I recently heard of a company called Knovel that produces electronic engineering books and reseach databases. Anyone have experience with their products/services?
I'm a member as well via ASME or NSPE, I don't remember which. They have just about every reference book you would ever need. Personally, if I'm going to pay that much to get access to the book, I want a hard copy that I will have access to for a lifetime, and not just while I pay the subscription. Not to mention, I can pencil in notes and add stickies to a hard copy print.
I think you can also just view and print your own hardcopy.
The one good thing about Knovel is that, for the documents that get revised periodically, they maintain the latest updated version. Thus the one reason for the subscription payments.
I also get access to Knovel through my Institution, but you can apply for a free evaluation period, and I am aware of many engineering students who have accessed Knovel this way in order to download a number of reference titles such as:-
Finite Element Method 5th Edition vol 1,2 & 3
Machinery's Handbook V26 & V27
Roark's Formulas for Stress & Strain V7
Standard Handbook of Machine Design
Strength of Materials & Structures
to name a few.
In these days of broadband access, downloading these classic titles takes very little time, but can be used for a very long time as a reference in an engineering career.