Volume 12, Number 2, Spring 2000

From the Desk of the Chief Librarian

     "The very dead of winter,"  to misquote T. S. Eliot,  brought us once again not only bitter cold but some bitter news.   The grim specter of the vandal who mutilates books reared its ugly head to drive home the fact that a significant part of our budget goes to replace books, serials, and periodicals that our students destroy.  We have brought this problem to the attention of the John Jay community before, and we will continue to preach against the philistines so long as the problem persists.

     Unfortunately, book vandals have been with us at least since the time of the destruction of the Alexandria Library in the third century A.D.   Few people realize that the chained book of the Middle Ages was an innovative development in public access, preserving the book but still making it available for use.  We do not expect to revert to these practices of former times, but we must continually remind the students that mutilation and theft of library materials breach the community's trust and mainly hurt fellow students in need of these resources.  These inconsiderate individuals also take away precious funds needed for other, new library materials and programs.  We must be ever vigilant to maintain the integrity of our library.    

     On a more positive note, winter also brought representatives from the Israeli Ministry of Public Security who were researching materials on community policing and the prevention of crime.  Their need for information on these topics naturally brought them to the Sealy Library where they left satisfied and impressed by the amount of information we offered.  We stand ready to help them and other governments around the world with their information needs.  We are once again proud that all criminal justice information roads lead to the Sealy Library.

    And we are pleased to announce  that in the near future we will make many of our electronic resources available to the whole John Jay community from home via a proxy server.  More anon on this exciting development.

Larry Sullivan

 

New Science & Fire Databases

     Forensic Bibliographic Database (FORS) is an exciting acquisition for the College since students are now able to do sophisticated electronic searching for forensic science periodical literature, previously available only in a print index.  This Library- licensed bibliographic database produced by the Forensic Science Society (United Kingdom) covers forensic science, evidential materials, analytical methods, and the presentation and interpretation of findings.  Disciplines covered include: drugs and toxicology; forensic biology, chemistry, medicine and pathology; documents and firearms examination; arson investigation; image processing; fingerprints; and the safety and management of forensic laboratories.  Access to this database is only available in the Library because we have a one-user license.  Searching is done using boolean commands with the SilverPlatter interface Winspirs. 

    Fire Worldwide is another new valuable research tool which provides indexing to fire science and fire service periodicals (most of which the library has) in addition to documents, reports, and books.   This group of databases is produced in the United Kingdom as well and originates from a number of organizations (Loss Prevention Council and Fire Protection Association, and the Forensic Science Society, which provides the component on arson).  The databases can be searched together as a group or individually.  Fire Worldwide can be accessed from anywhere on campus via the Web.  Go to the library’s home page and select Electronic Information Sources, then navigate by title or subject to the link for this database.  SilverPlatter software is utilized with the Web interface (Webspirs) with Boolean searching capabilities.

    Both of these products fill a void in these specialized disciplines which have been lacking reliable indexing and abstracting tools.  The electronic format is, of course, especially valuable in allowing keyword search capabilities, and their software is very user-friendly. 

Kathy Killoran

New Guides for Research

        This semester you’ll see many changes in the Library with respect to our electronic access collection. We have acquired many new databases which provide access to materials not previously available at John Jay or which offer new electronic versions of familiar sources.  To assist patrons in learning to navigate the various new interfaces and familiarizing themselves with the new capabilities each database has to offer, several librarians have developed handouts illustrating the use of many of these.  Among these are guides to such electronic indexes as Index to Legal Periodicals (Jane Dorfman), and America: History and Life (Barbara Carrel), and to the full text sources Contemporary Women’s Issues (Olga François), Lexis-Nexis (Nancy Egan), Infotrac Expanded Academic (Catherine Stern), Criminal Justice Periodical Index (Olga François), and Ethnic NewsWatch (Jane Dorfman).

     These guides instruct users on how to perform basic and advanced searches, and view, sort, download, print, save, or email your results. As we are always updating our collection of library resource guides, it is a good idea to stop in and browse or call the reference desk if you would like any guides mailed to your office.

Nancy Egan

Faculty Favorites

 .........In which faculty comment on their favorite book.

     Mary Gibson:  The Secret Agent,  by Joseph Conrad.  (1907).  “A doctoral student recently lent me this novel and it quickly became a favorite.  Not only is it a literary gem, but the plot involves the machinations of anarchist terrorists and police officers in  late nineteenth century London.  I was most delighted by Conrad’s references to the criminological theories of Cesare Lombroso, the subject of my current research!”

 

    Bob Sullivan: The First World War, by John Keegan.  (1998).  “Keegan established his considerable reputation while skirting the edges of the century’s most important war, so this is a long-awaited book.  It provides expert  and if aesthetics is admissible in this territory  elegant coverage of the strategic issues of the war.  It does this while never losing sight of the daily experience of the troops.  Since one of my hobbies is to visit First World War battlefields, cemeteries and monuments, and to understand this miserable conflict in its own terms, the book is a real delight to me.  It’s like watching the birth of the twentieth century.  One complaint: it needs more maps.”              

