Any library whose users need statistical information should contain this comprehensive monograph. It is ideal for inexperienced end users who need both statistical information and a guide to searching, but it would also be a valuable addition to a reference collection in an academic, public, or corporate library, since even expert searchers cannot possibly know how to advise end users in every possible situation.

The book’s contents may be divided into five categories: an overview of online services in general; an overview of statistical methods; an overview of who produces statistical references; general search tips; and sources of statistics, sorted by type. The first four categories constitute the first four chapters, respectively, and the remainder of the book (around 200 pages) is spent on the fifth category. That is, chapters 6 through 18 each present in-depth discussions of some type of statistical source, including health and medical, scientific, historical, and demographic data. Many of the sources are simply listed, in groups of material on similar subjects, with their locations but no descriptions. There are so many sources of statistical information online, on CD-ROM, and so on, that detailed discussion of search techniques would be impractical. What this book does well is to present coherent overviews at the beginning of each chapter, along with an outline of the subcategories to be presented. In addition, each chapter concludes with at least one short case study in which a particular research problem is documented from start to finish. These case studies illustrate how some of the sources mentioned in the chapter may be used to find statistical information on specific problems.

For example, chapter 10, “Finding Historical Statistics,” includes two case studies: military casualties and fuel prices. In the first case, the problem of finding statistics in a database that consists of only abstracts (DIALOG: file 39: Historical Abstracts) is represented by the request, “How many Soviet casualties were there in World War II?” The author shows how to construct a search in which statistical data is teased out of a nonstatistical source using Boolean query techniques. In the second case, an interdisciplinary query is presented: “How does the price of a gallon of gasoline in 1997 compare to prices in the past?” This question addresses historical, economic, energy, and industrial topics. It also “illustrates the importance of statistical compendia, especially when looking at data over time” (p. 193), and portrays the type of information available from the US Energy Information Administration at http://www.eia.doe.gov/. In each case, the use of tables and figures to depict the type of information to be found in each source is helpful.

The obvious weakness of this book, of course, is that statistical sources in electronic format (especially on the Web) may change quickly. The dynamic nature of Web-based information would imply that such change is necessary. However, many of the sources listed are government resources, DIALOG, LEXIS-NEXIS, and other established resources that are not likely to disappear. Furthermore, this book may be the basis for future editions that build on what has been done in this first effort. I highly recommend it.