The Reader's Guide to the History of Science looks at the literature of science in some 550 entries on individuals (Einstein), institutions and disciplines (Mathematics), general themes (Romantic Science) and central concepts (Paradigm and Fact). The history of science is construed widely to include the history of medicine and technology as is reflected in the range of disciplines from which the international team of 200 contributors are drawn.

The first Conference on the Study of the History of Canadian Science and Technology, held in Kingston, Ontario in November 1978, marks the emergence of a new Canadian discipline. This wide-ranging, bilingual collection of papers and workshops includes contributions by some of the historians, scientists, educators, students, archivists, and government representatives present at the conference. The papers discuss the nature of the new field, its objectives, and the problems of resources, funding, publishing, and practical uses which face historians of Canadian science and technology. Records of the workshops convey the flavour of excitement present at the conference. Included in the volume are an extensive bibliography and listings of museums and available collections, research in progress, and conference participants.

In the 25 years since the last edition of Thornton and Tully’s Scientific Books, Libraries and Collectors was published, scientific publishing has mushroomed, developed new forms, and the academic discipline and popular appreciation of the history of science have grown apace. This fourth edition discusses these changes and ponders the implications of developments in publishing at the end of the twentieth century, while concentrating its gaze upon the dissemination of scientific ideas and knowledge from Antiquity to the industrial age. In this shift of focus it departs from previous editions, and for the first time a chapter on Islamic science is included. Recurrent themes in several of the ten essays in the present volume are the definition of ’science’ itself, and its transmutation by publishing media and the social context. Two essays on the collecting of scientific books provide a counterpoint, and the book is grounded on a rigorous chapter on bibliographies. The timely publication of Scientific Books, Libraries and Collectors comes at the coincidence of the advent of electronic publishing and the millennium, a dramatic moment at which to take stock.