HUJI The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Mathematics and Computer Science Library

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Library Description      תיאור הספריה

Related library pages
Library Photographs    camera    תמונות מהספריה
Art in the library      אמנות בספריה
Main reading hall: Layout (by shelf number)      מפת הספריה
Contents:

Library's location and plan      מיקום ותיאור הספריה

How to reach us How to reach us: Map of the Edmond J. Safra campus, Givat-Ram and directions to the Einstein Institute of Mathematics.

The library is located on the ground and first floors in the Manchester House, Einstein Institute of Mathematics in the Edmond J. Safra campus, Givat-Ram. [photographs]

The entrance to the library is one floor up. Its main reading hall [Layout] [photographs] is an impressive piece of architecture, with high ceiling and wood panels.
The library's plan:

  1. The ground floor:
    • Mathematics and Computer Science rooms:
      • The Periodicals:
        The current periodicals are mainly on the ground floor in 2 rooms:
        1. Computer science periodicals (bound and unbound issues)
        2. Mathematics periodicals (bound and unbound issues).
        The periodicals are organized alphabetically by title.
      • Technical Reports & Preprints in computer science:
        • Technical reports from the Hebrew University, Computer Science Institute, are located in the adjacent computer science room on the wall, following the computer science periodicals.
          Related library pages: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem web sites (includes lists of online technical reports & preprints)
      • PhD Dissertations: Hebrew University:
        1. Einstein Institute of Mathematics, are located in the entrance area in front of the stairs.
        2. Computer Science Institute, are located in the adjacent computer science room on the wall, following the computer science periodicals.
        Related web pages:
        חיפוש במדריך האלקטרוני של נושאי עבודות הדוקטור באוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים
        Search engine for PhD Dissertations at the Hebrew University (in Hebrew)
      • Graduate Dissertations: Hebrew University, Mathematics and Computer Science institutes.
      • Technical aides:
        • Novell printer (for Novell users only)
        • Computer stations (Terminal services)
        • Network ports (and electricity) for laptop internet access
        • Photocopy Machine
        Related library pages: Computer resources

    • The adjacent room:
      • Technical Reports & Preprints in Mathematics:
        • Preprints from the Hebrew University, Mathematics Institute and the last 3 years of selected other Mathematics departments.
        Related library pages: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem web sites (includes lists of online technical reports & preprints)
      • Special collection of reprints in mathematics, dating from the late 19th and 20th centuries. The Boxes are arranged by author.
      • Mathematical Reviews (partial)

  2. The entrance floor:
    • The reception hall:
      • Display dedicated to Edmund Landau
        • Rare book display
      • Quilt / Annamaria Brenti
      • Plaque dedicated to the supporters of the mathematics and computer science library
      • "Book return" box (left of the library door). Books can be returned there after library hours.

    • The entrance area:

    • The display of current periodical issues Several paintings by former library director Katja Mosnaim (1923-2005) are on display in this area.

    • The reading rooms:
      • The main reading hall [Layout]:
        The main reading hall is set up for wireless access.
        Related library pages: Computer resources
        • Computer stations
        • Card Catalog (library's collection until 1996)
          Related library pages: Online Catalog Contents
        • Mathematics books (Classification no.00-75)
          • Handbooks: Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Handbooks and Tables (located in the middle shelves)
          • 00-01 Congresses, Special Collection (located in the middle shelves)
          • 02 Collected works, Letters (Organized on the top shelves around the library).
        • Mathematical Reviews (MathSciNet)
          • Vols.: 1940-1988 (1989-2001 are in the adjacent room on the ground floor).
          • Author and Subject Indexes
        • Reserved books in Computer Science (located in the middle shelves)

      • The Adjacent rooms:

  3. The archive (Basement):
    • Periodicals (older volumes)
    • Books & tables (older volumes)
    • PhD dissertations from other countries
Collections in the ALEPH 500 catalog
Finding the location of collections by the code listed in the catalog
Collection Location Description
General collections
Math Books Entrance floor - Main reading hall
(continues into Adjacent rooms 1-2)
CS Books Entrance floor - Adjacent rooms 2-3
CS Reserves Entrance floor - Main reading hall
1st shelf in the middle of the hall 		Reserved books in Computer Science (overnight loan)
Special collections
Rare Entrance floor - entrance area Rare book display
Desk Entrance floor - entrance area - Circulation desk CD-ROM and diskettes kept at the librarian's desk
Reference Entrance floor - Main reading hall
2nd and 3rd shelves in the middle of the hall 		Bibliographies, Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Handbooks and Tables, Videos
CS Room3 Entrance floor - Adjacent room 3 - Back wall Springer-Verlag book series: Lecture notes in computer science /
Lecture notes in artificial intelligence
Books Basement Basement Books archive in mathematics and computer science
Dissertations
Theses Math Ground floor PhD & Graduate Dissertations in mathematics
Theses CS Ground floor PhD & Graduate Dissertations in computer science
Periodicals
Stacks-math Ground floor Periodicals in mathematics (including: Contemporary Mathematics)
Stacks-CS Ground floor Periodicals in computer science
Basement-MATH Basement Periodical archive in mathematics
Basement-CS Basement Periodical archive in computer science

