**** The British counterpart to Sheehy (in which it is recommended--and vice versa), distributed in the US by Unipub. Volume 3 completes the 5th edition with 8,833 entries (vol. 1:Science and technology, 1989, 5,995 entries; vol.2: Social and historical sciences, philosophy and religion, 1990, 7,166 entries). While the majority of items are reference books, Walford is a guide to reference material and therefore includes periodical articles, microforms, online, and CD-ROM sources. A special effort has been made to make sure the output of small and specialist presses is not neglected. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Presents an annotated bibliography of general and subject reference books covering the humanities, social and behavioral sciences, history, science, technology, and medicine.

The pattern of official publishing in Britain continues to change. This second edition aims to present a concise and up-to-date overview of the range of current official publishing. It is intended for practising librarians, students in departments of library and information studies and users of official publications to help them to discern the pattern of official publishing today. Her Majesty's Stationary Office is the largest single general publisher of official material, but its output represents only a small proportion of the total. The great majority of official publications are published directly by government departments, public bodies and local authorities. Despite advances in bibliographic control, some of these publications are still relatively little known and underused. Developments in electronic publishing have begun to have a significant impact in the offical publications field with online and CD-ROM databases becoming more common.