Alas, people asking questions via our online chat service “Ask a Librarian” sometimes don’t provide email addresses. Why should you do that? The chat service is a cooperative where librarians from subscribing libraries answer questions for each other, and the service itself provides staff when there aren’t enough librarians online. UWW librarians staff the chat service two hours per week, but daily we review responses our patrons have received from others staffing the service to see if additional information might be helpful. If you provided an email address you’ll receive a message that there’s more information available.
So today I see someone was looking for reputable sources that discuss “the study of mathematics as a form of poetry.” Not much help was provided by the service (apparently the person was juggling several questions), and no email was provided by the anonymous patron. Otherwise I could have recommended looking at these books to see if they’d help:
- The art of mathematics by Jerry P. King (3rd-floor Main Collection, QA36 .K47 1992)
- The poetry of mathematics and other essays by David Eugene Smith (Remote Storage–ask @ Circulation Desk, 24-hour turnaround M-F–Call Number: QA7 .S6 1947)
- Five equations that changed the world: The power and poetry of mathematics by Michael Guillen (3rd-floor Main Collection, QC24.5 .G85 1995)
If you’re out there, somewhere, I hope you see this. Or give us a call. Or email again. Or stop at the Reference Desk. We’d like to help you get what you need!
For “A Small Library of the Literature of Mathematics from A’h-mose the Scribe to Albert Einstein” see THE WORLD OF MATHEMATICS, compiled with commentary by James R Newman — a four-volume collection first published in 1956.