Choice Review

A guidebook for researchers and information professionals, this title deals with the selection and use of databases and with search strategies for research. Departing from the second edition (1992), the editors divide this edition into three volumes that reflect the growth of electronic resources. The third edition focuses on fee-based databases but includes CD-ROMs and free Web resources. Each volume offers ample illustrations of database screens, subject and database indexes, and chapter bibliographies. The first volume supplies an excellent introduction to online search strategies, and the third provides an invaluable discussion of citation searching. Although much new material has been added, the work offers no coverage of computer science, physics, or mathematics, even though the sciences are dealt with in more detail than the humanities or social sciences. This set provides an outstanding and detailed discussion of online searching of both free and fee-based resources, but it assumes the user is familiar with fairly complex search strategies as well as the online environment itself. Recommended for graduate students, researchers, and information professionals. S. Nowicki Kalamazoo College