Since last year the TUHH library has offered some actual handbooks as online versions:
- Handbook of Sustainable Engineering / Joanne Kauffman, Kun-Mo Lee (Eds.). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2013.
- Handbook of combinatorial optimization / Panos M. Pardalos, … (Eds.). 2. ed. New York, NY: Springer New York, 2013.
- Handbook of loss prevention engineering / Joel M. Haight (Ed.). Weinheim: Wiley-VCH, 2013.
- Handbook of systems biology : concepts and insights / Marian Walhout, … (Eds.). Amsterdam: Elsever/Academic Press, 2012.
- Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology / Kenneth N. Timmis (Ed.). Berlin: Springer, 2010
Such handbooks are like compendia concise, yet comprehensive compilations of a body of knowledge. As a treatise on a special subject, today they contain a collection of articles covering the topic comprehensively.
In chemistry, multi-volume systematically arranged collections of monographs have been also called handbook, e.g. the “Gmelin’s handbook on inorganic chemistry“, which you can still find in the upper reading room as printed volumes. This reference work is a rich source for inorganic substance property data.