Modern technology has now provided the engineering profession with a fast and effective means of communicating engineering technology. Machine-readable versions of traditional and new printed information sources and powerful software packages now enable engineers and others to retrieve information quickly, effectively and with a minimum of effort. In addition, access to multiple interdisciplinary data bases within minutes can satisfy several aspects of an engineer's question with a relatively small investment of time and money. Information sources in the online interactive mode now include machine-readable numeric data bases or so-called electronic handbooks, where actual data can be found.
