I was in the British Library a few months ago following up a forensic question, when I spotted a short list of forensic sources on two sides of A4 paper. I commented on this to a friend who was on desk duty, and he said it was because students either seemed to be studying forensic science or sports science. Given that there are over 300 university courses in the UK that include forensic science this is not surprising.
What Cynthia Holt has produced in this book is a much more extensive listing of sources. This is one of those guides to the literature that consist of lists of sources – bibliographies, abstracting services, journals, books and online services. There are also sections covering non‐bibliographic sources like genetic databases and various organizations, and a useful chapter on research essentials and copyright. Some of the lists may seem rather general but forensic science, perhaps more than any other science, has to explore other areas. For example, the Agricola database and the entire literature on pesticides for a poisoning case, engineering databases and encyclopedias for an accident investigation. The introduction covers the location of forensic science within the main library classifications, which is useful when looking in general libraries (but not in the British Library which until recently used its own classification). However, if you are in the lucky position of starting a forensic library, I would suggest forgetting the forensic aspect and spreading the books across the classification. For example, put all the car books under motorcar technology because a forensic scientist might need to consult pictures of a car model to help identify a vehicle on a CCTV video or a book on tyre construction to assist with a civil case involving a blow‐out. What the forensic scientist examines is cars and matters related to them; what they report on are hit‐and runs, faulty parts and the actions of drunken drivers.
It is likely that many libraries and private readers will have some true crime, crime investigation or forensic science books in their collection. The many universities that teach forensic science, national or regional reference libraries, legal practices doing mainly criminal cases, and law enforcement organizations will find this book a useful introduction to the topic. Skimming through the various lists I found what law enforcement officers might call “all the usual suspects”, some good leads and some useful intelligence.
What this book does not address, and it is unlikely that any guide to sources could to any extent, is the questions that forensic information specialists get asked such as: how much alcohol is in a particular drink? What does this household product contain? How many of this type of shoes have been produced? Would this combination make an effective explosive? Nor can it capture the meticulous attention to detail that forensic science requires. It needs to be remembered that forensic science involves much more than using the basic sources, so well presented here, or the basic chemistry, electronics or biology core information tools also here included. But anyone seriously interested in forensic science, as practitioner or customer, would do well to start with this as a guide to the literature.
