Historical Math Monographs

The Historical Math Monographs digital collection was created and is maintained by Cornell University Library. This project began in 1990 as a collaberation between Cornell University and Xerox, and consists of 465 general monographs, 42 Cornell dissertations, 576 math books, and 691 New York State Historical pamphlets and monographs.

1) Selection Decisions
The monographs included in this collection have expired copyright (so they can be made available to the public online), and are all related to the field of mathematics. It is stated that these monographs were chosen because they were brittle, and were in need of digital preservation. The name and title of the person responsible for making project selection decisions is not provided.

2) Metadata
Little descriptive metadata is provided, with only the author and the document name given. The date of publication is not provided in the metadata, but can often be determined from the scans. Some administrative metadata is provided about the collection as a whole (as information on scanning techniques and standards is given), but not for individual scans. Structural metadata is provided, as you are informed of what page number you are looking at within a document. You can also see what collection the document is in (whether it is a math book, a monograph, a dissertation, or a pamphlet). It is possible to jump to certain pages within a document.

3) Object Characteristics
Items are digitally scanned and stored as 600dpi, bitonal TIFF images, and compressed for use on the internet. Facsimile editions of the monographs are printed and kept as an alternate preservation copy. The files on the website are GIF files. Suggestions for the best viewing conditions include a monitor with 800x600 resolution and 256 colors.

4) Intended Audience
The intended audience of this collection is students or scholars who need access to these useful math documents. Context and explanations of the materials are not given, so the user would need previous knowledge of the subject to understand and get proper use of the materials.