Library services & resources: Mathematics, Statistics & Physics
With the Library's Web re-design of 19/2/2011, this page is out of date but it will be updated by 1 April.
This guide is aimed at staff and postgraduate students of the Department of Mathematics or Department of Statistics, although undergraduate researchers or people from other Departments may find the material useful.
ALL PATRONS: For advice on what resources to use, and how to use them, contact your Subject Librarian. The Subject Librarian Service is a free service to help you get the most out of Library resources, including databases.
§1. Your Subject Librarian: Michael Parkinson
For short enquiries: phone 3737599 ext 85858, email m.parkinson@auckland.ac.nz,
or visit Michael's office (if he is in) ... Room M13, Level M, General Library.
Most lecture weeks, Michael is also available for short enquiries:
Wednesdays 11.30 am to 12.30 pm, at Temporary Physics staffroom: Room 118, Commerce A (Bldg 114, 5 Symonds Street)
NEW arrangements are being made for Maths/Stats during reconstruction of Bldg 303; to be announces week of 1st August.
§1.1 Research Consultation. For one-on-one assistance on choosing and using the best resources for your particular research needs, contact Michael for a longer appointment (preferably by email). Do mention the topic, research area, or "problem statement" you are working on.
§2. Borrowing library material
Most Mathematics, Statistics, and Physics print books are found on Level M of the General library, although some aspects (especially computer-related topics) may be on Level 1 instead.
- You need your University ID card to borrow library items.
- Most books are issued for either 28 or 60 days — although some high-demand items are kept at "Short Loans", and journal volumes are issued for only 3 days and are not renewable.
- If you want an item that is currently borrowed by another patron, you may recall it from them.
- If something is recalled from you, return it promptly. You may check your "patron record" online: to see what you have out, when it is due, to renew material; or to see if recalled/requested items are now available.
- You may easily access Library material shelved at another campus
- From the Voyager record: Click the Recall/Intercampus button.
- From the Catalogue [Library Search] record: Sign in (if not already signed-in); Click the Request hyperlink.
- You are NOT limited just to the items from The University of Auckland's various libraries — see InterLibrary Loan (below)
- Staff, PhD students, and graduate students may have up to 50 items out on loan at any one time
For more details on borrowing library items, again see www.library.auckland.ac.nz/about/genlib/lending_1.htm
§2.1 Lost or missing material? If you are not certain where a book should be in the General Library, ask for assistance at the Enquiry Desk (Level G) or ask your Subject Librarian, Michael. If the book appears to be missing, please tell Michael ASAP so that we can replace it or update it.
§2.2 NetID and password. To use a library photocopier/scanner, either swipe your library card or type in your Net ID (also called UPI) & password. For up-to-date details and explanations, see Student IT essentials
§3 Full-text resources
You are not restricted merely to printed books and journals. The Library provides access to many electronic, full-text academic resources, although full-text sources are NOT all of equal quality:
some reliably replicate the appearance of the printed articles; some do not. Some sources do not include illustrations, or include the graphics only in a modified format.
§3.1 Find Full Text — This button does NOT imply a full-text result exists. It is merely a way to check whether a full-text version is accessible.
§3.2 PDF, html, & other full-text sources — Do NOT automatically choose the first full-text link given by the catalogue. If the same journal has several electronic holdings, try to choose the best one. PDF is usually the preferred format for printing; but don't assume all PDFs are equally authentic. For example, a PDF in Expanded Academic is generated from the text file and does NOT reliably indicate the true pagination of the original printed source.
- Typically, major publishers' PDFs are of good quality: ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, Wiley Interscience, OUP online, etc.
- Full-text sources from smaller publishers vary in quality: some are erratic, some are superb. Direct links from some databases into JSTOR may be clumsy; if so, download the entire article from JSTOR itself to your computer, and then print it. However. as always, ask for help if you need it.
- Sometimes an electronic journal is only available in one format or only from one vendor or website. But, whenever better alternatives exist, avoid "consolidated" sources like Expanded Academic, EbscoHost, ... Furthermore such consolidators sometimes embargo the recent issues (for up to 12 months).
- Ebsco and ebrary are two large suppliers of e-books, both primarily directed more towards non-science or undergraduate users, but each still has a few dozen useful mathematical or Statistical e-books. Unfortunately
- Ebsco does not permit multiple simultaneous users to access the same text.
- Ebrary does allow simultaneous access to multiple users, but is incompatible with ezproxy (the University's user validation system): you must first register as a user while on campus before you can use it off-campus.
brief points [3 pages A4].
Use the above links to choose and access your database(s) or contact Michael for further help in choosing the most appropriate databases for your research and for an efficient, effective search strategy. See too the brief summary of Citation Searching and alert services, but contact your Subject Librarian for more specific help.
- Find: Library Search (formerly "The Catalogue") vs Voyager
- These two resources give access to all catalogued items. In addition, Library Search simultaneously searches some of our full text resources.
- Find: Databases vs Subject Guides
- Ways to find unknown research material, e.g. journal articles for your assignment.
- Use the Databases link if you know the NAME of the database(s) you want;
- otherwise use a Subject Guide to lead to selected resources appropriate for your academic subject ... including subject-specific databases, and more.
- Find: E-journals
- This sometimes give handy access to electronic journals, but it is often incomplete.
- For example: Statistical [as Keyword in title] does NOT find Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics; International statistical review; Journal of the American Statistical Association; the various Journal of the Royal Statistical Society series ... etc. If you do not find the expected title(s) or expected coverage, Use Library search or a suitable database instead.
- Find: Course Pages
- Use this general link for Course resource pages for other Subjects. For Course pages handled by your subject Librarian, click instead: Stats, or Physics — no Mathematics course-pages, as yet.
- Find: Library Workshops
- Very useful for students new to University of Auckland. For established staff or students, please just contact Michael directly.
- Find: Tutorials & Guides
- This can be a site for useful material ... but feel free to contact Michael for help.
- The remaining links should be self evident, such as:
- Request: Interlibrary Loan — You are NOT limited just to the items from The University of Auckland's various libraries. We can obtain the article, chapter, or book from another Library in NZ or even overseas ... provided your request is "for University of Auckland teaching or research, or required for a University of Auckland course of studies".
- About: Hours— for all University of Auckland libraries.
- ... but for some items (e.g., Request: Recommend a Book), it is usually faster just to contact Michael.
Link to Subject Guides -- Statistics || Subject Guides -- Mathematics || Subject Guides -- Physics
Comments and suggestions to: Michael Parkinson (Subject Librarian: Mathematics, Statistics, and Physics)
Last updated
2012-02-23
|