WSU Retention List Stories

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05/30/2024
profile-icon Vernon Leighton

Recap: In 2022, twenty-four Minnesota libraries joined together in a commitment to retain over a half-million print books which are scarcely-held in Minnesota. It is called the Minnesota Shared Print Collection. Here is one of the stories from the Winona State share of the collection.

Some books make you smile, even when the subject is serious and you should be more respectful. Within the realm of finite algebraic groups, one mathematical group is referred to as the Monster. One book on Winona State’s retention list studies the Monster, and—all kidding aside—the book’s first author is named Igor. … But does he pronounce it “Eye-gor”?

Frenkel, Igor, James Lepowsky, and Arne Meurman. Vertex Operator Algebras and the Monster. Boston: Academic Press, 1988.

 

02/08/2024
profile-icon Vernon Leighton

Recap: In 2022, twenty-four Minnesota libraries joined together in a commitment to retain over a half-million print books which are scarcely-held in Minnesota. It is called the Minnesota Shared Print Collection. Here is one of the stories from the Winona State share of the collection.

Perhaps the primary criterion for a book on the retention list is that it is scarcely-held in the State of Minnesota.

George Boole was the 19th century mathematician who pioneered the mathematics of logic—the algebra of ANDs, ORs, and NOTs—hence, there is a great deal of interest in his work among computer scientists. Books by or about George Boole are plentiful in Minnesota and none of them are on Winona State’s retention list; however, his wife Mary was a mathematics educator, and a selection of her writings is on our list.

Boole, Mary Everest. A Boolean Anthology: Selected Writings of Mary Boole on Mathematical Education. Compiled by D. G. Tahta. Nelson: Association of Teachers of Mathematics, 1972.

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