IV.7    Get to Know Your Library and Librarians

"Mathematicians love books" is the title of a paper by mathematics editors Walter Kaufmann-Buhler, Alice Peters, and Klaus Peters (pp. 121-126 in Mathematics Tomorrow, Springer 1981, edited by L. A. Steen). And then there are historians of mathematics --- they are fanatics about books. They haunt libraries and used bookstores. To paraphrase Willie Sutton, "That's where the books are!"

If you are going to teach a course on the history of mathematics then you need to become intimately familiar with the libraries at your disposal. Go to your school's library:

It would be wise to summarize the information you have gathered on a web page so that it will be available to your students.

Think about every book. Is it something that you should look at carefully? Will your students find it of use? Should it be on reserve? Take along a copy of the MAA volume Library Recommendations for Undergraduate Mathematics to see what books are available. Give the librarian a copy of the section on the history of mathematics (and the title page) and indicate that you wished more of these books were in your library (someday there will be money and librarians often choose what has been suggested by faculty).

Take a list of periodicals with you and see what is available. You will want to create a local list for use by your students (consider posting it on the web --- that way you share your knowledge, not just with your students, but with the wide world of historians of mathematics). If you don't know the history of mathematics periodicals, spend a few days browsing through them so you get a feeling for what is there. Be sure to make notes about articles that you will want to come back to when preparing specific parts of your course.

It is vital that you know what resources are available to your students before you make assignments.

Get to know your librarians!

If you don't know the librarians at your school go in and introduce yourself. Tell them that you are interested in the history of mathematics and that you will be making extensive use of the library. Ask for help! They are experts about what is in the library and especially on how to find things. Convince them that you are serious in your quest and they will go all out to help you.

Spend some time getting to know your librarians. This is absolutely not wasted time. If they know what you are interested in they will help you find things of interest and will go out of their way to tell you that new things of interest to you have arrived. This is especially true when you are visiting a rare book room or university archive.

Be sure to tell them that you will be teaching a course in the history of mathematics and that both you and your students will be asking for help. Ask them to give you a tour of the library, pointing out those reference works which will be especially helpful. Discuss whether you should do a library tour for your students or whether they would be willing to do it. Suggest doing it together. It shows that you are really interested in seeing that your students do a good job. You will also learn something.

Ask the librarians for help in using the computer system. Ask them about search procedures. Usually there are ways of conducting computer searches of the catalog that are more sophisticated than what you may already know about. What data bases are available to you at your school? What printed material is available about using the computer catalogue that you could pass out to your students?

Go visit the librarian that does interlibrary loan. Tell her that you are going to offer a history of mathematics course and that both you and your students will be doing some interlibrary loans. Find out what paper work needs to be done. How long might it take? Are there any charges?

Visit nearby libraries.

After you have become familiar with what is in you school's library, go visit those that are nearby. Perhaps there is a research school within two hours drive. If so, go see what they have and repeat the same process you did with your local library. But before you make the trip, browse their catalogue over the internet. This will save you hours of time. Your time in libraries is precious, so use it wisely. If your library is part of a consortium of libraries make sure you understand how the system works.

Visit a rare book room.

Most likely, you have never been in a rare book room. But you should visit one. It is a wonderful experience. It will really hook you on the history of mathematics. There is a real thrill to reading a book that is several hundred years old. Here are a few of the treasures at American University, the Dibner Library at the Smithsonian, and at the University of Michigan

Here is some advice about visiting a rare book room:
Return to the minicourse home page.
If you have comments, send email to V. Frederick Rickey at fred-rickey@usma.edu .
Posted 29 December 1996. Revised 30 December 2008.