MA 410: History of Mathematics: Finding Books

To find books and government documents in USA Libraries' collections, use OneSearch at USA Marx Library.

• Catalog tips and tricks:
  • Choose Advanced Search before starting, this gives you more ways to tailor your search.
  • Keyword searches – use quotation marks to hold phrases together ("linear algebra")
  • Truncation – use * after the root of a word to find all its variants (math* finds math, maths, mathematics...)
  • Browse the Subject(s) field in records to find the right words for searches. (Example: Try doing a keyword search for math* history then look at the subject(s) field in several records. You’ll see that the subject term is "Mathematics -- History." Click the subject heading to find more records with this subject.)
• Revise and refine your searches.
• Watch for repeating call numbers and browse stacks in that area.
• For physical books, pay attention to the Location and Status fields. You will need this information to locate the item in the library. The Location field will also tell you whether or not a book can be checked out. A book that's shelved in Marx Library Reference cannot usually be checked out, while one in Marx Library Bookstacks can.

The Marx Library owns several ebook collections, some of which will be useful to you for the history of math. Many of our ebooks can be found using our catalog, SOUTHcat, but you can also try the following collections separately:

• Springer Ebooks: the library has books from 2005 - current
• ebrary: the library subscribes to the Academic Complete collection and owns some backfile books as well
• American Mathematical Society ebooks: these are free. History is in the General Interest area
• EBSCO eBook Collection: this has some useful items, but try Springer and ebrary first
• Project Muse: again, this has some useful books, but try Springer and ebrary first
• Oxford Ebooks: There are about seven math books in this collection but one of them is The Emperor's New Mathematics about math in China during the Kangxi reign (1661-1722)
• JSTOR ebooks: there are a few math books in this collection. Limit to books and to "include only content I can access" before doing your search.

These two books are ebooks/audiobooks available for free that look interesting for students of the history of math.

• History of Modern Mathematics by David Eugene Smith. Published in 1906.
• Lectures on Ten British Mathematicians by Alexander MacFarlane. Published in 1916.