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 JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE LLOYD SEALY LIBRARY |
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| Classified Information The Library Newsletter Volume 9, Number 2 Spring 1997 |
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CONTENTS: |
From the Desk of the Chief Librarian
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As the year 1524 approached, astrologers preached dire warnings of disastrous floods as all the planets began to converge in the constellation Pisces. I was reminded of this Great Conjunction of 1524, and the prospect of a second universal deluge, when I walked into the Library on January 2 and saw water cascading from broken pipes, flooding large areas of the Library. The flood did not sweep Sealy Library away completely, but many volumes were soaked. Through a superhuman effort by all the Library staff (we cannot praise them highly enough) we were able to salvage many of our unique library items. The flood did cause extensive damage, to the tune of over $100,000. Given our lean budget this year, and with no prospect of increased state funds (nay, probably a decrease) next year, the Library is in dire straits. We have been making great strides in building our collections, but this disaster has been a serious setback. The replacement of damaged material will surely impede our progress. On a positive note, the New Year also brought reinforcement of our contention that the Sealy Library collections are rare in the criminal justice world. We recently hosted scholars from France and Italy doing research on serial killers, who could not find sufficient material in their respective countries. They made their way to us and waxed eloquent about our rich collections. And just as we went to press, the N.Y.C. Dept. of Investigation, preparing for hearings on gambling, made an urgent request for one of our items. We responded with alacrity at yet another sign of John Jay's prestige as the premier criminal justice institution. We trust
that in future newsletters, we will have only positive developments to
report, with no further catastrophes (or astrological divinations).
Larry Sullivan
The Library has recently added the PAIS International database to the CD-ROM network. PAIS indexes journals, government documents, books and reports relating to the fields of public and social policy, with special emphasis on factual and statistical information. Publications that are covered range from academic journals in the social sciences to professional publications in the fields of business, law, finance, education and social work, as well as reports and commentary on public affairs. Coverage of individual periodical titles is not comprehensive, with articles selectively chosen based on their relevance to public policy, administration and legislation.
PAIS is published by a non-profit educational corporation at The New
York Public Library and reflects that library’s holdings. Their CD-ROM
indexes material from 1972 to the present and is updated quarterly.
It runs under the user-friendly SPIRS software which several of our other
CD-ROM products (PsychLit, Sociofile, Criminal Justice Abstracts)
also employ. A brief searching guide can be found near the Reference
Desk on the second floor of the Library.
Kathy Killoran
The Lloyd Sealy Library is extending a new courtesy to John Jay Faculty
members on a trial basis. Due to an upgrade of the CUNY+ circulation
software, books may now be renewed over the telephone by calling the Circulation
Librarian, Kathy Killoran [ext. 8263], or the Circulation Supervisor, Saundra
Dancy [ext. 8224]. Renewals may also be made in person at the Circulation
Desk without bringing in the actual book. Faculty will be responsible
for keeping track of their new due dates, and overdue fines remain in effect.
On February 1, all college computers with Internet connections were activated for a trial demonstration of periodical articles in full text via the World Wide Web. This is the first of four product demonstrations that the University is testing for possible adoption. The URL for the first trial is: http://www.searchbank.com/searchbank/central. This demonstration will be followed by three other trials of full-text periodical databases. Each succeeding demonstration will start on the first of the month and will be available for two months. The Library will announce the URLs as they become available, but the easiest way to access the demonstrations throughout the semester is through the CUNY Libraries Homepage: http://libraries.cuny.edu.
The University's purpose in mounting these demonstrations is to estimate
if there is sufficient interest, value and ease of use in these products
for the University to underwrite a subscription. If so, which of
the four is best? There is a standard short evaluation form for your
comments. Please ask for it, and I will be happy to answer questions
(x8256). Call Tony Simpson (x8242) to schedule a class session if you wish
your classes to try it out. If we do not provide feedback, it is
unlikely that the University will continue the service.
