The Graduate Center Library is the hub of CUNY’s scholarly production. The library’s print collection, digital resources, active reference and instruction services, and robust resource sharing support faculty and graduate research and the Graduate Center curriculum.

The New York Public Library (NYPL) augments the Graduate Center’s research collections and services. NYPL research libraries extend book loans, reference service, and study space to Graduate Center students and faculty.

The Graduate Center Library’s primary constituents are CUNY doctoral and master’s students, Graduate Center core-appointed faculty, CUNY doctoral faculty, and non-doctoral CUNY faculty who teach at the Graduate Center. The Mina Rees Library features study space sequestered from Midtown crowds and the event-intensive bustle of the Graduate Center. The Library also supports scholars’ efforts to connect to wider publics. Graduate Center librarians impart skills and strategies to increase scholarly collaboration and public engagement. The library sponsors the Graduate Center’s Academic Works institutional repository and assists Graduate Center scholars in open access publishing and self-archiving.

The Graduate Center Library asks users to keep noise levels down and refrain from eating and other disruptive behavior. The following policies are posted throughout the library:

• Please respect our clean and quiet library.
• Speak softly.
• No phone calls or audible device use.
• Covered drinks only. No eating.
• Keep headphone volume low.
• Children must be supervised.
• Cooperate with reminders to comply with these policies.
• Keep the library a pleasant place for everyone!

Library users must also adhere to Graduate Center policies and CUNY Libraries policies, as well as the CUNY Computer Use Policy and other university policies.

The Graduate Center Mina Rees Library is named to honor Mina Rees’ critical role in establishing The City University of New York as a doctoral degree granting institution.

Dr. Rees was appointed the City University’s first Dean of Graduate Studies in 1961, when the doctoral programs were established. In 1969, she became the first president of the CUNY Graduate School , serving until her retirement in September 1972.

A distinguished mathematician and educator, she was acclaimed for the important role she played in mobilizing the resources of modern mathematics for the national defense during World War II, for helping to direct the enormous growth and diversification of mathematical studies after the war, for her influence in initiating federal government support for the development of the earliest computers, for helping to shape national policy for all basic sciences and for graduate education. Dr. Rees had a long and distinguished professional career. She received a B.A. degree from Hunter College and Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Chicago, and began her teaching career in 1926 as a member of the Hunter College Mathematics Department. In addition to her more than 35 years at the City University, she served with the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II. She died in 1997.

The CUNY Graduate Center Mina Rees Library faculty and staff are committed to disseminating research and scholarship as widely as possible. We believe that open access to scholarship is critical for scholarly communication and for the future of libraries, and that it is central to CUNY’s mission of public education. We recognize the added value to public knowledge that open access publishing gathers for a work. For that reason, we pledge to make our own research freely available whenever possible by seeking publishers who have either adopted open access policies, publish content online without restriction, and/or allow authors to self-archive publications on the web. When necessary and when possible, we will negotiate with publishers to improve open access terms. We pledge to link to and/or self-archive our open access publications to make them freely accessible. Further, we pledge to support open access by lending our reviewing and editing efforts to manuscripts destined for open access.

Graduate Center Library
365 Fifth Avenue
New York NY 10016-4309
(212) 817-7040
Google Map

Enter the library through the lobby of the building, on the 1st floor.

Subways:

• B/D/F/M/N/Q/R to 34th St./Herald Square (between 6th Ave. and Broadway)
• 1/2/3/A/C/E to 34th St./Penn Station (between 7th and 8th Ave.)
• 6 to 33rd St. (at Park Ave.)

Buses: M1/M2/M3/M4/M5/M34/Q32 to Fifth Ave. at 34th St.

Other Public Transportation:

• PATH trains to 33rd St. (between 6th Ave. and Broadway)
• NJTransit and LIRR trains to Penn Station (34th St. between 7th and 8th Ave.)
• Metro-North trains to Grand Central Terminal (42nd St. at Park Ave.)
• Buses to Port Authority Bus Terminal (8th Ave. between 41st and 42nd St.)

To enter the library, patrons must present one of the following photo IDs:

• CUNY Photo ID (student, faculty, staff, or retiree) with a current validation sticker (if applicable)
• Graduate Center Photo ID:
  • Graduate Center or CUNY BA alumni (non-GC CUNY alumni have access to their home libraries only)
  • Visiting research scholars
  • Graduate Center research assistants
  • Interuniversity Doctoral Consortium students (Columbia, Fordham, New School, NYU, Princeton, Rutgers, SUNY Stonybrook)
• Empire State College Photo ID
• A government-issued photo ID alongside special privileges card:
  • Graduate Center Research Assistant
  • Friends of the Graduate Center
  • Library Associates
  • Language Reading Program
  • METRO Referral
• A valid photo ID issued by a SHARES Institution

For more information about who can use the library and detailed borrowing privileges, visit our Access and Borrowing page.

The library occupies three floors of the Graduate Center. The entrance is on the first floor, which houses the circulation and reserve desks, interlibrary loan office, and Dissertation Reading Room. The print and microform collections, reference desk, and library faculty and staff offices are located on the second floor, as are many study tables, computers, and scanners and other digitization equipment. The concourse level is under construction to make way for the Center for Digital Scholarship and Data Visualization. Click a floor plan thumbnail to see a larger version: