Van Nostrand's Encyclopedia of Chemistry, 5th Edition

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Van Nostrand's Encyclopedia of Chemistry, 5th Edition
By Glenn D. Considine​





  • Publisher: Wiley-Interscience
  • Number Of Pages: 1856 ​
  • Publication Date: 2005-02-03 ​
  • ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0471615250 ​
  • ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780471615255 ​
  • Binding: Hardcover ​



Product Description: ​

Scientists, engineers, and technologists in many fields need a knowledge of chemistry because of the importance of chemistry in diverse technologies. In addition, to "classical" topics of chemistry, the new Encyclopedia covers nanotechnology, fuel cell technology, green chemistry, forensic chemistry, supramolecular chemistry, combinatorial chemistry, materials chemistry, and proteomics.​

This fifth print edition has been revised and updated, and includes over 200 new articles, as well as 1,300 updated articles.​





Summary: Who is the target audience?
Rating: 3​

It's rather hard to argue with reviews from JACS and other prestigious journals. That said, this is not a review aimed at librarians, but rather at someone looking for a reference book for a home or small office library. ​

I think the question in the title of this review sums up the problems with this book. There's certainly a lot of information here, but this book is certainly not what I expected from an "Encyclopedia of Chemistry." It seems to be designed for people who need specialized coverage of certain subfields of chemistry, rather than a broad overview of the whole--but, then, why not produce separate books (e.g., "Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry," "Encyclopedia of Organic Chemistry," etc.), rather than produce a book with such an odd mixture of coverage. ​

For example, several pages are devoted to peroxides and peroxide compounds, which, while perhaps excessive, is not unreasonable. Likewise, I can understand the significant amount of space devoted to industrial issues (e.g., petroleum chemistry, polymers, etc.). But then there are the truly questionable articles, such as a four-page article on viruses, that barely mentions chemistry issues at all--and the obvious articles that one would expect but are not in fact there (especially when it comes to general/physical chemistry). For example, the Born-Haber cycle gets no mention at all, not even in the index (and lattice energy gets a scant ten lines or so). Similarly, there are no entries (even in the index) for the Arrhenius equation or the Nernst equation. (Remarkably, the book has an entry on Nernst, which cites his most famous work as the Nernst effect, and makes no mention at all of his eponymous equation!) ​

Were that not bad enough, there are a lot of questionable editorial decisions. For example, "Bronsted-Lowry" theory is listed as the much rarer "Lowry-Bronsted", and "Gibbs free energy" is relegated to an article on "free energy"; in neither case is there so much as a "pointer" entry to direct a "novice" to the desired article (similarly, "redox" reactions do not apparently rate such a link, either). ​

Combine all of the above faults with numerous typos, and the result is a largely frustrating work. Given the high cost, it's probably not worth the money unless you can find a copy beforehand and see if it meets your needs.​

 
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