Janice Dunham
The Sealy Library now has new World Wide Web pages at a new Internet address: http://www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu We have completely revised our links to WWW information resources to keep up with the evolving nature of the Web. The accent here is on the needs of our users, as we have heard them expressed across the reference desk and in conversation with faculty. We will continue to change these resource pages to provide the shortest route to some of the best Internet resources available in our mission areas. During the course of the semester, we will load onto our server more of the Library’s research guides and adding new WWW links.
As in the past, you will still find general information about the library
( hours and contacts), access to the Encyclopedia Britannica (on
campus), CUNY+, information about our electronic distribution lists,
and Library research guides and bibliographies.
Bonnie Nelson
...in which faculty members continue to share their thoughts on a favorite book. Michael Blitz: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. (1960) “There are a few books that have remained favorites for much of my life. One is To Kill a Mockingbird. I have always loved the way Harper Lee weaves together two distinct story lines: the comingofage of two children, Jem and Scout, and the social, legal, and philosophical struggles their attorney father, Atticus Finch, engages in when he agrees to defend a Negro falsely charged of raping a white woman in the Deep South. Many of the passages are memorable, such as when Atticus reassures his children at various times, "It's not time to worry. I'll let you know when." The character of Atticus provides a wonderful model of a man driven by a sense of fairness not only toward his fellow human being, but toward himself and in the ways he has chosen to raise his children. At every turn, he quietly insists that his children choose peace over violence, knowledge over ignorance, justice over revenge, clearheadedness over rage. And the continued relevance of the civil and human rights issues raised throughout the story make it a book worth reading today.” Suzanne Iasenza: The Black Unicorn by Audre Lorde. (1978). “This book of poems by Audre Lorde never fails to inspire a feeling of empowerment, solidarity and community on each of my many readings. Its global focus makes it universally appealing”. Peter Barnett:
“It would have to be a toss-up between the New Testament and Plato’s
Dialogues, but anything I could say as to why would have to be trite!”
A single password is available for students
and faculty to use Lexis/Nexis, a computerized database similar
to Westlaw, in the Library. By strict contractual terms, this
password may only be used for direct class preparation. If you have
Lexis experience, you may sign up for one hour’s use at a time.
If you have no experience, you may take a Lexis class in the library
classroom. There may be a full-service password in the future.
Course Reserve lists and materials can now be found using the library's on-line catalog, thanks to the installation of a software upgrade in January. Users can now search, using the name of a course or professor, to see a list of items that have been put on reserve for them. Items can then be requested at the Reserve Desk. Any new material that is added to the Reserve collection during or after this semester will have in its CUNY+ record the initials JJ added both to the course name and to the "other" field. This will allow us to restrict searches to the articles on Reserve at John Jay rather than to include reserve articles at all of the CUNY libraries. As the semester proceeds, we will be editing the records of the older Reserve materials and hope, by the end of the semester, to be able to specify John Jay in our searches of both the old and new materials. For the moment, it is necessary to search courses twice -- once without the initials JJ, and once with them. For example, for Professor Doe's “Introduction to Legal Studies” class, one would type LAW 101 JJ in the course field , Doe in the instructor field and JJ in the “other” field. For the second search , one would type LAW 101 and Doe, leaving the “other” field blank. Combining the results of the two searches yields a complete listing of the reserve materials for the class. A guide sheet is available at the Reference Desk which explains how to search the Course Reserve database.
We hope that being able to get lists of reserve readings from CUNY+
will help to make our reserve collection easier to use. Please remember
to notify me if you see any reserve items listed that you are no longer
using or information that is inaccurate, so that we can delete or amend
the record.
Ellen Sexton
The reference staff has prepared two new guides for finding information
efficiently on the World Wide Web. The first, “Evaluating Information
Sources on the WWW,” is a checklist of general criteria for judging the
authority, accuracy, objectivity, and currency of information found on
Websites. The second, “Legal Resources on the Web,” describes Websites
that provide court decisions, constitutions, codes, and legal reference
tools. “Meta-sites” are listed there that give comprehensive coverage
of law and guidance to additional legal resources on the Web.
