Mathematical Sciences Digital Library (MathDL)
The Mathematical Sciences Digital Library (MathDL) is the NSDL pathway project of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). MathDL has evolved greatly since its inception as a collection funded by an NSF grant in 2000 in the first round of NSDL grants. In July 2008 MathDL became the MAA’s pathway project with a new look created by Math Resources of Halifax. MathDL features the online publication Loci, online access to award-winning articles in MAA Writing Awards, a search over MathDL and partner collections, daily Math in the News articles, and On This Day (in math).
Loci combines three older online publications: The Journal of Online Mathematics and its Applications (JOMA), Digital Classroom Resources, and Convergence. JOMA was the main publication of MathDL from January 2001 until July 2008. JOMA-style articles continue to appear in Loci. Recent articles range from variations on the classic calculus problem of folding a piece of cardboard to obtain a box of maximum volume to a proof with animations of Marden’s Theorem in plane geometry.
Loci: Convergence features resources that support the teaching of mathematics using the history of the subject. These resources include articles, book reviews, pictures of rare old books and manuscripts, portraits of famous mathematicians, “Today’s Quotation,” and “Problem from another time.” Loci: Resources continues the tradition of Digital Classroom Resources by publishing applets and other tools for use in mathematics education.
Loci also contains a Developers’ Section, continuing a practice started in JOMA, and Departments including interactive supplements to articles published in the Association’s three print journals, announcements of meetings and other events, and commentaries by the author.
The MAA Writing Awards section of MathDL has PDF copies of articles, together with short biographical sketches of the authors, that have won one of the six awards presented by the Association for exceptional writing. Every week day since April 2007, Math in the News has been summarizing articles with mathematical content and significance to the mathematical community.
MathDL enables a search over approximately 15,000 mathematical resources provided by the pathway and its partners. In addition to articles from Loci and MAA Writing Awards, definitions from The Mathematical Resource, and encyclopedic entries from MathWorld and Planet Math, these resources range from a discussion of the hanging chain or catenary in the National Curve Bank to an Excel worksheet with Flash and Quick Time animation in Demos With Positive Impact that enables the user to analyze a jogger’s workout and create a story matching the corresponding graph of distance versus time.