Finding Books at UIUC and Beyond
Use the UIUC Online Catalog to search for books. Try using the Library of Congress Subject Headings, "Mathematics" or "Mathematics--History" to get started.
If a book is not available at UIUC . . .
- I-Share - Searches for items in more than 80 academic libraries in Illinois, including UIUC.
- WorldCat - Searches for items in libraries throughout the world.
At home without time to request a book? Click on Advanced Search and limit your search to electronic (e-book) sources! You can also do your subject search first, and then limit the results to e-books.
You can also try Google Books, but you'll only have access to snippets of most of the books in your results list.
Recommended Databases
These databases make a great starting point for further research on your topic. Remember that "mathematics" is preferred to "math" as a search term, and simply adding "popular culture" or "television" to the search can yield numerous helpful results. Want to know how math has made news? Try Lexis Nexis.
Savvy Surfing
You know how I always try to steer you to databases, aka away from Google? Well, this time, Google away. Search smart by knowing key words and phrases, and keeping those phrases together with quotations marks, eg "recreational math."
