Balliol College Library has made a new collection, Trefethen’s Index Cards, publicly available online, offering readers a fascinating and unusual insight into the intellectual life of Professor Nicholas Trefethen (Professor of Numerical Analysis and Professorial Fellow 1997–2023, Emeritus Fellow), currently Professor of Applied Mathematics in Residence at Harvard University.
Now accessible via the Library’s digital platform, Epexio, the collection comprises around 1,200 index cards recording Professor Trefethen’s thoughts, observations, and questions. Spanning more than 50 years, the cards trace the development of ideas across a lifetime of study, research, and lived experience.
The collection has now been fully digitised, with high-resolution images of each card available alongside full text transcriptions. The digitisation allows users to explore the collection in a variety of ways, including by date range or subject.