Description:
Known for its tradition of excellence, the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology (MEST) sets the standard for science encyclopedias. First published in 1960, MEST serves as an excellent resource for those who need an authoritative overview of a subject within the major disciplines of science and technology. Contributed by 5000 internationally known researchers (1500 more than in the eighth edition), the 7100 articles are well written and well organized. The excellent illustrations, primarily drawings with some black-and-white photographs and color plates, are central to the text. The topical index groups article titles under broad subject categories, while the 500-page analytical index provides more specific indexing. The set is updated every five years, with this edition's comprehensive revisions emphasizing industrial engineering, information technology and computing, chemistry and chemical engineering, physics and astronomy, the biomedical sciences, and the environmental, earth, and climate sciences. The short bibliographies at the end of each article have been revised, and the study guides have been expanded to cover 15 major scientific disciplines such as agriculture, electronics, and environmental science. Aside from this, very little is changed from the eighth edition. Both MEST and the recent Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology (EPST) are excellent science encyclopedias and complement each other. Although the sets are comparable in size, EPST has only 790 articles, a difference that results from MEST's breaking up a topic into several individual articles. In contrast, EPST organizes the information into fewer chapter-length articles, making it better suited for self-study. Because MEST has slightly broader coverage and costs about $1000 less than EPST, most libraries would probably prefer to purchase this set if they have to make a choice. Highly recommended for all libraries. [Access Science, the e-version of this encyclopedia, is available at a price based on an institution's FTE, starting at $595 for a single user per year.-Ed.]-Teresa Berry, Univ. of Tennessee Libs., Knoxvill.
--Teresa Berry, Univ. of Tennessee Libs., Knoxville.
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