Research guides: CO 480 Research: Home

Finding Inspiration

Omni, the library catalogue
Use the catalogue's advanced search to help you find mathematicians.

Change the field to 'subject' and type 'mathematicians' into the search box. It can also be helpful to change the results to only show books from 2000 or later.

A note about what to 'search for':

'Waterloo library' shows print and electronic items in the Waterloo system.
'Waterloo online resources' shows only electronic items in the Waterloo system.
'Waterloo + Laurier + Guelph' includes Laurier's and Guelph's print collection. You can request items from these libraries and usually receive them in a few days.
'Waterloo + Omni Libraries' includes the print collections from 13 other universities in Ontario. You can request items from these libraries and usually receive them in a week or two.

The catalogue's advanced search interface

Broad searches, like the one above, are not always the best for finding underrepresented voices. Instead a search like this might be more helpful:

advanced search in the catalogue. black OR indigenous OR women OR "African American" OR woman OR "African Canadian" are searched in the title field and mathematician* is searched in the any field.

Encyclopedias can provide useful overviews on mathematicians and mathematical concepts. Please note that these are not considered peer reviewed sources because entries are not often reviewed by subject experts. However, they can be used as reliable starting points for selecting a mathematician and finding related references.

There are a number of websites you can browse to help you select a mathematician, including:

Please know that these are not scholarly sources of information. However, they can provide an indication of how much research relating to an individual is out there. You can also mine their references for material published in books, journals, and conferences.

Your librarian