girl writing a math problem on white board

Mathematics Research Guide

  • Find Background Info
  • Find Books
  • Find Articles
  • Math Tools
  • Citing Sources

Find Background Info

Background sources, such as specialized encyclopedias and dictionaries, are an essential piece of the research process. They can help you: 

  • Gather information about your topic and understand the scope of the research. 
  • Locate reliable sources and to clarify keywords. 
  • Pinpoint important authors, texts, ideas, and keywords about the research area—knowing what the primary phrases and concepts are will help you a lot as you are searching through library databases and online sources. 

Credo Reference 

Credo Reference is a multi-publisher collection of high-quality reference titles. Available titles also include a range of multimedia options, including thousands of diagrams, photographs, maps, and audio files.

Credo includes several books on topics in mathematics. You can search Credo or view topic pages. Topic pages are great places to get a broad overview and recommended readings for your topic.

Search Credo Reference 

View Math Topic Pages

Find Books

Print and e-books are valuable sources for academic research. They will help you to gain an overview of your topic and often contain in-depth information about the scholarship or history of research on a subject. Some books are written by single authors, while others include essays or chapters by multiple scholars within a discipline. Don’t let the length of books intimidate you because you don’t need to read them from cover to cover. Look at the table of contents and index to find the sections that are relevant to your work.

Find Books Using GriffinSearch

GriffinSearch is a good starting place if you are looking for books, journal articles, films, and other materials available in the library. In addition to searching the Giovale Library catalog for physical materials, GriffinSearch finds e-books and articles from several of our databases. To get started, search by keyword or type in the title of a book here:

WorldCat

WorldCat lets you search for books, articles, videos, and other material that are available in libraries worldwide. If you are doing in-depth research on a topic and are considering requesting resources through Interlibrary Loan, WorldCat can help you discover resources that might not be in the Giovale Library collection.

Search WorldCat

Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

Interlibrary Loan is a service where patrons of one library can borrow books and other materials, and access journal articles that are owned by another library.

Explore Interlibrary Loan Materials

Utah Academic Library Consortium

Giovale Library participates in the Utah Academic Library Consortium (UALC) and Westminster College students have reciprocal circulation privileges at UALC partner libraries. Each UALC library has different circulation policies, but all require a current, valid, legal photo identification and proof of current enrollment at Westminster. Some libraries may also require other verification methods, so it is recommended that you contact the library you are interested in for details.

Explore the Consortium

Popular Titles and Featured Texts

Mathematics in Industry book cover

Mathematics in Industry

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Tales of Impossibility book cover

Tales of Impossibility: The 2000-Year Quest to Solve the Mathematical Problems of Antiquity

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Republic of Numbers book cover

Republic of Numbers : Unexpected Stories of Mathematical Americans Through History

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Art of Statistics book cover

The Art of Statistics: How to Learn From Data

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Find Articles

Giovale Library provides access to a number of subject databases that you can use to find journal articles on topics within a specific discipline or field of study. The databases listed here are the most useful for finding research published in the field of mathematics.

GriffinSearch

GriffinSearch is a good starting place if you are looking for books, journal articles, films, and other material available in the library. In addition to searching the Giovale Library catalog for physical materials, GriffinSearch finds e-books and articles from several of our databases.

Search GriffinSearch

MathSciNet

MathSciNet is an electronic publication offering access to a carefully maintained and easily searchable database of reviews, abstracts, and bibliographic information for much of the mathematical sciences literature. New items are added each year, most of them classified according to the Mathematics Subject Classification. Authors are uniquely identified, enabling a search for publications by individual author rather than by name string.

Search MathSciNet

Math Tools

Wolfram|Alpha 

Wolfram|Alpha is a computational knowledge engine.

Search Wolfram|Alpha

CoCalc 

Part of the Sage project, CoCalc supports editing of Sage worksheets, LaTeX documents, and Jupyter notebooks.

Search CoCalc

Detextify 

Detextify allows you to draw a shape and get the LaTeX command for it.

Search Detextify 

Citing Sources

Citation Resources

Properly citing your sources shows that you’ve done research to become knowledgeable about your topic and helps you avoid plagiarism. Explore citation resources to learn how to correctly cite sources based on style.

Need help with your research?

Get in touch with:

Spencer DeVilbiss Headshot

Spencer DeVilbiss

Liaison Librarian for Mathematics

(801) 832-2255
sdevilbiss@westminsteru.edu

Schedule a Consultation

Librarians are happy to answer questions via email, phone, or in-person.

Contact Spencer with a question or to schedule a research help appointment.

Faculty: Contact Spencer to suggest edits to this research guide.

Chat with a Librarian

Use the chat box below to ask the library staff a question. If chat is unavailable or we don’t respond quickly, please use the email form on our Get Research Help page and a library staff member will contact you as soon as we are available.