 Janice Dunham

 

International Affairs Online

    The Library now subscribes to the CIAO database, Columbia International Affairs Online, which brings together materials on international affairs that would otherwise not be readily available.  In a steadily increasing variety, it contains working papers, conference proceedings, policy briefs, economic indicators, books, journal abstracts, announcements, an events calendar, and selected Web links issued by more than one hundred  scholarly research centers.  Contributors include the Conference Board, the Brookings Institution, the Cato Institute, and International Security Information Services.

    This month’s highlighted topic is Changes in Iran, with seven papers from CIAO’s contributing organizations and five outside links, including one from Iran’s embassy to the U.K.   In looking for a specific topic in this amorphous database, it’s best to use Search” or “Index” from the blue bar on the left of the Homepage.  “Maps” are disappointing because they are simply reproductions from the CIA Factbook.  “Citing CIAO,” another blue bar item, is useful for students.

     This a  new subscription that we hope you will find useful.  Try it from the Library Homepage: Electronic Information Sources/ Resources by Title.  If you desire access from off-campus, use “Register Username” in the blue bar on the left of CIAO’s Homepage.   

      Janice Dunham

Faculty Member’s Royalties to Library

     Dr. Louis Schlesinger of the Psychology Department has, for a second year, donated to the library the royalties he earned from the books his students are required to purchase for his class.  He believes it inappropriate for him to earn money on sales to his students.  The Library is most grateful for his generosity and his principles.

Spring Book Sale

     The John Jay Retiree Volunteers and the Library  Staff will hold the annual Library Book Sale on  April 10 and 11 this year from noon until 7 p.m.  in the Theater Lobby.  We welcome all book  donations, but we are also in need of your time. If you can donate a few hours to help sell books,  please call or e-mail Jane Davenport.

Fair Use of Copyrighted Materials

    In our eagerness to protect ourselves from the possibility of lawsuits, we tend to forget that there are certain rights granted to us by the copyright law.  The law explicitly gives us the right to reproduce copyrighted materials when such use falls under the category of "fair use." 

    The law lays down four factors to be considered when deciding whether or not the use is fair.  These are the purpose of the use, the nature of the work, the amount of the work copied, and the effect of the use on the market for that work (17 USC 107 ).  The "Fair Use Guidelines," published as part of the legislative history of Section 107, delineate that an entire prose item that consists of less than 2,500 words may be photocopied for spontaneous distribution to a class, without the need to seek permission from the copyright holder.

    Fair use rights are not subject to the will of any individual publisher and cannot be disallowed by the publisher.  The user must in good faith assess whether fair use is involved on a case-by-case basis.  The fair use guidelines help us by indicating the absolute minimum that we can copy under fair use.  Difficulties arise because the guidelines do not tell us the maximum amount we can copy without permission.

    It is when we wish to reproduce more than the minimum, and we are unsure if our use is fair or not, that we approach the copyright holder for permission. 

Ellen Sexton

Web Page Developments

    The Sealy Library web pages have a new look.  Our homepage (see address above) has been redesigned to make navigating the site simpler and faster.  The same basic links are there: CUNY+ (the online library catalog), Sealy Library information, Research Guides and Bibliographies, Selected Internet Links, CUNY Information, and links to Library hosted discussion groups and web pages (Law Enforcement News, Criminal Justice Ethics, Assoc. of Inspectors General, and Corrections Telecommunications and Technology).

    The main change, besides the design, is the link to Electronic Information Sources.  This page provides a choice of five links to lists of electronic information resources, all of which are high quality resources, and most of which are licensed, subscription services available only to members of the John Jay or CUNY communities.  Since some of these resources use different user interfaces depending on whether you are in the Library or in your office or home, we recommend that if you are accessing these pages from outside the Library, you use one of the first two links: Resources by Subject or Resources by Title.  These pages provide complete lists of the online bibliographic and reference sources available to John Jay users.

    If you know the source you want, use Resources by Title.  For example, to get to LEXIS-NEXIS, click on Electronic Information Sources, then Resources by Title, and then on L to get to the LEXIS-NEXIS link.  If you are not sure where to look, use the Resources by Subject list to explore the myriad high-quality electronic sources.                                                  

Bonnie Nelson

Periodical Database Changing

    As of December 1999, the DPER periodical database on CUNY+ is no longer updated.  Our subscription to the indexes in DPER continues through World Wide Web access.  The indexes included are the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, Social Science Index, Humanities Index, and General Science Index. 

    Web access makes searching easier and expands advanced searching capabilities.  Faculty have access from home via their proxy accounts and soon students will. Periodical title and date coverage (indexing from about the last 15 years) is the same as for DPER.  The indexes can be searched individually or collectively.

     From the Library's home page, select "Electronic Information Resources" and then "Resources by Title."  This will bring you to the general WilsonWeb page where you must re-select the desired database.  Look for upcoming instructional material on searching.  Many of the other databases which were formerly available through CUNY+ will be accessed this way.

    Also beware that the newspaper databases on CUNY+ (NEWC & NEWB) are not current either.  Coverage stops with July of 1999.  Lexis/Nexis was preferred as the University's newspaper database since it contains the full-text of hundreds of American papers. 

