NYPL’s Roberta Saltzman: 'Cataloging is my middle name'
In honor of Women's History Month, each March we take a look back at some of the remarkable women who changed The New York Public Library—and the fields of librarianship and curatorship—forever with our series, Foreword: Women Who Built NYPL. We share reflections from our current staff on how the impact of these trailblazing figures from the Library's 125-year history are still felt today.
Image of Roberta Saltzman from the article "A cookbook craze becomes a rare collection" by Lara Rabinovitch, Forward, June 3, 2009.
Image by Ariel Jankelowitz for Forward
About Roberta Saltzman
Roberta Saltzman (1960-2013) was former Assistant Chief of the New York Public Library’s Dorot Jewish Division, which recently celebrated 125 years. Roberta was a dedicated and passionate librarian known for her meticulous cataloging, research, and bibliographic skills, and her efforts to build the Library's Jewish cookbook collection. The collection includes titles like the Cook book compiled by the Hebrew Ladies' Aid Society of Joplin, Missouri (1912); the German-language Kochbuch für den jüdischen Haushalt und Grossbetrieb published by the Jewish feminist organization Jüdischer Frauenbund in Berlin (1935); and even Jewish cookbooks published by food companies, such as Crisco Recipes for the Jewish Housewife (1933).
Reflection by Dorot Jewish Division Staff
A lifelong resident of Astoria, Queens, Roberta began her NYPL career in 1985 and assisted countless researchers over the years. Roberta’s work lives on in the Library’s catalog, in her bibliographies and collection guides, and perhaps most famously in her cookbook collecting. She built the Jewish Division’s massive global Jewish cookbook collection, scouring online for 700 antique and obscure Jewish cookbooks, which she purchased, donated to the Library, and cataloged. These cookbooks are of great interest to scholars, and particularly document women and far-flung Jewish communities, featuring in articles in Atlas Obscura, Forward, and Fine Books Magazine. Roberta’s detailed cookbook collection guide and her blog posts reflect her deep interest and expertise.
“Roberta always thought so carefully about how to improve the collection, which is harder than it sounds. It's not just a matter of buying the newest books: she would actually notice what was missing. I don't know if she considered herself a feminist, but I know she thought cookbooks had been overlooked because they are associated with women, and it was part of her duty to ensure women's writing and creativity were equally accessible to our researchers as the work of men was.”
“Her cataloging and bibliographic work were not just impeccable, but guided by user needs and interests. She knew I loved working with the Yiddish material, so she guided me to foreground Yiddish materials using library tools like indexes and bibliographies. The index to Zalmen Zylbercweig’s Leksikon fun Yidishn teater (my claim to fame in certain circles) and my bibliography of Esther Kreitman's works were entirely her idea. She also let me add endless 500 and 505 notes to my catalog records, which add extra juice to keyword searches. Cataloging was really a passion for her, which allowed me to see how useful it could be and what a difference good cataloging makes when you're looking for something quite rare or specific. We called her the Cataloguing Queen and used to joke that you had to back up to leave her presence.” — Faith Jones, Former Yiddish Bibliographer, Dorot Jewish Division
Roberta cataloged items in myriad formats and languages, utilizing dozens of dictionaries and tracking down the most obscure research sources. Her enthusiasm for cataloging was such that she utilized the initials “RCS” to mark her work and joked that “cataloging is my middle name”. Roberta was an outstanding bibliographer, painstakingly compiling the book Isaac Bashevis Singer : a bibliography of his works in Yiddish and English, 1960-1991, as well as bibliographies of David Bergelson and other Yiddish writers.
Roberta Saltzman was a treasured colleague whose dedicated work lives on in the Library’s collection and our hearts.
Explore Roberta Saltzmans' Work in the Dorot Jewish Collection
- Jewish Cookbooks at The New York Public Library
- Books on Jewish Cookery in The New York Public Library
- Famous Recipes for Jewish Housewives: Advertising Booklets in the Jewish Division
- From Sanitary Fairs to "The Settlement": Early Charity Cookbooks
- Landsmanshaftn Publications at NYPL
- Playing with Matches: Jewish Deli Ephemera
- Ready with Opekta in 10 Minutes: A Culinary Footnote to the Holocaust
- Snappy Eats of 1932: Jewish Community Cookbooks
- World Jewish Newspapers & Periodicals on Microfilm