Lloyd Sealy Library
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Lloyd Sealy Library

Lloyd Sealy Library

John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Where to start? A library subject guides primer

From the Spring 2015 Newsletter

Image: GMU library newsThe amount of material that the library has available for both students and faculty in our collections can seem a bit overwhelming to approach. There is a plethora of information available; students in particular may be unaware of how much the library has for them or even where to begin looking. Regardless of whether you are a professor or a student, a good place to get started would be with our subject guides

You may be wondering, what are subject guides? They are a listing of available resources put together by librarians to help users locate materials that they can use in their research and papers. Subject guides can vary but usually contain lists of suggested books, databases and journals, links, and sometimes pictures and video on whatever topic the guide is discussing. It is a roadmap of extremely helpful, relevant, and academically acceptable knowledge that a librarian constructed for users to use. 

From all the guides available at the Library, the best one to recommend to somebody just beginning to learn about doing research would be our “How to Use the Library” guide. For anyone looking to improve their bibliographies and citation skills, our guide “Citing Sources: APA, MLA & Chicago Styles” may be invaluable. If you are a student having a hard time figuring out if an article or journal is academically acceptable, take a look at our “Evaluating Information Sources” guide. Anyone looking for a source of valid statistics should take a look at our Statistics guide. We also have specific guides for English 101 and Speech 113 classes in particular.

It is also never too early for students to begin to think about the types of careers that they can pursue after their time here at John Jay College, particularly in criminal justice fields. Students who are interested in career resources at the library as well as internship sources, exam study guides, and generally how John Jay College can help you launch your career should take a look at our “Careers in Criminal Justice” subject guide, as well as our “Careers in Forensic Science” subject guide. 

Also as distance education has become more prevalent, subject guides have become crucial in helping faculty and students who will never actually step foot on the physical campus. The library has guides on many topics that would be helpful to those involved in distance education such as our ebook guide, available at guides.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/ebooks and our guide “Finding Legal Information: The Absolute Basics." Graduate students, who may only be able to visit the campus in the evenings, if at all, may find our “Graduate Student Resources” guide to be very useful. 

Images: MIT OpenCoursewareMeanwhile, faculty will find our “Faculty Scholarship Resources” guide and our “Information Literacy” guide to be very helpful as they pursue their teaching and scholarship both on and off campus. And of course as part of fostering a sense of belonging to the wider John Jay College community, there is a guide on library exhibits, which allows for graduate and distance students to experience some of the many displays and materials that faculty and students who visit the physical library regularly are able to enjoy.

This academic year, we introduced several new guides for students on a variety of subjects including guides on classics, emergency management, gangsters, Shakespeare, and several history guides on events like the Holocaust and world wars, as well as eras such as Reconstruction and the Depression. We have also made major updates to existing guides such as “Corrections,” “Crime in New York 1850–1950,” “Fire Science,” and “Security Management.”

Subject guides from the Lloyd Sealy Library offer faculty and students, both on and off campus a gateway to begin their studies and improve their research. Feel free to take a look and encourage your students to take a look as well!

Mark Zubarev

More from the Spring 2015 Newsletter »
https://www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/blog/where-start-library-subject-guides-primer
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