If you're looking for a particular software package, you can check for it using the yum command. For example:

yum list lapack

If you're not certain of the package name, you can use wildcards as long as you enclose it in quotes, eg yum list “lapac*”

If you want to find a particular file on the system (for example a shared library), use locate, eg locate liblapack.so.

If you can't find the file you're looking for, and want to know if it's available in a package, you can use yum provides. For example:

yum provides "*/liblapack.so"

Finally, if you find a package you need but which is not installed, let us know at net@physics.umn.edu so we can add it to the distribution list.