Covid-19 Continuity: Explore the library's online resources and services, or consult our service updates.

Research Guides

Access & Borrowing

The Library is Open Online

While the library’s spaces and physical collections are inaccessible due to COVID-19, many resources and services are available online.  For updates, subscribe to the library blog and follow us on Twitter.

Who Can Use the Library?

The Graduate Center Library is open to CUNY students, faculty and staff, SUNY Empire State College students, faculty, and staff, Graduate Center alumni, and CUNY doctoral faculty retirees. You may also access the library by joining the Friends of the Library, getting a METRO Referral from an area library, or with a valid photo ID from a SHARES institution.  

Admission Requirements

  1. CUNY Photo ID (student, faculty, staff, or retiree)
    with a current validation sticker or security staff check the library barcode for validation.
     
  2. Graduate Center Alumni Photo ID or CUNY BA Alumni ID
    Non-GC CUNY alumni have access to their home libraries only 

  3. Empire State College Photo ID
     
  4. A government-issued photo ID plus ID for:
    • Graduate Center Research Assistant
    • Friends of the Graduate Center
    • Library Associates
    • Language Reading Program
    • METRO Referral
       
  5. Visitors must be accompanied by someone with a Graduate Center or School of Labor and Urban Studies Photo ID
    maximum 3 visitors per GC or SLU ID
     
  6. Graduate Center Photo ID required for:
    • Visiting Research Scholars
    • GC Research Assistants unaffiliated with the GC
    • Interuniversity Doctoral Consortium Columbia, Fordham, New School, NYU, Princeton, Rutgers, SUNY Stony Brook
       

  7. A valid photo ID issued by a SHARES Institution