At their annual conference last June, the American Society for Engineering Education gave this encyclopedia its award for "Best Reference Book." And indeed, with over 1400 articles spanning 24 volumes and 19,000 pages, this is the most comprehensive encyclopedia for electrical engineering in existence. The articles, all of which are informative and lucid, were written and reviewed by engineers with special field knowledge. The articles have been collected into 64 broad categories, like Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Neural Networks, and Solid State Circuits. Where appropriate, concepts are explained mathematically, and the book also contains a generous supply of graphics and tables to illustrate more difficult concepts. An extensive index, organized by subject area and keyword, makes navigation easy, and each article contains a bibliography. One minor weakness is in the cross referencing: See entries instead of See Also references are frequently used. According to the volume index, for example, Analog Filters has two entries. The first is for a 16-page article; the second simply states, "Analog Filters. See Bandpass Filters," which users might mistakenly read without noticing the long article before it. Although the encyclopedia may be too expensive for smaller libraries, it is an excellent resource. Recommended for large libraries, both academic and public.AWilliam Baer, Brigham Young Univ. Lib., Provo, UT
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Overall this is an excellent reference tool. It received the 1999 American Society for Engineering Education Engineering Libraries Division award for Best Reference Work of the Year." -- E-Streams, Vol. 3, No. 1, January 2000
"Overall this is an excellent reference tool. It received the 1999 American Society for Engineering Education Engineering Libraries Division award for Best Reference Work of the Year." (E-Streams, Vol. 3, No. 1, January 2000)
"….with over 1400 articles spanning 24 volumes and 19,000 pages, this is the most comprehensive encyclopedia for electrical engineering in existence…an excellent resource." (Library Journal, September 15, 1999)
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