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General information      מידע כללי

The Mathematics and Computer Science Library was originally founded as the Mathematics Library in 1925. It houses collections in mathematics and computer science containing over 800 periodicals and serials, more than 400 of which are current (a total of 40,000 volumes), 35,000 titles of books (a total of 38,000 volumes), technical reports and preprints issued by the Hebrew University Einstein Institute of Mathematics and the School of Computer Science & Engineering, doctoral theses, and a special collection of 16,000 reprints in mathematics (contains about 6,000 authors), dating from the late 19th and 20th centuries.
Related web pages: Virtual display of books written by Einstein Institute of Mathematics members:      books in English       books in Hebrew

Material relating to computer science was added to the library in the early 1970's and holdings in this field (periodicals in particular) have grown at a rapid pace.

The library has a world-wide reputation, matching the reputation of both the Einstein Institute of Mathematics (Institute prize laureates) and the School of Computer Science & Engineering and is the finest and most complete of its kind in Israel and the Middle East. The Einstein Institute of Mathematics has hosted many visitors over the years who use the library during their visit and have often commented on the richness of the book and journal collection.

Over the years, several large collections have been bequeathed to the library. Notable among them is the collection of Felix Klein, the famous German mathematician which contains old books from the 19th century and some manuscripts in Klein's handwriting. On display in the reception hall are a number of rare books, including Hebrew texts, some dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. Recently, important letters documenting Edmund Landau's years at the Hebrew University sixty years ago, were donated to the library, and are shown in a display dedicated to Landau in the reception hall.

The Mathematics-Computer Science Library serves 1,600 students in the faculty of mathematics and natural sciences, and several hundred graduate students. It also serves researchers at the Hebrew University and from all over Israel, and visitors from abroad. During the semester, several thousand books and periodicals are loaned every week. The library is run by a staff of 4 librarians.

Computerized services in the library:
Library Director:

Gila Manusovich-Shamir
rose Current Director of the Mathematics and Computer Science Library since 1982.
Ms. Manusovich-Shamir began working in the Mathematics library as a librarian in 1977, during her studies at the Hebrew University School of Library Sciences.
Tel.02-65-84820
email: gilama at savion.huji.ac.il

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Library's history      תולדות הספריה

The Mathematics and Computer Science Library was originally founded as the Mathematics Library.

The Mathematics Institute was founded in conjunction with the opening celebrations of the Hebrew University on April 1, 1925. Ground breaking for the Mathematics Institute was held one day prior, on March 31, 1925. Plans for a mathematics library were included in the original plan.
Click here for more information on the foundation and history of the Hebrew University (in Hebrew):
תולדות האוניברסיטה  /  פרויקט תולדות האוניברסיטה העברית

The establishment of the Mathematics Institute was decided upon by the Board of Governors at its meeting at Münich in September 1925.
The task of founding the Institute was assigned to Prof. Edmund Landau, who until that time was a professor in the University of Göttingen, Germany.
In 1926, an assistant, Prof. Binyamin Amira was appointed to supervise the building of the institute, direct the purchase and collection of books and reprints and arrange the library.
Related web pages: Edmund Landau and the Hebrew University

Prof. Landau initiated the purchase of the collection of Felix Klein, from the university of Göttingen, which was bought from his widow with the help of the Wattenberg donation. Prof. Amira arranged for shipping the collection before Prof. Landau's arrival in October 1927.
Felix Klein who died in 1925 was one of the most important, famous German mathematicians of the late 19th century and beginning of the 20th. His Collection contains about 3000 volumes which include old books from the 19th century, a large periodical collection and some manuscripts in Klein's handwriting. It also included some Schilling models of surfaces (in plaster). This collection formed the basis for the mathematics library.

Prof. Landau's work in founding the Institute was continued by Prof. Amira, Prof. Fekete, Prof. Fraenkel & Prof. Levitzki.

At first, the library [photographs] was located in the Philip Wattenburg building on Mount Scopus [photographs]. During the war of independence, the institute moved to the north annex of the King David Hotel, and the researchers were disconnected from the library. It became very difficult to obtain material from it. Sometimes, someone would go with the armored convoy to Mount Scopus in order to bring down material from the library.
note01 During this period a new respectable library was compiled and a reprint collection was created and organized in order to give access to the material.
In Oct. 2000, the collection had been moved from the basement and rearranged. The collection is arranged in the room adjacent to the photocopy machine in the library's ground floor. The 332 Boxes (containing about 16,000 reprints) are arranged by author. Each box has a list attached to it of the authors it contains. An index list of about 6,000 authors arranged by box number is available.

