The Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge University Library
The Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection is the most important collection of
medieval Jewish manuscripts in the world, containing approximately a third of
a million leaves (divided into 140,000 separate classmarks) from Hebrew,
Aramaic, Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic religious tracts, literary works and
documents, dating principally from the period of the Fatimid and Ayyubid
periods of governance in Egypt (10th to the 13th centuries CE), but with a
considerable from earlier (5th c. CE onwards) and later (up to the 19th c.).
The Collection was recovered from the storeroom (in Hebrew, genizah) of the
Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat (Old Cairo) over a hundred years ago by the
Cambridge scholar Solomon Schechter with the financial assistance of the
Master of St John’s College, Charles Taylor. Since its discovery, the
Collection has had a momentous impact on a great many areas of research,
including the history, language and literature of medieval Jews and Arabs, and
the religion, history and broad culture of the Mediterranean and Near East in
Crusader times. It has, for example, greatly increased our knowledge of
leading ideologies and personalities; provided the earliest known texts of
many literary works; shed light on the early history of Hebrew liturgy and
poetry; and ushered in a new era of Semitic linguistics. Business and other
legal documents have appeared, examples of folk-religion and esoteric
practices have been identified, and the educational, medical and scientific
progress of the age has been charted.
The Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit was established in 1974 at
Cambridge University Library for the purpose of completing the conservation
and description of the T-S manuscripts. In the last thirty-five years the
Collection has been completely conserved and each item individually
classmarked. The detailed description of the manuscripts is ongoing, with
approximately 60% of the Collection fully described in either printed form (the
Genizah Series of catalogues) or electronically through the Genizah Unit’s
online database, GOLD (http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Taylor-Schechter/GOLD/).
The Genizah Research Unit is also responsible for the digitisation of the
Collection, which is currently underway, the preparation of a comprehensive
bibliography of the manuscripts, and it maintains a programme of fund-raising
and public education through articles, exhibitions and lectures. The Unit’s
current staff consists of the Head of the Unit, two full-time research
associates, one part-time research associate, two part-time research
assistants and the Unit secretary.
Duties of the Genizah Unit Research Associate
The person appointed will work under the direction, and report to, the Head of
the Genizah Research Unit, and alongside the other members of the Unit.
The principal work of the post is the identification and detailed description of
medieval and early-modern manuscripts from the Taylor-Schechter and
Jacques Mosseri Genizah Collections, the entry of that data into an electronic
database, and the preparation of at least two scholarly research papers based
upon the material. The research associate will also be expected to answer
queries on the material from the scholarly community and the general public,
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to participate in workshops and public presentations, to make contributions to
the
Unit’s
newsletter
(Genizah
Fragments)
and
website
(http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Taylor-Schechter) and to write quarterly reports on
his/her work.
The current AHRC-funded project involves the description of approximately
14,000 uncatalogued items from the Old Series of the T-S Collection as well
as 1,000 items from the newly re-emerged Jacques Mosseri Genizah
Collection, which is on long-term loan at Cambridge University Library. These
manuscripts are in a number of different languages, but principally in Hebrew,
Judaeo-Arabic, Arabic and Aramaic. It is intended that the person appointed
will work chiefly upon the Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts, which will include
copies of the Mishnah, Talmudim, midrashim, secular and liturgical poetry,
targumim, responsa, grammatical texts and, to a lesser extent, legal
documents, personal letters and magical texts.
Person specification
1
2
Education and qualifications:
A PhD
Essential
Research experience
Essential
Knowledge and experience:
Excellent command of Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic
Essential
Proficiency in Rabbinic, Biblical or Modern Hebrew
Desirable
Familiarity with Aramaic
Desirable
Experience of studying and describing Hebrew
and/or Arabic manuscripts
Desirable
Specialised knowledge in one of the following areas:
geonic or rabbinic literature;
medieval Hebrew grammatical traditions;
medieval Judaeo-Arabic literature
Essential
Proficiency in English, if not a native speaker
Essential
IT literacy
Essential
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3
Personal characteristics/attitudes:
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
Essential
Ability to interact constructively with academic
Essential
and library staff, with researchers and members of the
public
Commitment to highest possible level of service
to users
Essential
Self-motivation, target-setting and time
management skills
Essential
Essential
Ability to work under pressure and to deadlines
Problem-solving and decision-making skills
Desirable
Stipend and pension
The annual stipend for the successful candidate will be determined by the
applicant’s experience and qualifications at an appropriate point on the scale
for Research Associates (Grade 7), £27,319–£35,646 per annum (pro-rata).
