What are these sources?
Reference sources are a good place to get an overview of a topic in a few paragraphs or a few pages. Looking up a topic in a reference book is an excellent way to familiarize yourself with the key concepts, terminology, and people associated with the topic. This background is important both for understanding a topic and for searching effectively in online databases for articles and books. In addition, many reference works provide carefully selected bibliographies which may lead you to further reading.
These are refernce books held in the reference stacks on the second floor of the Olin Library.
Call Numbers
Specific call numbers for books are found in the online catalog, but when browsing the shelves, it helps to know something about them.
The broad topics indicated by the first letter of the "call number" are often broken down into subtopics with a second letter, and are then refined in much greater detail with the addition of numbers. A full listing of Library of Congress call numbers can be found here: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/
The digits in these call numbers are read as counting numbers, not as decimals as in the Dewey Decimal system. This means that DL 1175 is found between DL 1174 and DL 1179, well after DL 117 or DL 118.
This arrangement of books by subject matter makes shelf-browsing convenient. If you find a useful book, the books nearby on the shelf are likely to be closely related in topic.
Reference Resources in Print
The Cambridge dictionary of statistics by Call Number: QA276.14 .E84 2002ISBN: 052181099XThis dictionary defines some 3,500 terms in all areas of statistics, including medical, survey, theoretical, and applied statistics, and features short biographies of some 100 statisticians. Most definitions include a reference to a book or article where readers can seek an extended account of the term. Many of the definitions
CRC concise encyclopedia of mathematics by Call Number: QA5 .W45 2003ISBN: 1584883472Topics reflect the author's interests, as he says, his "own random walk through mathematics," rather than a fixed set of criteria. Differing from other math dictionaries, this one contains extensive cross referencing to related entries as well as internet sites; the entries contain both standard and popular references; and the abundant examples include explicit formulas and derivations.
Handbook of discrete and combinatorial mathematics by Call Number: QA164 .H36 2000ISBN: 0849301491A reference to all the important areas of discrete mathematics, including those essential to its applications in computer science and engineering. The topics include logic and foundations, number theory, discrete probability, networks and optimization, combinatorial designs, and computational geometry. Among the features are glossaries, lists of important theorems and formulas, examples illustrating terms and concepts, descriptions of algorithms, summary tables, pointers to print and non-print resources, and biographical sketches of important figures.
Subject Guide
