The Encyclopedia of Optimization, originally published as six print volumes in 2001, is another entry in the SpringerLink Reference Works and a part of their Computational, Engineering & Mathematical Sciences collection. With currently close to 550 entries, the online staging of this encyclopedia is particularly effective. Topics can be browsed through an alphabetical listing or can be searched using standard Boolean logic. An asterisk is used as a wildcard character, and default searching assumes multiple search terms are to be found within a sentence of one another. The advanced search feature also allow for searching within title, author, caption, footnoted reference lists or equations. Within the body of the article returned by a search will be a red See 1 Match link that helps the reader locate the section of a given article referencing the term searched. All other occurrences of the search term will also display in red type.
Each signed article entry has several AMS subject classification numbers assigned as well as a list of keywords used within the entry. In some cases, these keywords are live links to other articles within this encyclopedia or other Springer Online Reference Library works owned by the library. The professional affiliation and email contact for each contributor is listed which is a nice feature for those who wish to contact the author for further discussion. References at the close of each article link authors and articles contained elsewhere in the Springer Online Reference Library. These links, like those of the keywords, will be live for any collections owned by the user's home library.
Other nice features of the online library environment include a history of recent search strategies made by the user as well as a listing of recently viewed pages. The user is able to make notes on any article of interest and these notes will be stored with the article for future reference. Likewise, the user can bookmark entries of particular interest for future review. Articles can be emailed to others; however, the e‐mail recipient must also have access to the Springer Online Reference Library in order to access the item.
Flouda and Pardalos state in the preface that leading researchers in the field have contributed to this encyclopedia and that updates to the online version will be ongoing and dynamic. There is, however, no way to see a comprehensive list of contributing authors nor is there any way to see which articles are more recent additions to the work. Indeed, there is no date stamp at all on the entries and date searches yielded no references later than 2001.
Article content falls into one of two basic forms, either general survey articles or detailed articles with a much more narrow and specific focus on a particular technique, problem or application in the optimization field. The intended audience is defined as a cross‐section of students, scientists, and engineers whether in academia, government or industry environments. Unique in the breadth and focus of its intentions, this online encyclopedia is recommended for academic audiences or for any library that services professionals who utilize the field of optimization in their daily work.
