Navigating Resources at the Lloyd Sealy Library, John Jay College

The Lloyd Sealy Library at John Jay College serves as the knowledge center for the College community, providing access to a vast world of criminal justice and related fields. With extensive collections and a commitment to inclusivity, the library supports the learning, teaching, and research needs of students and faculty. This includes supporting the College’s efforts to enact the Seven Principles for a Culturally Responsive, Inclusive, and Anti-Racist Curriculum, and its commitment to access and excellence in higher education.

Comprehensive Collections and Resources

The library boasts more than half a million books, periodicals, microforms, films, and digital collections. These resources integrate historical and contemporary materials, offering a balanced view of the field of criminal justice. These collections are invaluable to faculty, students, scholars, practitioners, and members of the criminal justice and legal communities worldwide.

Accessing Materials

The library provides access to books, research databases, and computer workstations. Students can work individually or in groups.

Online Catalog and Search Strategies

The library employs various approaches to help users locate relevant materials. These include the use of the online catalog, CUNY Plus, which catalogues books by keyword or by standard subject heading, journal articles, available sources of statistics, the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, and supplementary material.

Keyword searching, which requires some skill and is more helpful than standard subject headings for comparative research, picks up words or phrases that appear anywhere among the author, subject, title, and other fields in the computer record that describes each book. In most instances, it is necessary to use an index to locate relevant journal articles.

Sources of statistics include special reports, the "International Crime Statistics" that is compiled biennially since 1950 by the International Criminal Police Organization, the U.N. World Crime Surveys which are taken at 5-year intervals since 1976, current national statistics compendiums, and CUNY Plus which includes criminal statistics as one of the catalog's standard subject headings. Since 1972, the National Institute of Justice microfiches material it receives and sends it out to selected libraries. The microfiche collection of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service now numbers over 30,000 documents.

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Services

For research materials not available within the Lloyd Sealy Library, students and faculty can utilize the interlibrary loan (ILL) service.

Requesting Materials

To request materials through ILL:

Complete the request form that corresponds to the type of material you are requesting (e.g. book or article).
Submit requests via OCLC WorldShare ILL. The OCLC symbol is VVJ.

Delivery Times

Books will typically be available for pick up from the first-floor circulation desk within 1-2 weeks, depending on the title. Articles, book chapters, and other scanned items will be ready to download from your ILL account typically within a week, depending on the title.

Accessing Downloadable Materials

Scanned materials are available for download from your account for a 30-day period from the date it has been received. You will have 30 days from the time your document is received to download it from your ILL account. The library will upload the document to your ILL account under the "Electronically Received Articles" section of the main menu.

To access your materials:

Log into your ILL account.
Under the "Request Information" table you will see the request's "Transaction Status".

Ebooks and Loan Periods

Ebooks are difficult to obtain via ILL due to publishers' licensing restrictions. Loan periods for books and other materials vary depending on the lending library's policies.

Restrictions

Limitations might be placed on book requests for undergraduate students depending on the title. Restrictions might apply to the number of books an undergraduate student can submit, depending on the title(s) requested. For article requests, there might be copyright restrictions on the number of articles you can request from a single journal issue or title without paying a copyright fee.

Renewals

To renew a book, look for the "Renew" button near the book title. The "Renew" button will be inactive/unclickable if the lending library does not allow renewals.

Lending Policies

The library lends to non-profit and academic institutions around the world, supplying items from its circulating "stacks" collection along with scans of journal articles, book chapters, and other materials.

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Request Limits

Generally, there is no limit to the number of requests. However, if the library receives more than 10 requests per day, it may take a few business days to process them. If a request cannot be fulfilled by a supplying library, the user will be notified.

Additional Resources and Support for Faculty and Students

Beyond its core collections and ILL services, the Lloyd Sealy Library and John Jay College offer a range of additional resources and support for both faculty and students.

Faculty Professional Development

Resources for faculty professional development are provided. This includes information on how to create an individual account (free) with the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD), which hosts webinars, writing challenges, and blogs on faculty development issues and topics for faculty across career levels. This resource is available to all faculty.

