While most engineering research is done on computers with software or Google, I think having a decent library is still important. Here's a small sample of reference books I keep on my desk.
Cameron Hydraulic Data, Crane TP #410, McMaster Carr Catalog, Pocket Ref, Surface Production Operations. Lindeburg is also good.
Crane Technical Paper #410 [Bottom Left] and
Cameron Hydraulic Data [Top Left]. Both are essential for pump design. Crane is more common, because it's cheaper and has the most useful data organized well, but Cameron has far more data and I prefer. It wouldn't be a bad idea for universities to give their mechanical engineering students Crane 410 while they're in school to familiarize them with it. All the older engineers got their Cameron book from Vendors, but they don't like giving them away anymore. They'll give you CD's full of data, but they're no where near as useful as a book. You can still find them on E-Bay, Amazon used books, and elsewhere if you hunt around. I like the older editions because there tends to be more data, none of the primary information is obsolete, and they'll have information that's useful to working on legacy systems (like tables in
SSU).
Surface Production Operations [Bottom Right]. Petroleum engineering in a book. Originally written by a Tulane Petroleum Engineering professor (back when Tulane still had petroleum engineering {or any for that matter}). Once again, hunt around for older, cheaper editions.
The
big yellow book in the upper right is a McMaster-Carr catalog. It's an ENORMOUS industrial catalog with almost everything you could ever ask for. Very useful for estimating project costs or to know when a vendor is taking you for a ride with their bid. Cheap on E-Bay, but you'll pay for shipping because of its considerable heft. Once again, vendors used to give these to engineers, but not anymore.
The little black book sitting on top of the yellow book is Pocket Ref, a book I've seen on just about every engineers desk. More information per cubic centimeter than any other book ever written. Everything from pipe thicknesses, to wiring, to weather, to everything.
It's a good idea to get a prep manual for the P.E. Exam. I favor
Lindeburg's. I used his for the F.E. Exam and liked it. His one for the P.E. useful well after you take the test for your engineering career.
That's a few of the more useful ones on my desk. I'm still hunting around for a cheap copy of
Belt Conveyors for Bulk Materials by CEMA and
Mineral Processing.