                                    Kathy Killoran

Farewell Soon to DPAC

     The CUNY library catalog, a NOTIS software system, is slipping into old age and needs to be retired.  Last year, CUNY librarians attended demonstrations of a number of  library database systems, resulting in CUNY’s Council of Chief Librarians deciding in favor of a system called ALEPH.  Developed at Israel’s Hebrew University by the company Ex Libris, ALEPH is now used by over five hundred libraries across the world.  In the U.S., Notre-Dame and the U. of Iowa have ALEPH in use as their catalog.  Boston College and Brandeis are in transition to ALEPH, as is SUNY.

    ALEPH’s flexibility makes it unusually adaptable to the changes in technology that continue to appear on the horizon.  It will be possible to move  seamlessly from URLs indicated in the library catalog to the WWW .  With ALEPH, it is possible for patrons to make automatic ILL requests and  immediate hold requests for circulating books. Electronic reserves are greatly facilitated.  A multilingual system, its flexibility allows easy customizing for individual needs.  Details about ALEPH are available at www.exlibris-usa.com

Ellen Sexton

Book Browsers

Berry, Mary Frances.  The pig farmer’s daughter and other tales of American justice: episodes of racism and sexism in the courts from 1865 to the present. New York: Knopf, 1999.  KF  4757 .B44 `1999

Best, Joel. Random violence: how we talk about new crimes and new victims. Berkeley: Univ. Cal. Press, 1999.  HV 7936 .P8 K54 1999

 Conley, Carolyn.  Melancholy accidents: the meaning of violence in post-famine Ireland.  Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 1999.  HN 400.3 .Z9 V53 1999

Doing time: twenty-five years of prison writing from the PEN program, edited by Bell Gale Chevigny.  NY: Arcade Pub., 1999.  PS 506 .P7 D65 1999

Hall, John A.  Is America breaking apart? Princeton: Princeton U. Pr., 1999.  HN 59.2 .H34 1999

Hunter, Robert W.  Spy hunter: inside the FBI investigation of the Walker espionage case.  Annapolis: Naval Institute Pr., 1999.  UB 271 .R92 W34375 1999

The Killing State: capital punishment in law, politics, and culture, edited by Austin Sarat.  NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1999.  KF 9227 .C2 K56 1999

Pizzi, William T.  Trials without truth: why our system of criminal trials has become an expensive failure and what we need to do to rebuild it.  New York: NYU Press, 1999.  KF 9223 .P58 1999

Whiting, Robert.  Tokyo underworld: the fast times and hard life of an American gangster in Japan.  N.Y.: Pantheon Books, 1999.  HV 6248 .Z36 W48 1999

Marlene Kandel

LIBRARY HOURS, SPRING 2000

Monday - Thursday...............................9am - 10pm

Friday......................................................9am - 5pm

Saturday................................................12pm - 5pm

Saturday, starting 2/26..........................10am - 6pm

Sat/Sun, 5/13, 5/14, 5/20 & 5/21..........10am - 8pm

Sunday..................................................12am - 5pm

Sunday, starting 4/2..............................10am - 6pm

Sunday, 5/14 & 5/21.............................10am - 8pm

4/19, 4/20 & 4/24 - 4/27........................10am - 5pm

4/21 & 4/28...........................................10am - 5pm

Friday 5/26..............................................9am - 8pm

5/30............. 10am - 5pm;  5/31........... 10am - 7pm

CLOSED: 4/22, 4/23, 5/27 - 5/29

 LIBRARY FACULTY

Larry Sullivan, Chief Librarian, 8265, lesjj@cunyvm

Marvie Brooks, Reference,  8261, mbbjj@cunyvm

Jane Davenport, Collection Development, 8236, janedavenport@yahoo.com

Janice Dunham, Associate Librarian for Public Services, 8256, janjj@cunyvm

Nancy Egan, Reference, Interlibrary Loan, 8269, nanjj@cunyvm

Dolores Grande, Serials, 8235, dmgjj@cunyvm

Marlene Kandel, Cataloger, Coordinator for Technical Services, 8237, mkkjj@cunyvm

Katherine Killoran, Reference, Circulation, Library Instruction, 8263, kbkjj@cunyvm

Maria Kiriakova, Reference, 8260,mvkjj@cunyvm

Bonnie Nelson, Associate Librarian for Information Systems, 8267, bnelson@jjay.cuny.edu

Ellen Sexton, Reference, Reserve, 8258, easjj@cunyvm

Antony Simpson, Reference, (on leave, spring 2000) 8242, asimpson@jjay.cuny.edu

Han Huang, Vladislav Safyanovskiy, Systems Adjuncts; Barbara Carrel, Jane Dorfman, Olga François, Jane Greenlaw, James Kuslan, Catherine Stern, Reference Adjuncts

Full-time Support  Staff

Dee Dee Aikens: Interlibrary Loan, 8257

Dawn Battle: Cataloging, 8230

Saundra Dancy: Circulation, 8224

Michelle Dutton: Acquisitions, 8230

Anne Kovac, Juana Polanco: Serials, 8230

Circulation: 8225

Reference: 8246

 Jane Davenport, Editor