CBI Library

Welcome to the CBI Library, located on the main floor at the rear of the classroom wing. The library is open all hours of building opening, except when occasional meetings or classes are held there. The Library Committee oversees the Library.

Approximately 2,700 items spanning a wide range of Jewish interest comprise the collection. They include adult fiction and literature, Bible, Judaism, Israel, history, Holocaust, biography, art, cooking, music, and travel. Reference books, including dictionaries, the Encyclopaedia Judaica, some atlases, and a small video collection are also available. The library has a large number of children's titles in the areas of holidays, Bible stories, Hebrew language, picture books, and fiction and nonfiction for all ages. Our children's collection also supports the religious school curriculum.

Books circulate to congregants, their families, and the community. Each has a checkout card on the inside back cover. Circulation instructions are posted. Please include your first and last name and a phone number on the checkout card. There is a box on the cabinet to hold the cards.

Books are shelved by subject using a system developed for synagogue libraries. The system is similar to the one in use at our local public library. There is a separate section for children's books. Library volunteers are working to complete an online catalog for the library. In the future you will be able to search items on the library's computer by title, author, subject, and keyword.

We thank all of you who so generously donate funds and both new and gently used materials to the library. Only through your support are we able to purchase and maintain resources to enhance Jewish knowledge and life in Charlottesville. The Library Committee makes decisions on materials to be placed in the collection based on appropriateness, physical condition, and duplication. Materials not retained may be donated to other libraries or institutions.