The Encyclopaedia of Mathematics, published by Kluwer, is the English translation of Matematicheskaia entsiklopediia (Soviet Encyclopaedia of Mathematics). This important work comes in ten volumes and three supplements. The online version contains over 8,000 articles, written mostly by European or Russian scholars. Citations to additional resources are provided at the end of each article in a References section. Kluwer Online has provided an electronic version that combines an elegant search system with a seamless browsing interface.
Kluwer has removed the obstacles of taking a print work of this size and making it accessible online. Mathematical formulas are typically very difficult to transfer to the online medium. However, Kluwer has overcome this problem with an excellent display that does not use PDF images of the entire page, but rather allows text to be displayed as text and the formulas to be displayed as small, quick‐loading images. Formatting is not a problem either, and a print display is available to maximize page space. Kluwer has also made major improvements in its ability to send articles through e‐mail. While most databases do not include the pictures when e‐mailing articles, here graphics are absolutely vital, since they comprise the formulae and geographic images. Recognizing this, Kluwer sends the article as a HTML document with the images embedded in the text.
A search box is available on the top of every page. The advanced search offers a few additional fields to search, including equations. There is no help available for this feature, however, making it very difficult to know exactly how to enter certain symbols into the search box to find articles containing a particular equation. Overall, Kluwer does stumble somewhat when it comes to help files. Other than a brief “Search tips” page, there is little help available. Search results are displayed by title of the article and search terms are highlighted in red within the text.
Where the online Encyclopaedia of Mathematics really shines is in the way it displays cross‐linking. If there is a term in an article that is of importance and it is contained in other articles, clicking on the term will bring up an immediate list of the other articles. This allows researchers to jump quickly to cross‐referenced articles without having to go to another search screen. In addition, all articles to which the current article refers, and from which it is referred, are contained in a drop‐down menu located near the top of the screen. There are other advanced features as well. The ability to bookmark sections is a nice browsing feature. However, without a help file, it can be difficult to know that users must go to “My desktop” and then “View bookmarked items” to see their bookmarks. The ability to add notes lets scholars place their comments and attach it to any section. This feature allows users to designate notes as private or subscription‐wide, or even as a site‐wide note that can be viewed by all. This note feature could be useful for faculty wishing to leave messages for classes studying particular subjects. Notes, much easier to find than the bookmarks, are accessed through the drop‐down menu provided near the top of the screen.
Although a CD‐ROM version is much cheaper (the 1998 network version sells for $284.50), the online version has several advantages that make it worth the extra money. The CD‐ROM contains only the ten core volumes and one supplement, while the online version contains all three supplements. It is also much easier to set up and maintain access to an online database than it is to install any type of CD‐ROM programme across a network, and the ability to search it easily through a database interface with IP authentication is a considerable improvement.
The online Encyclopaedia of Mathematics is an excellent resource for graduate‐level students and for faculty in mathematics and computer science. It is also particularly valuable for computer science students and researchers who are focusing on computational subjects such as genetic algorithms or artificial intelligence.
