UNL libraries and beyond: a quick tour from the mathematician's point of view

UNL libraries and beyond: a quick tour from the mathematician's point of view

The Library of Congress Catalog

You can use this to find all books on a given subject. The World Wide Web address (URL) is http://lcweb.loc.gov/z3950/mums2old.html. (Obviously, this URL may change, as may all given here.) Click on it and pick some search terms (e.g. "abelian varieties"). Note that there is an option "Maximum Records to Retrieve", which defaults to 10.

MathSciNet

This is the electronic version of "Mathematical Reviews", a publication of the AMS. We subscribe to it, and (at present) also to the paper version. Click here and do a search.

You enter some keyword(s). If you enter e.g. wild squid, the program will look for the two words wild and squid, next to each other. Alternatively, if you enter wild and squid, the program will look for database entries which include both wild and squid, but not necessarily next to each other.

Uncover

This is a commercial service which will FAX copies of recent journal articles, but not for free! You can use it to do free searches of recent journals, and you can have have tables of contents from journals mailed to you on a regular basis. To get to Uncover, click here.

Electronic journals

Here is an example: Electronic Journal of Combinatorics. Go to it and find an article. (If you have a choice, pick the "dvi" version rather than the "postscript" version. If you can't view the article just by pushing a button, your account "preferences" have not been set correctly, or the machine you are using may not have been set up correctly. See Rex.) Lists of electronic journals may be found here and here.

Electronic preprints

This is a major industry already, unlike electronic journals. Some people post preprints to their personal homepage, which you can find with a modicum of web-sleuthing. That's assuming you know who did the work! There are also preprint servers, a list of which may be found here. Click on it and then click on algebraic geometry. Most preprint servers also allow you to "subscribe", thereby obtaining (by e-mail) abstracts of papers in your area on a regular basis.

The UNL libraries themselves

There are lots of them. We are very fortunate to have the Math Library located in our Department. Because the building was not designed to hold a library, there is actually a weight limit which restricts how many books can be stuffed into it. For this reason, a fair number of math titles are located in the ``main'' campus library, the Love Library. Most are in the basement, officially called Love South, level one. There are actually two separate math sections in Love. One, consisting of really ancient stuff, has books numbered by the Dewey Decimal System. The other is numbered by the Library of Congress System, mostly QA... .

There is a ``waiver sheet'' in the Math Library. If you sign it, other people will be able to find out if you have a book checked out. This is very convenient.

There are lots of wonderful applied math books in the other branch libraries.

The UNL Library Catalog

The main link is here, but you can also go directly to the card catalog. Or you can even do directly to keyword, title, or author searches. The catalog is easy to use. One useful feature is that after receiving search results, you can restrict to items in the math library.

Caveat: About 10% of library items are not on the electronic card catalog. Especially, very old items and books in a series may not be on the computer. Consult Margaret when in doubt. Also, translations will sometimes be shown on the computer in the original language first, so you may have to examine the item in detail to know if it is of use to you.

Interlibrary loan

We have a very good library, but sooner or later you will come across something you want which is not available here. Do not despair! First get an electronic interlibrary loan (ILL) form, by sending a blank message to getform@unllib. Return it, and you will get what you need, typically in a few days to a week. (There are also paper forms which you can get from Margaret.) All these forms have a spot to indicate how much you are willing to pay for the item. Fortunately, this is almost always moot, as the ILL folks do everything they can to avoid charging you. Also try clicking here for more information.

If you find a book which you think our library should have, let someone on the Library Committee (David Jaffe, Earl Kramer, at present) know. We will order it if funds are available. On the other hand, it is almost impossible to acquire new journals.

Expanded Academic Index

You can use this to find popularized explanations of mathematical topics. It searches a database which includes journals like Scientific American and Mathematics Teacher. To access it, click here. For a sample search, enter the keyword fibonacci. You can also get information about particular companies this way. (Cf. Lexis/Nexis, below.)

Other electronic indices (and the like)

There are many. Here are two, which are unfortunately not as accessible as one might like:
  1. Science Citation Index. This allows you to determine what books/journal articles have made reference to a given book/journal article. The C. Y. Thompson (East Campus) Library has an electronic version, 1990 -- present. Hard copy is available at Love.
  2. Lexis/Nexis. These allow you to search for newspaper articles (...) on a particular topic. Available electronically at Love Library. When a student uses it she/he is informed (by the computer) that the usage must be for classroom purposes.

More help

Read one of the many information sheets available at Love Library.