The Lloyd George Sealy Library is the campus library at

John Jay College of Criminal Justice The John Jay College of Criminal Justice (John Jay) is a public college focused on criminal justice and located in New York City. It is a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY). John Jay was founded as the only liberal arts c ...

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

(CUNY). Located in Haaren Hall, the library specializes in criminal justice-related materials.

Overview

The Lloyd Sealy Library serves the students, faculty, and staff of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Other current members of the CUNY community and approved researchers also have access to the Library and its collections. Located on the first and second floors of Haaren Hall, the Library houses study space, computer labs, stacks (open circulating collection), reference (open non-circulating collection) and special collections (open and closed non-circulating collection). The first floor entrance is flanked by the Reserve Room computer lab and the Niederhoffer Lounge, named for

Arthur Niederhoffer Arthur Niederhoffer (1917 – January 14, 1981) was an American Sociology, sociologist. For 21 years, he was a police officer with the New York City Police Department (NYPD). Niederhoffer's 1967 book ''Behind the Shield'' is widely considered a cl ...

, one of the founding faculty members of the college. As of 2013, 17 faculty members and 17 staff members and adjunct librarians work at the Library.

History

John Jay College of Criminal Justice was established in 1964 and first opened its doors to enrolled police officers in 1965. At the time, the college was located in the

Police Academy A police academy, also known as a law enforcement training center, police college, or police university, is a training school for police cadets, designed to prepare them for the law enforcement agency they will be joining upon graduation, or othe ...

building on East 20th St., in which was allotted to the Library. The first Chief Librarian was Howard D. Washburn, and under his leadership, two more librarians were hired before 1967. The Library began to amass its collections based on recommendations from the college's faculty. In addition, the Library made arrangements with criminal justice agencies across the country, including the New York Police Department, whose annual reports and patrol guides are deposited in the Library. As the college expanded, so too did the Library. By the late 1960s, its collection was split between the Police Academy building, 360 Park Avenue South, and the top floor of the Strand Bookstore. In 1974, the Library consolidated its collection and moved to the college's new building, North Hall, located at West 59th St. and 10th Ave., under the leadership of Chief Librarian Carol Alexander. The next Chief Librarian, Eileen Rowland, was appointed in 1977, by which time the Library's collection had grown to over 100,000 books and media. In 1988,

John Jay John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as the second governor of New York and the first ...

purchased Haaren Hall, the building across from North Hall. As the building's interior was being designed, "the administration pressed from the start for the library to be its focal point" to emphasize the college's commitment to higher education. The Library was moved into spacious facilities on the first and second floors of Haaren Hall. Marilyn Lutzker took over as Chief Librarian in 1989. In 1991, the John Jay College Library was renamed the Lloyd George Sealy Library, in honor of one of John Jay's most respected faculty members. In 1995, Larry E. Sullivan became Chief Librarian after having served as Chief of Rare Books and Special Collections at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

Collections

The Library now holds over 500,000 books, periodicals, microfilms, and digital collections. Its holdings are particularly strong in criminal justice and related areas, including forensic science, forensic psychology, and fire science, in addition to social science, law, and public administration. In addition, the Library provides the John Jay community with access to more than 300 subscription databases, over 160,000 journals and newspapers, and more than 65,000 e-books.

Special Collections

The Special Collections holds thousands of rare books and unique materials related to

criminal justice Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the Rehabilitation (penology), rehabilitation of o ...

. The Special Collections also houses the archives of

and the ''Trial Transcripts of the County of New York 1883–1927'' collection, which contains verbatim typewritten proceedings of 3,326 court cases. Many items from the Special Collections have been digitized and are available from the Digital Collections. The Library holds the papers of: * Lloyd Sealy, faculty member and the first African-American officer in the

NYPD The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

to make rank as the commander of a police station *

Flora Rheta Schreiber Flora Rheta Schreiber (April 24, 1918 – November 3, 1988)Special Collections, database. 2020.The Papers of Flora Rheta Schreiber 1916–1988" ''Lloyd Sealy Library''. New York: John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Retrieved 13 May 2020. was an A ...

, author of ''

Sibyl The sibyls (, singular ) were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece. The sibyls prophesied at holy sites. A sibyl at Delphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC by PausaniasPausanias 10.12.1 when he described local traditi ...

'' *

Lewis E. Lawes Lewis Edward Lawes (September 13, 1883 – April 23, 1947) was a prison warden and a proponent of prison reform. During his 21-year tenure at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, he supervised the executions of 303 prisoners. Biography Lawes was born ...

, prison warden and a proponent of prison reform *

Benjamin Ward Benjamin Ward (August 10, 1926 – June 10, 2002) was the first African American New York City Police Commissioner. Early life Ward was one of 11 children and was born in the Weeksville section of Brooklyn, New York. He attended Brooklyn Autom ...

, the first African-American New York City Police Commissioner *

Albert DeSalvo Albert Henry DeSalvo (September 3, 1931 – November 25, 1973) was an American rapist and suspected serial killer in Boston, Massachusetts, who purportedly confessed to being the "Boston Strangler," the murderer of thirteen women in the Boston ...

, criminal who claimed to be the

Boston Strangler The Boston Strangler is the name given to the murderer of 13 women in the Boston, Massachusetts, area during the early 1960s. The crimes were attributed to Albert DeSalvo based on his confession, details revealed in court during a separate case, ...

* James Fyfe, renowned criminologist * William C. Dodge, prominent American lawyer * The Mollen Commission, appointed to investigate corruption in the

* Richard Louis Dugdale, the sociologist who wrote about the

Jukes Jukes is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Andrew Jukes (theologian) (1815–1901) *Andrew Jukes (missionary) (1847–1931), Anglican missionary * Betty Jukes (1910–2006), British sculptor * Bill Jukes (c.1883–1939), English ...

* Burton Turkus, the attorney who prosecuted members of

Murder, Inc. Murder, Inc. (Murder, Incorporated) was an organized crime group, active from 1929 to 1941, that acted as the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicatea closely connected criminal organization that included the Italian-American Mafia, the ...

Gary McGivern Gerald "Gary" McGivern (October 26, 1944 – November 19, 2001) was a felon found guilty in 1967 of the armed robbery of a gas station in Pelham Manor, New York, United States, during which two police officers were wounded. McGivern was tried with ...

, American felon *

Horatio Bottomley Horatio William Bottomley (23 March 1860 – 26 May 1933) was an English financier, journalist, editor, newspaper proprietor, swindler, and Member of Parliament. He is best known for his editorship of the popular magazine ''John Bull (maga ...

, British politician and swindler * Marvin E. Frankel, renowned legal scholar

References

External links

Lloyd Sealy Library website

Special Collections page

Digital Collections

John Jay College of Criminal Justice website
{{authority control John Jay College of Criminal Justice University and college academic libraries in the United States Libraries in Manhattan 1965 establishments in New York City Research libraries in the United States