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Mathematics Resource Guide

Finding Information

Finding background information

Reference books, such as dictionaries, encyclopaedias and handbooks are a useful starting point when beginning your research. The Reference collection in the Auchmuty Library is located in the Information Common and on level 3 near the Adaptive Technology Centre.

Dictionaries provide definitions, and help you to understand the terminology.

Online Resource	McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Mathematics
R519.503 EVER 2002	Cambridge dictionary of statistics. 2nd ed. 2002
R510.3 BORO 2005	HarperCollins Dictionary of Mathematics. 2005
Online Resource	MATHnetBASE - a collection of dictionaries, handbooks, reference and general texts.

Encyclopaedias give a general overview of a topic, and may also provide a list of books and journal articles for further reading.

RQ510.3 WEIS	CRC concise encyclopedia of mathematics 2003
Online resource	The A to Z of Mathematics

Handbooks, Tables, etc

R510.212 CRCS 1996	CRC standard mathematical tables and formulae.
R510.212 JEFF	Handbook of mathematical formulas and integrals. 1995
Online resource	Online books
Online resource	Wiley's Science and Technology Acronym Finder
Online Resource	Pocket book of integrals and mathematical formulas [electronic resource]

Finding books, audiovisual, etc.

Printed material for mathematics is mainly located in the Auchmuty Library on the Callaghan campus.

Browsing the shelves may be useful in certain circumstances, but to ensure that you have your topic covered, you should use the Library catalogue, NEWCAT, to search for items. If you have a reading list, then search by author or title.

To find books and audiovisual material on a particular topic, use the Subject or Keyword search options in NEWCAT.

Often the Keyword search is the easiest way to find suitable titles. Type in keywords related to your topic and the catalogue will search for your terms in the title, author, notes and subject heading fields. The words should be separated by and, e.g.

vector spaces and matrices

When you find a useful book, check the subject headings that have been given to it. This will help you with further searching.

Note that the Library catalogue uses the Library of Congress Subject Headings, which uses American spelling and terminology. Use the most specific subject heading, e.g.

algebras linear
combinatorial number theory
differential dynamical systems
graph theory

Subheadings help you find specific information more quickly, e.g.

mathematics formula
mathematics tables
statistics graphic methods
statistics methodology