Since 1958/9, the library is located in the Manchester House, Einstein Institute of Mathematics in the Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram [photographs]. This building and its library were built in 1957 and its architects were Heinz Rau and David Reznik (They also designed the Israel Goldstein Synagogue in the Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram).
Heinz Rau also designed the synagogue and original classroom and administrative buildings of the Jerusalem Campus of the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in 1963.
David Reznik taught at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and was actively involved the shaping of Jerusalem's skyline as we know it today. He was one of the designers of the Hebrew University's Mount Scopus campus and is the recipient of the 1995 Israel Prize of Architecture and the Teddy Kollek Life Achievement Award for 2004.
The library's main reading hall [Layout] [photographs] was dedicated by the Manchester jewish community to Sir Simon Marks, in appreciation of his great services and generosity to the jewish people.
In 1995 a new wing was added to the old reading halls in the entrance floor. This new wing extends to the ground floor, and contains all the current periodicals. The architect for these renovations was Zeev Ravina.

The library's collection in computer science began developing within the Mathematics library since the early 1970's, and the library became the Mathematics and Computer Science Library.

Computer Science first developed within the Institute of Mathematics. An independent Institute of Computer Science was inaugurated in 1992. From October 1999, the institute has become the Selim and Rachel Benin School of Computer Science and Engineering. Since the School of Engineering is a new framework at the Hebrew University, it has been decided to open teaching and research fields, while taking into account the current needs of economy with a view towards the future, with a strong emphasis on system and software as a basis for modern engineering disciplines.
For more information, see: background and history of the School of Computer Science and Engineering.

Administrative affiliation
Until 1997 the library was an integral part of the Einstein Institute of Mathematics (and later of the Institute of Computer Science as well).
Between 1998-2003, it was under the administrative responsibility of the Faculty of Mathematics and Science.
Starting Oct. 2003, the Hebrew University Library Authority was established. The new authority centrally administers all the HUJI libraries.

Past Library Directors:

Period of office
1935-1955 Dr. Baruch Germansky (1905-1978)
Atom Dr. Germansky was born in Tighina (then Russia, now Moldova), in 1905. He received a zionist upbringing and was educated in Hebrew. His family moved to Romania in 1917.
1922-1928 - Emigrated to Berlin, and studied electrical engineering between 1923-1928.
1928-1931 - Received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics and mathematics in Frankfurt am Main. His advisor was the German physicist, Erwin Madelung.
1931-1933 - Worked at the Technische Universität, Berlin, for 2 years as a teaching assistant in applied mathematics.
1933 - Following the Hitler's rise to power, he emigrated to Palestine. In Palestine he worked as a teacher for 2 years.
1935 - Became a lab assistant at the Hebrew University and the director of the mathematics library.

Dr. Germansky authored several articles in mathematics and physics in German, English, French and Hebrew. His articles were published in journals such as: Proc. Amer. Math. Soc., Z. Math. Logik Grundlagen Math., Journal of Symbolic Logic, C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, and Riveon Lematematika.
Books by Germansky in German and Hebrew are available in the National Library of Israel.

1954-1981 Katja Mosnaim (1923-2005)
cat Ms. Mosnaim was born in Berlin, Germany on Aug. 17th, 1923. In 1933, when she was 10 years old, she and her parents emigrated to Palestine. She grew up in Tel-Aviv and graduated from the "Herzliya" - Hebrew High School. Her mathematics teacher was Dr. Baruch Ben-Yehuda. Following high school, she spent a year's service on kibbutz Degania Aleph and then moved to Jerusalem.
1948 - Joined the war effort and worked at the Photogrammetric Institute drawing maps based on aerial photographs.
1949 - Studied history, philosophy and mathematics at the Hebrew University.
In 1953, She began working in the Mathematics Institute as a librarian and administrative secretary of the institute (it was still located in the north annex of the King David Hotel). Subsequently, She became the director of the mathematics library, until she retired in 1981.
Katja Mosnaim passed away on May 3rd, 2005   כ"ד בניסן, תשס"ה


Like in many small mathematics departments, the library became the scientific and social center for students and staff. Katja, with her redhead temperament, added color and humor to the cozy atmosphere.
Katja loved painting nature and landscapes and spent many hours painting outdoors with friends. The library received several of her paintings after her death and they are displayed in different places in the library.


 Memory in Color: an exhibition in memory of Katja Mosnaim was held between May 19th - June 15th, 2006 at the Belgium House (Beit Belgia).

The library has produced a booklet in Katja's memory. Many of her friends, colleagues and faculty members have shared their memories and thoughts for this publication. (April 2006)


35mm film Photographs:

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Comments to:
Naavah Levin, email: library at math.huji.ac.il
Mathematics and Computer Science Library
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Last updated: July 12th, 2009