Mathematics News Parker Ladwig Since I'm the moderator for this year's Mathematics Roundtable, I'll be your mathematics news reporter for the next year. If you ever have something for me to report that hasn't made it on the PAMnet listserv, please send it to me. Here's the news as of April 15, 2002. Mathematics in the News Mathematics Librarians in the News Also, congratulations to Jan Figa for his article "So Many Problems, So Little Time: Maps and Mathematics" in March's Information Outlook (see Bob Michaelson's announcement on PAMnet, March 12, 2002). Publisher and Publishing News Project Euclid provided an update to PAMnet on April 1. The Annals of Mathematics recently signed a contract and the content for it should be coming soon. Carol Hutchins forwarded a call for volunteers to participate in the typesetting of a free electronic version of Séminaire de Géométrie Algébrique, http://www.maths.univ-rennes1.fr/~edix/sgahtml/index.html. Martha Tucker pointed out a discussion about archiving mathematics research papers as free pre-prints on the Electronic Math Journals list, http://math.albany.edu:8800/hm/emj/2002. SLA 2002, Los Angeles Since we only have 90 minutes and time always seems to be running short, there will not be any official speakers. The format will be an informal (but not unstructured) discussion of topics of interest to mathematics librarians. We will have tea, coffee, soft drinks, and water available. For heavier snacks, please visit the PAM Suite Daily Retreat sponsored by the IOP. Building off Anderson, Dilcher, and Rovynak's 1996 survey of mathematics research libraries, the discussion will be structured into four broad areas. We can discuss the order (or vote on it) at the beginning of the roundtable. We can spend as much time on a topic as the group is interested, and then move on to the next.
ladwig.1@nd.edu
I ran across three interesting news items. The first two are press releases from the MAA, "Quantitative Literacy: Why Numeracy Matters for Schools and Colleges," http://www.maa.org/features/QL.html and "Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences 2010: What Should Students Know," http://www.maa.org/news/students2010.html. I also enjoyed Philip Davis' book review "Mathematics and the Modern Mind," http://www.siam.org/siamnews/01-02/mind.htm, especially the quote "the public needs a critical education that brings awareness and judgment of the mathematics that dominates our lives and the ability to react with some force to evaluate, accept, reject, slow down, redirect, reformulate the operation of these abstract symbols that affecting daily life." These three statements may give us food for thought as we are involved in discussions about information literacy.
Congratulations to Dick Funkhouser for his election to the SLA Hall Fame (see Kris Fowler's announcement on PAMnet, January 29, 2002).
SIAM announced a new all-electronic journal SIAM Journal on Applied Dynamical Systems, http://www.siam.org/journals/siads/siads.htm.
For those who missed my e-mail, here is the format for the Mathematics Roundtable scheduled for Tuesday, June 11, from 3:30-5:00 p.m. It is sponsored by SIAM. Linda Yamamoto and Jane Kinkus have volunteered to take notes, and a whiteboard and a microphone will be available to facilitate our discussion.
Do any of us spend a lot of (any) time doing traditional reference work? Is this for undergraduates, graduate students, or faculty/researchers? Would improving our understanding of mathematics help us help our patrons? Is anyone doing a particularly good job in bibliographic instruction or information literacy? How was this developed? What other sorts of services do the mathematicians seem most interested in? Are there things we can do to make these services a reality? How do the services we provide to mathematicians different from other scientists, other engineers, other researchers or students?
Does anyone provide students with help publishing (TeX services, for example)? How is computer support in your library, department, university? Does it significantly affect the services you can provide to your patrons? Is anyone involved with archiving mathematics research material? How are errata handled? Does anyone have Web pages they're particularly proud of? What makes them so great? How do the mathematicians fi
In budget crunches, how are we deciding what to cut back on--monographs, monographic series, journals? How do you build a collection in an area largely neglected by your dept.? How heavily do you rely on faculty input? What efforts are you or your dept. making to increase the funds allotted to your library? Are you involved with grants, fundraising, etc.? Any tips for those of us trying to raise money? How is your library dealing with journal packages? Have they helped or harmed your collection? What would be the ideal journal pricing model for your collection? Is there anything we can do as a group to affect prices for mathematics journals? Is anyone actively involved with Project Euclid or other alternative publishing efforts?
Cataloging? Acquisitions of out-of-print titles? Evaluation of an electronic journal to determine if it is as good as the print? Administrative issues? Library school issues? Issues for recruiting more mathematics librarians? Etc., etc.?