All faculty are encouraged to take part in the various professional development opportunities available through John Jay’s Teaching and Learning Center (TLC). The TLC regularly offers workshops, webinars, year-long faculty development seminars (which typically pay a stipend), and small program improvement grants for faculty. Perhaps the largest initiative is Faculty Development Day, which occurs approximately the day before classes begin each Fall and Spring semester. It is a campus-wide event that provides a wide range of professional development opportunities for faculty, most heavily focused on pedagogy. This includes webinars, podcasts, Brightspace support, and individual support and assistance for faculty. This support could range from answering questions to providing individual course design consultation. Faculty wishing to teach online for the first time must take the CUNY Online Teaching Workshop.

College Resources for Faculty

Faculty can access and download John Jay College and CUNY logos, as well as templates that include the College logo for College-related events (e.g., flyer/poster for speaker on campus; PowerPoint slides for conference talk) on the intranet. There are stationery, business card and newsletter templates as well, and information on official John Jay branding and graphics styles. There are also forms for faculty to request assistance from the Marketing and Communications Office (e.g., to add content to the Media Wall; for video production; social media posting).

Tuition Waivers

Full-time instructional faculty and staff are eligible for tuition waivers for courses they take at any CUNY campus after one year of service for undergraduate courses and without a service requirement for graduate courses. Tuition may be waived for an unlimited number of undergraduate credits and for no more than six graduate credits per semester. Tuition waivers are granted only for a fall or spring semester and are valid for one semester.

Other Resources for Students and Staff

Food and Beverage Services: Available in the Cafeteria (2nd floor, New Building, west side), and Lil’ Jay’s (L3, New Building, corner of W58th St and 11th Ave). Hours are posted at each location.
Children’s Center: Located in room L3.61.00 NB (just inside 11th Avenue entrance), the Children’s Center at John Jay College provides a high-quality early childhood program to meet the needs of both young children and their families. The professional staff of teachers and aides provides a rich early childhood education program designed for children ages six months through pre-kindergarten (6 months - 5 years). Faculty and staff are welcome to submit an application for admission; however, priority for admission is given to John Jay student-parents. Admission is on a first come, first served basis.
Lactation Room: A lactation room is available for nursing mothers on the 5th floor of Haaren Hall on the far-south side of the balcony that overlooks the gym (for map and information).
Emergency Funding and Food Bank: For students who are struggling with food insecurity or need emergency funds. There is a food bank and several emergency funding options (including grants, metro cards, and food vouchers) which are provided to students in need. A student can receive a Book Voucher once per semester in order to purchase up to $500.00 worth of textbooks and/or textbook codes.
MSRC (Math and Science Resource Center): The MSRC offers one-on-one, appointment-based tutoring free of charge to current John Jay students.
Major Advising: For students with Major Advising holds, they should see their major coordinator in the academic departments (ADV-MJADV).
Athletics: For students seeking athletic opportunities on teams (basketball, cross country, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, volleyball). All John Jay matriculated students (undergraduate and graduate) are also granted free access to the recreation and intramurals facilities with a valid student ID.212-237-8371HH 421
Student Academic Success Programs (SASP): SASP First Year Programs are for undergraduate students who are not part of the APPLE Corps, ACE, Honors or SEEK programs and are interested/enrolled in a First Year Seminar. SASP Sophomore Programs are for students interested/ enrolled in Sophomore Signature courses. SASP Transfer and CJA programs are for incoming CUNY Justice Academy transfer students and students interested/enrolled in Transfer Transition Seminars.
PRISM (Program for Research Initiatives in Science and Math): PRISM offers programming for John Jay students majoring in STEM. The PRISM Undergraduate Research Program (URP) provides science, math, and computer science students who are interested in the process of scientific research while completing their degree the opportunity to join a research project with a faculty member. The PRISM Junior Scholars Program provides academic support and advisement to science and math students of all levels. Applications accepted annually from February 1 to April 1, to begin the program the following fall. Current undergraduate and graduate degree students, including undocumented students and students with DACA, who are facing emergencies that are impeding their ability to continue forward in their degree program. Students must first complete the FAFSA to determine need and remaining Financial Aid funding that could be applied, if any. (Undocumented students need not complete a FAFSA.) After FAFSA is loaded, Financial Aid advisor confirms need.

Library Events

The Library hosts a variety of events throughout the year, including the Library Author Series, which invites John Jay authors to discuss their books and research.

Library Staff and Contact Information

The Lloyd Sealy Library employs expert faculty and staff dedicated to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment. For public safety issues and medical emergencies on campus, dial ext. 8888, which rings at all Public Safety locations.

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