Jerusalem, June 2, 2008 – The new Berel and Agnes Ginges–Australia Library Information Center being dedicated this week will provide students and staff on the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with new, swift and modern computerized access to library contents.

The center, located in the Bloomfield Library for Humanities, Social Sciences and Business Administration -- the central library of the Mount Scopus campus -- will be dedicated on Tuesday, June 3, in the presence of the donors during the 71st meeting of the university’s Board of Governors.

The new center will create a great change in the way students and staff are able to use the library. Until now, the hundreds of thousands of books and other materials on the shelves were located through a system using a computerized index, but this still involved a lengthy process of actually seeking out the material.

The new Library Information Center will enable users to use computer technology to access directly a rapidly growing number of electronic books, journals and data bases. The student will not have to leave the computer desk to open a book or a page or receive face-to-face library assistance, though these more traditional approaches will still be available.

The center will include dozens of computerized individual and group-study stations and a computer classroom. In addition, wireless Internet access and a large number of plugs for laptops will also be available. New computers, which are to be incorporated in the center, will have the highest graphic resolution necessary for students of communications, theater, music, art and geography.  All technical assistance, such as copiers and printers, will also be available.

The  Berel and Agnes Ginges-Australia Library Information Center is similar to the Prusiner Medical Information Center at the Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine, dedicated last year, which was  provided by the Ginges Family of Sydney in honor of  Nobel Prize winner Stanley B. Prusiner.

For further information:

Jerry Barach, Dept. of Media Relations, the Hebrew University,

Tel: 02-588-2904.  Orit Sulitzeanu, Hebrew University spokesperson, Tel: 054-8820016.