From The Desk Of The Chief Librarian

At the Information Desks in the various libraries, we often hear, "My professor told me I could use the library at Columbia/NYU/fill-in-another-name.  Can you give me the card I need?"

Of course, it really isn't that simple.

Even most CUNY libraries are not open to the general public; an "Open Access" agreement among the CUNY schools makes it possible for you to use them (but you still cannot borrow books from the Graduate Center).

Access to private institutions such as Columbia or NYU is much more restricted.

Library Cooperatives

In New York State, we have a system of nine "3R cooperatives."  These are defined as reference and research library resource systems, and the one serving all city boroughs and Westchester County is called METRO. Libraries pay a fee to join METRO and agree to cooperate with each other and coordinate their activities. This means that, within membership limits, CCNY and Columbia as METRO libraries can work together to provide services our users need.

The key here is "membership limits."  Those limits apply as you do your library research.  If you find the "perfect" article for your paper, you'll need to check carefully for which libraries own the periodical it is in.

If it isn't at CCNY, widen your search circle to the rest of CUNY. If another CUNY school owns the item, you then have two options—a subway token or an interlibrary loan form.  If your paper is due tomorrow, your only option is the token.  Interlibrary loan takes 48 to 72 hours to arrive at CCNY, so plan ahead.
If the only school that owns the item happens to be NYU, youÕll need a yellow METRO referral and a token if you waited until the last minute.  Or, if you have time, you can skip the trip and use an interlibrary loan request and wait for it to come to you.

METRO Referrals

A yellow METRO referral—they were always called METRO Cards before the transit authority stole our name—is used only for access to that one "perfect" article.  If you request the METRO referral at a CCNY Library Information Desk, the librarian will fill in the card with the name of the periodical you need and verification that we have looked for it everywhere else, including the public library systems of the city, to make sure that it is only available at NYU.  The librarian will then call NYU to make sure they still have that periodical before you make the trip downtown.

Once you get there, the member library that accepts your yellow METRO referral only has to let you use the item listed on it.  After that, they are entitled to ask you to leave.  A yellow METRO referral is not a general access card to any METRO member library and is usually collected by the library you visit and not returned to you.

Then there's the blue METRO referral, which is accepted by some METRO member libraries.  It is used to refer a person for research in a specific subject. For instance, CCNY does not have a research collection in geography, but Columbia does.  Since none of the area public libraries is strong in geography and Columbia does accept the blue METRO referral, arrangements can be made by the librarian at the Information Desk to give you access to that collection.  The librarian must call Columbia, and Columbia will decide how long and under what circumstances you can use the geography collection on their campus.

Those conditions are then written on the blue METRO referral, and you can then take it to Columbia.  Like the yellow referral, the blue one is collected by the library you visit and not returned to you.

Comments, suggestions and feedback regarding the Library's services are always welcome and should be addressed to me by calling x7271, sending email to prgcc@scisun.sci.ccny.cuny.edu, or by dropping by NAC 5/333 (Cohen Library).
 

Pamela Gillespie
Chief Librarian
prgcc@scisun.sci.ccny.cuny.edu
 

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