Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology/Cd-Rom Version 1.0

This mutliplatform CD-ROM enhances the same features that made the award-winning Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology comprehensive, informative, and easy-to-use, offering a quick, user-friendly environment from the convenience of your desktop.

Based on the 1992 print dictionary of the same title, this covers engineering, life sciences, mathematics, computers, medical sciences, physical sciences, and the social sciences. It is yet another example of a CD-ROM that should be left a book. Granted, there are over 350 photographs included, but there is no listing of them and users will only find them by chance. We saw a few and came across some of the 3500 spoken pronunciations out of 130,000 entries. Searching is simple enough, although Boolean operators need to be bracketed and following up on a cross reference requires two steps. Definitions are rather brief, usually only two to three lines. Bottom Line: Stick with the book. The multimedia enhancements just do not add enough to make this dictionary a worthy purchase. Copyright 1998 Library Journal Reviews