Membership of the contributory pension scheme, USS, is available.
Hours of work and leave allowance
The normal full-time hours of work for Officers in the University Library are
9.15 a.m. to 12.45 p.m., 2.00 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. Monday to Friday. The leave
allowance is 41 working days, including those weekdays (e.g. Christmas and
Easter) when the Library is completely closed.
Hours and days to be worked by negotiation.
Conditions of employment
This post is available until 29 February 2012. The appointment is subject to
confirmation on completion of an initial probationary period of 6 months.
The University as an employer
The University of Cambridge is committed in its pursuit of academic
excellence, equality of opportunity and a pro-active and inclusive approach to
equality, which supports and encourages all under-represented groups,
promotes an inclusive culture, and values diversity. The University is therefore
committed to a policy and practice which require that entry into employment
with the University and progression within employment will be determined only
by personal merit and by the application of criteria which are related to the
duties and conditions of each particular post and the needs of the institution
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concerned. No applicant for an appointment in the University, or member of
staff once appointed, will be treated less favourably than another on the
grounds of sex (including gender reassignment), marital or parental status,
race, ethnic or national origin, colour, disability, sexual orientation, religion, or
age. If any employee considers that he or she is suffering from unequal
treatment on any of the above grounds, he or she may make a complaint,
which will be dealt with through the agreed procedures for complaints or
grievances or the procedures for dealing with bullying and harassment, as
appropriate.
FURTHER DETAILS:
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is, one of the oldest universities in the world,
celebrating its 800th anniversary in 2009, and one of the largest in the United
Kingdom. It consists of over 150 separate departments, faculties, schools and
research centres, and has 31 colleges. At all levels about half of the students
at Cambridge study arts and humanities subjects; many of these students
have gone on to become prominent figures in the arts, print and broadcast
media. The University’s achievements in the sciences can be measured by
the sixty or more Nobel Prizes awarded to its members over the years. It
employs ca 2800 academic staff and ca 4000 in supporting roles.
The relationship between the University and the 31 Colleges is best
understood historically. The University was originally established to examine
students and confer degrees. The Colleges were set up as independent, selfgoverning bodies to teach and house the students. Over time, the University
has developed responsibilities for teaching, in the form of lectures, seminars
and practical laboratory work and it provides most of the facilities for research
of which the University Library is one. Colleges are still responsible for
selecting, admitting, and housing all undergraduate students, as well as
providing pastoral and tutorial support. Detailed information on the way the
University
works
is
online
as
part
of
its
website
at
http://www.cam.ac.uk/univ/works/
The University at present has approximately 18,000 full time students,
including nearly 12,000 undergraduates and over 6,000 graduates. About
twenty per cent of the student body is from overseas, coming from more than
one hundred different countries.
Like other British universities, the
University’s income is derived from a wide variety of public and private
sources including grants from government bodies as well as funds from
companies and charities for research.
Cambridge University Library
The University Library was founded in the early 15th century. Today it is one
of the six legal deposit libraries in the British Isles and is thus entitled to claim
copies of all books, journals, maps and music published in the United
Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Its collections, which include over seven
million books, one million maps, rare books from the first European printing
presses to the present day, and a rich variety of manuscript material, range in
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age from 3,000 year-old handwritten texts to current electronic articles. It
makes around 20,000 e-journals and over 400 online databases available to
library readers in the well-equipped Digital Resources Area which opened in
2003 and seven other reading rooms, as well as the wider University. Four
reading rooms were recently equipped with wireless networking facilities.
The Library has been housed in its present building, designed by Sir Giles
Gilbert Scott, since 1934. A substantial extension was opened in 1972, and
further extensions are currently being added.
The University Library, with its four dependent libraries (Central Sciences
Library, Betty and Gordon Moore Library, Medical Library and Squire Law
Library), forms one part of the tripartite system of libraries in Cambridge, the
other two parts being the departmental/faculty libraries and the college
libraries.
The University Library has a total staff of approximately 350 (of whom
between 65–70 are employed on externally funded projects or grants). The
work of the main Library is organised in five Divisions: Administration,
Collection Development and Description, Electronic Services and Systems,
Reader Services and Special Collections and Collection Management. The
Deputy Librarian and a Senior Under-Librarian head each division.