ANNOUNCEMENT -

I would like to make known a large collection of files available over
the World-Wide Web. These are usually expository articles about topics
in mathematics at the undergraduate, graduate, or professional
level. For the most part these are taken from the USENET math groups
or from email. The collection is available at
	http://www.math.niu.edu/~rusin/known-math


ALTERNATIVE ACCESS -

The individual files may also be retrieved by anonymous FTP from
ftp.math.niu.edu (directory pub/papers/Rusin/known-math) or by gopher from
gopher.math.niu.edu (select Faculty Publications / Rusin / known-math).
Unfortunately, the file names are often cryptic, so WWW access is advised
if possible; otherwise, you should begin with the file index.html found
in each subdirectory. 

WHAT'S INCLUDED IN THE COLLECTION -

What you will find at this site is the 1400 or so files I have saved during
recent years of scanning the newsgroups. It's not complete by any
easily-defined measure -- that is, it's not an archive of sci.math (I save
about 1% of the posts there), nor does it span all of mathematics, nor
is there any subfield covered exhaustively. It's the union of my own
posts and letters together with those I saw which I felt either explained
well something I already knew, or which gave pointers to something I hope
to learn more about, or which asked a question I planned to return to at
some time. I would advertise the site simply as "a place you might
find something useful". I have provided several ways to select the individual
files there to improve the likelihood that you will find what you seek.
More information about the collection is available there.

AUTHORS' RIGHTS -

Most of the material to be found there is written by other people. I
have written to the 500 or so authors involved to get their permission
to provide this material. A majority have kindly granted this
permission. I have tried to deal appropriately with material whose
author could not be reached or did not respond (details available at
the site). I would like to take this opportunity to offer people an
extra chance to have me edit or withdraw anything which they feel
violates their rights; for example, I may not have caught attributions
to  A  in a letter  B  sent me which included excerpts of a letter
from  A  to  B. In a few cases, the access-denied message is a signal
that I am still adjusting private email pending permissions.

PARDON MY DUST -

Quite a few of those whose posts or letters appear on this site have
sent me suggestions, updates, and revisions. I am incorporating those
as quickly as I can, but I have decided to keep to the announcement
date I had mentioned to many of them rather than wait until all the
changes are in place. I hope this is not too much of an inconvenience
either for the authors or the users. It will likely be several months
before the initial adjustments are complete, but I have every
intention of carrying them out as soon as time can be found. Please
note that as part of those changes I may need to reorganize
directories; so if you find a file you'd like to link, please link
also the above initial URL (which I promise to keep stable). In the
meantime, please pardon the somewhat uneven quality of the index files
and directory structure. 

A WORD OF THANKS -

I really appreciate the cooperation of the many people who have
contributed to this collection. A great deal of expertise and care has
gone into some of these posts and letters, all on a volunteer basis of
course. In the midst of much genuine concern about the quality of
mathematical discussion on the internet, it is good to realize that
some very good material has been available.

dave

Work priorities:
1)..permission/privacy issues
2)..broken links or access problems
3)..serious organizational or content errors
4)..updates and corrections to existing files
5)..improvements and additions
6)..planning for future direction