The Training Handbook plus Update Information, Supplement 4.
Compiled and edited by Diane Bailey Associates and published by Gee Publishing.
CD-ROM. The Ring binder hard-copy version, has been brought up to date and is supplied with both paper and CD-ROM updating supplements at £180.

‘The Training Handbook’ was published in 1997 and was reviewed early in 1998, the summary comment being ‘If any trainer or training department can afford only one book on training, I can wholeheartedly recommend this one’. It is a reference book in updatable form, divided into sections, each giving a wealth of information – Why have training?; training policy and strategy; funding and budgeting for training; UK and European training initiatives; key areas of training interest; training and the organization; training and the individual; making training happen; evaluation of training; training administration; training and the law; additional information — directories of sources of more detailed information. Included in the purchase price is a free regular updating service and a newsletter.

This latest addition to the services provided to subscribers is a free CD-ROM which is the digital version of the Handbook; the whole book is on CD-ROM and each disc update is the entire products and contents. This CD is very easy to use, with clear reference areas and pointers to all subjects. Sections can be cut and pasted into your own documentation, and, as it is an interactive CD-ROM, rapid word and subject searches can be carried out, or the viewer can simply browse through it for material of interest (and there is much of that for any trainer). Installation on the PC is simple (requirements Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups, Windows 95 and 98, and Windows NT. The control is quickly installed and the user decides whether to download all the material or use the facility with the CD in the CD drive (both are equally fast in operation). The CD-ROM is supplied with full use instructions and is even supplied in a plastic envelope, punch-holed to fit into the original ringbinder!

I can do no better than repeat the earlier recommendation which is further improved with this CD-ROM facility.

W Leslie Rae
November 1999