Search results

Principles of online bibliographic information retrieval, and some practical work with major search systems, was offered as a component of a course dealing with information resources for university students in science and engineering at the University of California. As part of this program each student performed a search on a topic of his own choice and presented an oral report to the class on that search. Student reactions and attitudes are discussed, and some of the problems which emerged are described. The relevance to student needs of the online component of the course is also presented.

1. Carter, Ernest F. Dictionary of Inventions and Discoveries. New York, Crane, Russak, 1976. 208pp. $6.50. This, the second revised edition of a dictionary first published in Great Britain in 1966, presents over two thousand inventions and discoveries, inventors and discoverers in a single alphabet. Although a few of the entries run for over a page, most are very brief.

1. Eshbach, Ovid W. and Mott Souders (eds.). Handbook of Engineering Fundamentals, 3rd edition. New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1975. 1562p. $24.95. Engineering handbooks are notorious for the excessively long periods of time it takes for them to come out as revised editions. Periods of anywhere from ten to twenty years can be expected for a revision process and which, unfortunately, appears to be more of the rule than the exception. This 3rd edition of the Handbook of Engineering Fundamentals is welcome for it has been more than twenty years since the publication of the 2nd edition, and has been very much overdue for revision.

1. Jones, J. Owen and Elizabeth A. Jones. Index of Human Ecology. London, Europa Publications Limited, 1974. 169p. $16.00. Here, at least as far as this reviewer is aware, is a unique approach in print to one of the broad interdisciplinary areas that is bringing so many interesting, and now and then frustrating, questions to our reference desks. Human ecology is tentatively defined by the authors as “the study of the interrelation of man and his environment,” but since humans have created each element in the record of human knowledge, there must be little if anything in that record that is not included within the scope of this definition. Yet most people would agree to the exclusion of some subjects‐astronomy, for example. The authors do not provide a concise, precise definition of their subject; hence each of us is left with his own somewhat vague notion of what the subject is, and each of us will probably disagree to some extent with what has been included, and what has not. Instead of defining their subject, the authors polled the members of the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council, and produced a list of subjects that overlap with human ecology. Their objective, which is highly commendable from the point of view of the reference librarian and his patrons, is to produce a subject index to the abstracting journals which cover these subjects.

This column reviews reference works in all areas of science and technology, except medicine, and includes new publications as well as editions of previously published works. The intention is to provide informative, critical and evaluative reviews and to make comparisons with other similar works, if available. It is hoped that these reviews may be of use both in collection development and in providing reference services.

1. Conway, H. McKinley and Linda R. Liston, eds. The Weather Handbook. Atlanta, Conway Research Inc., 1974. 255p. This Handbook pulls together weather information for over 250 U.S. cities and for about 325 cities in other countries. A revision of the 1963 edition, it contains new data for most of the reporting stations and includes data for a number of new stations not included in the earlier edition. The first edition and this revision is a result of the editor's continuing interest in flying and his need for weather data for flight planning. This work as, Mr. Conway states, attempts to put this information in a form that is more convenient, practical and easier to use.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

The following annotated bibliography of materials on orienting users to libraries and on instructing them in the use of reference and other resources covers publications from 1981. A few items from 1980 have been included because information about them was not available in time for the 1980 listing. A few items have not been annotated because the compiler was unable to secure copies of these items.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.