Adams, Bruce. The Politics of punishment: Prison reform in Russia 1863-1917. DeKalb: Northern Illinois Univ. Press, 1996. HV 9712 .A63 1996 Beck, Roy Howard. The case against immigration. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. JV 6471 .B43 1996. Chin, Ko-lin. Chinatown gangs: extortion, enterprise, and ethnicity. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. HV 6439 .U7 N433 1996 Dash, Leon. Rosa Lee: a mother and her family in urban America. New York: Basic Books, 1996. E 185.86 .D37 1996 Dusky, Lorraine. Still unequal: the shameful truth about women and justice in America. New York: Crown Publishers, 1996. KF 4758 .D87 1996 Eskridge, William N. The case for same-sex marriage: from sexual liberty to civilized commitment. New York: Free Press, 1996. HQ 76.3 .U5 E85 1996 Feagin, Joe R. The agony of education: Black students at white colleges and universities. New York: Routledge, 1996. LC 2781.7 .F43 1996 Gale, Dennis E. Understanding urban unrest: from Reverend King to Rodney King. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1996. HN 90 .V5 G35 1996 Haines, Herbert H. Against capital punishment: the anti-death penalty movement in America, 1972-1994. New York: Oxford, 1996. HV 8699 .U5 H35 1996 Hate Speech. ed Rita Whillock, David Slayden. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1995. P95.54 .H38 1995 Higginbotham, A. Leon. Shades of Freedom: racial politics and presumptions of the American legal process. New York: Oxford, 1996. KF 4757 .H535 1996 Huff, C. Ronald, Arye Ratner, Edward Sagarin. Convicted but innocent: wrongful conviction and public policy. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1996. KF 9756 .H84 1996 McWhirter, Darien. The end of affirmative action: where do we go from here? New York: Carol Publishing, 1996. HF 5549.5 .A34 M38 1996 Magida, Arthur J. Prophet of rage: a life of Louis Farrakhan and his nation. New York: Basic Books, 1996. BP223 Z8 F3846 1996 Muy Macho: Latino men confront their manhood. ed. Ray Gonzalez. New York: Anchor Books, 1996. E 184 .S75 M89 1996 Ofari, Earl. The assassination of the Black maleimage. N. Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1996. E 185.86 .O33 1996 Oshinsky, David. Worse than slavery: Parchman farm and the ordeal of Jim Crow justice. N.Y.: Free Press, 1996. HV 9475 .M72 M576 1996 Pierson, John. Spike, Mike, slackers, & dykes: a guided tour across a decade of American independent cinema. New York: Miramax Books, 1995. PN 1998.2 .P56 1995 Psychological issues in eyewitness identification. ed. Siegfried Sporer et al. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1996. KF 9672 .P79 1996 Reiman, Jeffrey. -- and the poor get prison: economic bias in American criminal justice. Boston:Allyn & Bacon, 1996. HV 9950 .R458 1996 Riker, William H. The Strategy of Rhetoric: Campaigning for the American Revolution. New Haven: Yale, 1996. JK 116 .R55 1996 Ro, Ronin. Gangsta: merchandizing the rhymes of violence. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996. ML 3531 .R6 1996 Sandel, Michael. Democracy’s discontent: America in search of a public philosophy. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1996. JK 1726 .S325 1996 Simon, Robert. Bad men do what good men dream: a forensic psychiatrist illuminates the darker side of human behavior. Washington: American Psychiatric Press, 1996. RC 555 .S57 1996 Sloop, John M. The cultural prison: discourse, prisoners, and punishment. Tuscaloosa: U. of Alabama Press, 1996. HV 9466 .S66 1996 Steen, R. Grant. DNA and destiny: nature and nurture in human behavior. New York: Plenum Press, 1996. BF 341 .S74 1996
Tenner, Edward. Why things bite back: technology and the revenge of
unintended consequences. New York: Knopf, 1996. T 14.5 .T459 1996
Marlene Kandel
Monday - Thursday..........................................9am
- 10pm
Larry Sullivan, Chief
Librarian, 8265, lesjj@cunyvm
Full-Time Support Staff
Dee Dee Aikens: Interlibrary
Loan, 8257
Circulation: 8225
Editor: Jane Davenport |