Library Resources

Science Library

The Science Library houses almost all of Haverford's collection of science books and journals. Visit the science librarians to consult about your library searches.

If you are a senior you qualify for extended borrowing privileges

Science librarian

Dora Wong, Science Librarian Haverford College Science Library 610-896-1416 dwong@haverford.edu

Search Strategies

• work with the list of references from a familiar text or article
• browse a journal with survey articles
• find a survey article in a mathematical encyclopedia or dictionary and search there for further references
• search the library catalogs by subject
• using tripod identify the subject heading for a familiar text then use tripod to browse the titles of other texts in that subject heading
• identify the mathematical classification number for your area of interest and browse article reviews and abstracts with mathscinet
• find the texts in the library shelved near a familiar text
• search the web with Google
• search for an author's webpage with Google.
• look at Google's directory of mathematical pages
• browse the Mathematics ArXiv for recent articles in your area.

Sources for Surveys

• Mathworld (@Wolfram)
• CRC Concise Encyclopedia of Mathematics QA5.W45
• Encyclopedic Dictionary of Mathematics QA5.18313
• American Mathematical Monthly
• National Mathematics Magazine
• The Mathematical Intelligencer
• College Mathematics Journal
• Notices of the Americal Mathematical Society
• Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal
• Math Forum
• Brittanica Online
• Google Mathematics Directory
• Infotrak Onefile
• Science
• Scientific American

Finding Books

You can search the tripod and worldcat catalogs by subject, by keywords (from the title and elsewhere) and by author name. If you find a useful book, texts on the same subject will be located nearby on the library shelves and will have similar Library of Congress Call Number.

• Use Tripod to search for resources in the Haverford, Bryn Mawr and Swarthnmore libraries. You have full borrowing privileges at each of these libraries. Books from Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore can be delivered to Haverford by next day.
• WorldCat is a database of 36 million records catalogued by libraries throughout the world. You can get easily your hands on your WorldCat finds through EZ Borrow and InterLibrary Loan.

Finding Articles

• MathSciNet provides short reviews for most articles in the mathematical literature.You can search by title and author and by Mathematical Subject Classification. Search here for the Mathematical Subject Classification for your topic. Mathscinet will provide links for electronic access to some articles, in other cases you should search for the journal title on tripod or worldcat.
• JSTOR Math Journals JSTOR is an electronic archive allowing access to about 24 math journals. This relatively small universe is a good place to start a search.
• Mathematics ArXiv is an electronic archive of mathematical articles.Articles are available for electronic download. Articles on ArXiv may not yet have been rigorously reviewed.
• PennState list of Preprint Servers provides access to some preprint servers. Some links are old and some preprints may contain errors.
• Infotrac OneFile is an index of the broad scientific literature. In some cases it gives abstracts or full-text articles. It is a good place to look for a survey article in a less technical journal.
• The Electronic Library of Mathematics is an index of some online math journals.
• PennState list of Math Journals is a list of math journals with lots of dead links.