Lloyd George Sealy Library
Haaren Hall
212.237.8246
libref@jjay.cuny.edu
http://www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/
Located in spacious quarters on the first two floors of Haaren Hall, the Lloyd George Sealy Library houses the foremost collection of criminal justice materials in the world. Boasting more than half a million books, periodicals, microforms, films and digital collections, the Library integrates historical and contemporary materials to present a balanced view of the criminal justice field. John Jay and CUNY faculty and students, as well as scholars, practitioners and members of the legal community, come from all over the world use this library.
The Library’s greatest strengths are in the areas of criminal justice, fire science, forensic psychology, forensic science, public administration, social sciences and related fields. Its extensive resources support the research needs of undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and criminal justice agency personnel. The Library holds a number of unique special collections directly related to the mission of the College.
Trial transcripts of the New York criminal courts dating from the 1890s to 1927 provide a rich source for the study of history, sociology and law, and an extensive collection of police department annual reports from all over the United States invites quantitative and comparative studies. There is also a significant body of material dealing with alcoholism and substance abuse. The Library’s extensive media collection, which includes many rare titles and contains approximately 10,000 DVDs and streaming videos, supports classroom instruction as well as research. More than 6 million volumes of books in 20 separate CUNY libraries supplement the Library’s print resources.
The Lloyd George Sealy Library maintains its own website (www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu), providing the entryway to its digital collections. These include more than 200 general and specialized databases; over 160,000 journals and newspapers, U.S. and foreign legal materials; more than 65,000 electronic books; an electronic reserve collection; and over 3,000 rare books, including the Fraud and Swindles Collection.
Students can avail themselves of these resources from off campus utilizing the Library’s proxy server at any hour of the day or night. More than 100 networked computers, providing access to this material, the online catalog and the Internet, are located on the Library’s upper level, along with a classroom equipped for hands-on instruction in utilizing these digital resources.
Personal and professional papers of individuals who have made significant contributions in fields of concern to the College - Burton Turkus, Lewis Lawes, Flora Schreiber, Robert Martinson, Richard Dugsdale, James Fyfe, Marvin Frankel and Gary McGivern, to name a few - as well as archives of social, political and investigative agencies, add to the prestige and scope of the collection. Special collections are available to researchers by appointment and online in our growing collection of digitized images and text.
Specialized reference librarians are available to assist Library users with research questions or with using the databases. Circulation and print reserve services are located at the entry level, along with a computer lab for word processing and other office functions; reference collections and administrative offices are on the upper level. The circulating collection, arranged in open stacks to encourage browsing, is housed on both levels. Student study areas are interspersed throughout the Lloyd George Sealy Library.