Advances in math search

As digital libraries of mathematical and scientific contents become available, it is essential to have math-aware search systems. The search systems must understand math symbols and structures, and allow users to enter queries that involve not only text keywords but also mathematical expressions and fragments of expressions. In addition, the search results must be presented in a way that enables the user to find the desired information rapidly. This short paper gives a quick overview of the state of the art of math search, and focuses on the math search system that the author has developed for the Digital Library of Mathematical Functions (DLMF) project of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)