COLLECTIONS:

Special Collections

University Archives

Collection Preservation

Research Collections:
Mathematics Collection

Collection  Overview
The goal is building a collection that meets the needs of research and teaching faculty of the Department of Mathematics, undergraduate and graduate students, the Mathematics Institute, and the basic requirements of the entire university community.

Research and teaching in the Mathematics Department primarily revolves around two themes: pure and  applied mathematics. Pure mathematics covers topology, analysis, algebra, and logic for most graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Applied mathematics covers probability and statistics, numerical analysis, and mathematical programming (operations research). The Computer Science Department covers data structures, machine language, algorithms, automata and formal languages, and computer graphics. Master of Science in Teaching Program is a major component of the Mathematics Dept. The bulk of our collection, reflecting these needs, currently comprises of journals and monographs. More and more of our journals are being made available electronically to our users.

Resource sharing in the form of membership in regional organizations like the Boston Library Consortium will increasingly play a signficant role in collection development. As access to resources and document delivery becomes easier and faster due to advances in technology, we will depend more and more on interlibrary loan, facsimile transmission, purchase of articles, electronic and on-demand publication and retrieval. Reference sources continue to be acquired for the BC Libraries as valuable research tools.

Syed Khan
Mathematics Bibliographer
617-552-4450
E-Mail: khans@bc.edu

Selected Resources

In the O'Neill Library:

• Extensive holdings in Mathematics journal literature.

• Bibliographies, indexes & abstracts:

  • Mathematical Reviews

  • Current Mathematical Publications

  • Current Index to Statistics (on CD-ROM)

  • Zentralblatt  für Mathematik

  • CompuMath Citation Index

  • Computing Reviews

  • Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings

  • Physics Abstracts

On the Web (Restricted to the BC Community):

• Index to the research literature: MathSciNet.

• General indexes and tables of contents services:

  • Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded)

  • Current Contents Current

  • Uncover Reveal.

• Gateways to full text electronic journals:  Springer LINK, Wiley InterScience, JSTOR .  See also the Boston College Electronic Journals list.

• Other databases in the sciences: Subject Indexes to Online Databases: Sciences.  This web page also has links to other subject lists of databases.

Research Guides
More information about available resources can be found in the following resource guides: Research Guide: Mathematics.

Interdisciplinary Elements of Subject Area
Collection development for mathematics involves coordination with such disciplines as computer science, physics, and education.

Formats and Types of Materials
Intermediate and advanced level monographs, research journals and serials and some textbooks form the bulk of the collection. Conference proceedings, technical reports, government documents, dissertations, etc., are acquired as needed. A growing number of resources are becoming available in both print and electronic formats; decisions to collect in one or the other format (or both) are made on a title by title basis.

Languages
English is the language of choice.

Geographic Areas (Subject Approach)
There is no geographic limitation in mathematics collection development.

Time Periods (Subject  Approach)
Current developments in mathematical sciences are emphasized.

Dates of Publication
Recent publications are collected. Older titles are acquired on demand.

Subject Areas Collected by Library of Congress Classification Number
BCAT, the online catalog, can be searched by LC classification number to get a better idea of what specific titles the mathematics collection contains.  For example, the command c=QA272 will produce the beginning of a list of works on probablities in mathematics.  This list can be browsed by pressing the F8 key or typing f and pressing the Enter/Return key.