Mathematics

Resources for mathematics and statistics.

Encyclopedias

Provide excellent background/overview information. An excellent place to begin research. Contain articles written by experts. Provide indexes indicating scope of coverage of a topic and pinpointing articles in which a concept will be discussed. Provide bibliographies for further reading.

Encyclopedia of Mathematics (QA5 .M3713 1988) A good 10 vol. encyclopedia of mathematics. It does assume the reader has a solid mathematical foundations, as do all of our other one volume encyclopedias.

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Reference Books

Handbooks, dictionaries, statistical sources, tables; detailed or procedural information specific to the subject areas addressed.

	CRC Standard Mathematical Tables and Formulae. 29th ed. (QA47 .M315 1991) The first place to go for conversions, basic mathematical methods or formulae.
	Handbook of Applicable Mathematics (QA36 .H36) v. 1. Algebra v. 2. Probability v. 3. Numerical Methods v. 4. Analysis v. 5. Geometry and Combinatorics v. 6. Statistics This set describes how to use specific mathematical methods (for example, if a patron wants to know how to do the chi-squared test, you'd look in this set).
	Table of Integrals, Series, and Products. 5th ed. (QA55 .G6613 1994) A more specific source of formulae for functions and integrals.

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Databases and Indexes

Magazine, periodical and journal articles provide information on current developments, research trends, experiments and hot topics in a discipline. For every discipline, there are specific databases or indexes that provide article level information. Once articles are identified through the database or index search, look up the source journal in Vikat, PSU Library's online catalog, to locate them in the library. For a complete list of online databases and indexes, see the Library's Online Databases pages.

MathSciNet. 1940-present This index covers all areas of mathematics, as well as related literature in computer science, engineering, physics and statistics.

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Online Full Text Journals

Many, but by no means all, of the journals of interest in Mathematics are available online. Most of the journals require authentication for off campus use.

Math Journals Online

arXiv.org e-Print Archive (http://www.arxiv.org/) This site archives many thousands of articles in physics, mathematics, nonlinear science, and computer science. This includes electronic versions of published journal articles, as well as non-peer-reviewed personally posted articles. This is a very important resource in the physics community, and is becoming more important in the mathematics community.

Textbooks

Browsing the library shelves by call number ranges is another strategy for locating information on a topic; call numbers can help you get to the "right neighborhood" in the library stacks.

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Organizations

Often the best way to find information on a topic is to look for material published by a professional society or an organization.

	American Mathematical Society (http://www.ams.org/)
	The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (http://www.ima.org.uk/)
	Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (http://www.siam.org/)

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