It is located on the fourth floor of the John Cotton Dana Library at Rutgers University–Newark in Newark, New Jersey, United States.
The Jazz Studies academic program at Rutgers for music students is separate from the library and is part of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at the university.
In 2013, the Institute was designated a Literary Landmark by New Jersey's Center for the Book in the National Registry of the Library of Congress.
More specifically, the Institute proposes to work toward this goal by pooling the knowledge and skills of authors and musicians, who have pioneered in the field of jazz, with those of social scientists and other experts whose techniques and studies may be brought to bear on the subject.
In this manner, jazz and related subjects will be given the range and depth of scholarly study which they so richly deserve, and a vital but neglected area in American civilization will be illuminated.Stearns negotiated transfer of IJS to Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey, in 1966.
Over its 70 years of existence, the Institute has acquired significant collections of periodicals as well as books, records, and archival materials from several musicians, photographers, and journalists.
Major collections include the personal papers of Mary Lou Williams, Victoria Spivey, Abbey Lincoln, Annie Ross, Benny Carter, and James P. Johnson.
Annual Review of Jazz Studies (ARJS) publication began in 1981 as a continuation of JJS.
[13] The Institute presents the AAPI Jazz Fest in Newark every May at the Express Newark arts center on Halsey Street, recognizing the contributions of Asian Pacific Americans and the pan-Asian jazz community to the musical artform.