Mathematics 

Materials which are referred to for brief or general information. Examples include:

• Background or overview synopses (encyclopedia)
• Definitions (dictionary)
• Synonyms (thesaurus)
• Statistics
• Biographical Details
• Maps (atlas)

Links/Resources to the right are specific to this discipline.  General sources can be found at the libraries Reference Sources page.

Reference resources are organized in an order that aids searching (alphabetically, chronologically, etc).  Most include an index which points users to the appropriate section.  Tips for searching:

1. Decide on your search terms
2. Try searching with them
3. If not satisfied with the results, try searching a synonym or related idea

Things to watch out for:

• Is the computer searching only the title/header of the entries or the full-text of the information?  You will get more results, but more of them will be irrelabent if you are searching the full-text.
• Are you searching for a proper noun (name, place,...)?  Make sure that the spelling is correct and try variations if it originated in a foreign language.
• Searching for something by date?  This is trickier than it sounds.  If possible, search for an event name or topic rather than a date, e.g. civil rights movement or hippies or flower children rather than 1960s.

In print in Crumb Library reference collection:

• Barron's Mathematics Study Dictionary. (Ref QA 5.T36 1998) A popular, short dictionary of basic mathematical terms
• Mathematics Dictionary. (Ref QA 5.J33 1992)
• The Words of Mathematics : an etymological dictionary of mathematical terms used in English. (Ref QA 5.S375 1994)

Online:

In print in Crumb Library reference collection:

• Mathematical Sciences: professional directory. (Ref QA 1.M765)
• Women of Mathematics. (Ref QA 28.W66 1987) - biographical essays on notable women mathematicians
• World Directory of Mathematicians. (Ref QA 30.W6 12th 2002)

Online:

Most useful:

• CRC Concise Encyclopedia of Mathematics. (Ref QA 5.W45 2003)
• Companion Encyclopedia of the History and Philosophy of the Mathematical Sciences. (Ref QA 21.C645 1994) 
• CRC Standard Mathematical Tables and Formulae. (Ref QA 47.M315 1996) The standard reference source, from CRC
• Encyclopedic Dictionary of Mathematics. (Ref QA 5.I8313 1987) 4 vols., by the Mathematical Society of Japan
• Handbook of Discrete and Combinatorial Mathematics. (Ref QA 164.H36 2000)
• VNR Concise Encyclopedia of Mathematics. (Ref QA 40.V18 1989)

Also consider searching BearCat for mathematical encyclopedias, handbooks, and dictionaries