Introductions to the subject

Chasing Moore's law: information technology in the United States

W. Aspray, ed. William Andrew, 2004, 208pp. $39.95. ISBN 1891121359.

Excellent introductory overview to major policy issues in the USA related to information technology. Chapters are: Research and development funding; Telecommunications and computing; Internet governance; Internet use; Computer security and critical infrastructure; Privacy; Intellectual property; Antitrust; Digital divide; Workforce.

Computer: a history of the information machine

M. Campbell-Kelly and W. Aspray 2nd edn, Westview, 2004, 400pp. $35.00. ISBN 0813342643.

Excellent history now extended beyond the development of Microsoft Windows and the Internet, to include open source operating systems like Linux, and the rise again and fall and potential rise of the dot.com industries.

‘Terrific! This is the best general history of computing yet written, by two of the field's most prominent historians. Computer is comprehensive, engaging, and a pleasure to read. Aspray and Campbell-Kelley paint the big picture of the information revolution that is affecting all of our lives.’ (David Mindell, MIT)

Discrete mathematics: elementary and beyond

L. Lovász, J. Pelikán and K. Vesztergombi See entry no. 488

Milestones in computer science and information technology

E.D. Reilly Greenwood Press, 2003, 392pp. $69.95. ISBN 1573565210.

‘Using the same approach as the popular Milestones in Science and Technology and Milestones in Health and Medicine, this unique reference features more than 600 concise entries describing the most significant advances in the field of computer science and information technology. Arranged in a convenient A-to-Z format, entries explain topics in a wide variety of categories.’

‘[A] very useful one-volume reference book for general readers, even high school students. While this is clearly a book heavy on history, it is not a dull tome of past events only, for the author carefully describes many basic terms and devices that are very much part of the scene today.’ (Communication Booknotes Quarterly)

Dictionaries, thesauri, classifications

The ACM Computing Classification System: 1998 Version

Association for Computing Machinery

www.acm.org/class/1998

‘ACM's first classification system for the computing field was published in 1964. Then, in 1982, the ACM published an entirely new system.