Libraries

About the CUNY+ Online Catalog

About Electronic Collections/Licensed Resources

Ask A Librarian

Data Sources/ICPSR

InterLibrary Loan

Library Instruction

Media

Metro & Metro Card

Thesis Requests

Textbook Savings

---

About the CUNY+ Online Catalog

CUNY <pdf> libraries are linked electronically by the CUNY+ ("cuny-plus") integrated library system. The CUNY+ online catalog (OPAC) provides online access to information about the holdings at all campuses, including serials collections and titles that are on order. It may be searched by author, title, subject and keyword.

CUNY+ can be searched from workstations within the libraries and other locations (including many department offices) throughout most campuses. It is accessible via the web and by dial (modem) access.

 

---

About Electronic Collections/Licensed Resources

The University licenses a growing number of information resources available over the World Wide Web. These electronic collections, along with products and services licensed by individual campuses to support local needs, constitute the City University of New York Digital Collections. Indexing and abstracting services, table of contents services, reference works such as Britannica or Lexis Nexis, full texts of journal articles and electronic journals as well as document delivery extend services beyond print collections available within library buildings.

Access University-wide E-Journals & Reference Databases

Help using E-Journals and Reference Databases

---

Ask A Librarian

With students at times hard-pressed to make it to the library due to the pressures of classes, jobs and families, CUNY libraries provide a host of options to get research support online. Almost all campus libraries respond to phone and e-mail inquiries and some offer instant or text messaging. Seven college libraries have gone further by joining an international consortium that offers their students librarian assistance 24/7. The seven libraries are at Baruch, Brooklyn, Hunter and Lehman Colleges, Borough of Manhattan and Bronx Community Colleges, and the Graduate Center.

• Baruch College >>
• Borough of Manhattan Community College >>
• Bronx Community College >>
• Brooklyn College >>
• CUNY Graduate Center >>
• Hunter College >>
• Lehman College >>

---

Data Sources/ICPSR

Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)

CUNY maintains a membership in the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. ICPSR data files are available without charge to CUNY faculty and advanced students engaged in social science research. ICPSR's expanding collection of quantitative data files includes scientific research investigations, opinion polls, government surveys, and numerical time series. Stored in machine-readable format at the University of Michigan, the data files may be sent by a variety of data transmission media, including electronic file transfer.

To investigate available resources, use the access point provided by the ICPSR website. The ICPSR Website explains how ICPSR is organized and operates, and provides a direct link to its catalog of database holdings. After using the catalog to locate the study number of the data set you wish, contact the authorized coordinator for CUNY:

Florian Lengyel, Ph.D.
Assistant Director for Research Computing
Department of Information Resources
Graduate School and University Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue, Room 8311.04
New York, NY 10016-4309
Phone: (212) 817-7374
FAX: (212) 817-1615
Email: flengyel@gc.cuny.edu

Mr. Lengyel will obtain the dataset for you. If the data file is too large to ship on a floppy, he will arrange to move it to a system where you can access the data. In most cases the background documentation for the data is in machine readable form and accompanies the data. In the event that it is contained in a separate publication, it will be mailed to you later.

 

---

InterLibrary Loan (ILL) and Document Delivery

Please note: some colleges offer ILL to CUNY faculty and graduate students only.

Due to the exponential increase in the cost of research materials, CUNY libraries must often provide access to sources of knowledge, rather than to acquire and own those sources. If the University does not own a title, you may still obtain it through either Interlibrary Loan or a commercial document delivery service.

Interlibrary Loan arrangements have been made with many libraries in the New York metropolitan region and throughout the world. If you cannot find the books you need within the CUNY system, consult your interlibrary loan librarian.

Increasingly, CUNY libraries rely on commercial document delivery services to augment their journal collections. Some of these services will fax articles within 24 hours, often at no extra cost. Most of these services are free to the faculty. Again, consult your ILL librarian.

 

---

Library Instruction

Most campus libraries provide formal course-related workshops on information access (including electronic access) for undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty. Librarians with expertise in information retrieval and various software applications are designing seminars to introduce CUNY faculty to new resources in their disciplines and to new skills, such as the creation of personal bibliographic files via downloading from online catalogs.

 

---

Media

The University’s multimedia collection supports City University of New York instruction and research. Represented in the CUNY Libraries and Instructional Media Departments is a large collection of graphics and media resources in VHS, DVD and other formats that can be used to enhance classroom presentations or to support students in lab work as supplements to classroom instruction.

All media titles currently owned by the individual colleges can be found in CUNY+ our on-line catalog that is available on every CUNY campus. These collections, developed locally by each of the CUNY Libraries reside in various library and media departments across the University. Further information on each collection, and loan policies can be found on each CUNY library’s home page.

In addition, several media centers support active graphic, video, and multimedia production facilities, several offer satellite downlink capabilities, and all offer consultation in electronic media support for classroom instruction. Please consult the individual colleges’ directory for further information.

 

---

METRO and The METRO Card

All CUNY libraries belong to METRO, a New York regional cooperative with over 250 member libraries, including most major research libraries in the area. Thanks to METRO, CUNY libraries can provide you with interlibrary loan (ILL) and, under certain circumstances, occasional on-site access to these collections when your research requires. In addition to the four public library systems in the region, some private libraries with specialized collections may be open to the public. Other libraries are open only under restricted circumstances with a referral from your campus library. There is an agreement among libraries to grant limited access to private collections for researches who need materials not found in public institutions.

A METRO card referral may be issued by the reference librarian at your home library for the use, at a private university such as NYU or Columbia, of a specific book or journal that is not attainable at CUNY, through ILL, or in the public library. Under another METRO agreement, under very special circumstances, a subject collection may be consulted for a short period. A METRO referral does not allow the borrowing of the material. The length of time that a researcher may utilize the material is determined by the host library. For policies of individual libraries, consult the Metro Handbook and Directory available at any CUNY library. Some CUNY libraries may issue referral cards to faculty and/or graduate students only -- consult your home library for specific policies.

---

Thesis Requests

Requesting a Copy of a CUNY Doctoral Thesis: The best way to obtain a copy of a doctoral thesis published by CUNY is to go through your local library. Your campus or public librarian may request a thesis copy from the CUNY Graduate Center using InterLibrary Loan. Please note that all copies are provided on microfilm only. The current ILL contact at the Grad Center is Professor Beth Posner (email) at (212) 817-7051.

---