Who may use this service?
This service is intended for students, faculty and staff of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. If you are not a member of the John Jay community, please understand that your request may take longer to answer particularly during the busiest times of the academic year.
Who answers the questions?
Library faculty of John Jay's Lloyd Sealy Library read and answer all the email sent via this form.
What kinds of questions may be asked?
Any question you might ask at our reference desk can be asked using email reference, including...
- Where should I begin to look for information on a topic?
- I have looked in these encyclopedias or indexes, where else might I look for information on my topic?
- I have copied an article by John Smith called "Doing library research" but I forgot to write down the complete citation. Can you tell me how I might find the full citation?
- How do I find out what books you have by a particular author?
What else should I include in my question?
The more information you give us, the better we will be able to help you. You might tell us:
- Are there restrictions in a class assignment?
- Do you need books or articles or both?
- Are you required to use only scholarly journals and no popular magazines?
- Are general Web resources (as opposed to online full text periodicals) encouraged or restricted?
- What sources have you already consulted?
- Are you doing in-depth research; e.g., for a masters' thesis, doctoral dissertation, or grant proposal?