.org.

Details on the conference can be found at techconference.cjh.org. For more information on the Center and its work, please contact Lisa F. Roth, Director of Institutional Advancement, at 212-294-8307 or [email protected].

SOURCE Center for Jewish History