An annual highlight of the spring semester is the YU Seforim Sale. Famous for the “Seforim Sale” sweatshirts which students can be seen sporting well into finals week. The Seforim Sale is the largest Jewish book sale in North America. Tremendous work goes into the production of the Seforim Sale, and though the Sale’s machine may have previously been well-oiled, this year’s team has straightened out any remaining kinks.
The five head administrators have worked nearly around the clock to ensure that the Sale would be up and running come February 3rd. A few of their preliminary tasks included reading over 200 applications from volunteers, ordering seforim from publishers, and deliberating over which section each book should be placed in. The team worked all through winter break to accept shipments from larger companies, and began organizing and unloading the hundreds of different titles.
This year, the staff was challenged with the installment of a new computer lab in the basement of Belfer Hall, which replaced the storage room for the Sale’s ‘setland,’ wherein seforim that come in volumes as many as 13 are stored, and only a sample of each set is displayed for the customers. The team was forced to utilize the same sized room in Belfer as in years’ past, displaying the same amount if not more seforim, after dedicating an entire corner to ‘setland.’ The team made the executive decision to have all English books, novels, and biographies span across the left side of the room, and to place all Hebrew seforim along the right side of the room. This divided display sounds simple, but it highlights the team’s focus on a neat appearance and a user-friendly initiative, which includes providing new baskets for the consumers’ shopping experience.
Some new improvements to the Sale include an updated POS (Point of Service) system, which analyzes inventory and tracks sales. Also, with an upgrade of user-friendly iPads for the cashiers, lines are minimized as receipts can be emailed via these iPads. In addition, for the first time, this year each cashier’s station boasts a cash register, thereby accelerating the pace of the lines. Furthermore, the cash registers are placed on an additional shelf right below the cashiers’ table to maximize space for scanning patrons’ books, while also contributing to the team’s vision of neatness.
Yet the integration of technology does not stop at a POS system and iPads. The team has taken full advantage of all that social media has to offer by launching a campaign called #Seforim4Sandy. The campaign is in response to the devastation many shuls across the Tri State Area endured from the wrath of Hurricane Sandy. The Seforim Sale offered $10,000 worth of seforim to the shul that received the most votes on Facebook after being posted on to the #Seforim4Sandy Facebook wall or Twitter feed. An organization called Achiezer helped the team narrow down the names of the shuls to six nominees for the actual contest. Congratulations to the Young Israel of Oceanside for their endowment of $10,000 worth of new seforim!
The beautiful part of the contest is that its efforts extend beyond the enormous generosity to the Young Israel of Oceanside. The other five nominees that had been in the running were given the opportunity to create a registry of seforim they needed in order to replenish all that was lost in the hurricane, and anyone can make these shuls’ wishes a reality by logging on to their registries on the Seforim Sale website.
The inclusion and professional usage of technology in this year’s Sale is one that underlines the potential of all that 2013 has to offer. The Seforim Sale’s executive team strives to promote cooperation between all of the volunteers through basic programs such as GoogleDocs, which organizes the shifts of volunteers working at the different sections. With smartphones in nearly every pocket, each member of the executive team maintains a steady stream of communication via email at any point in the day. The subject lines of the emails are often witty and filled with alliterations, but the content is often informative too. It is with humor and positivity that we Stern volunteers are encouraged to board our exclusive Sale busses to head uptown.