Book excerpt: This ninth volume in the series concentrates on in situ spectroscopic methods and combines a balanced mixture of theory and applications, making it highly readable for chemists and physicists, as well as for materials scientists and engineers. As with the previous volumes, all the chapters continue the high standards of this series, containing numerous references to further reading and the original literature, for easy access to this new field. The editors have succeeded in selecting highly topical areas of research and in presenting authors who are leaders in their fields, covering such diverse topics as diffraction studies of the electrode-solution interface, thin organic films at electrode surfaces, linear and non-linear spectroscopy as well as sum frequency generation studies of the electrified solid-solution interface, plus quantitative SNIFTIRS and PM-IRRAS. Special attention is paid to recent advances and developments, which are critically and thoroughly discussed. The result is a compelling set of reviews, serving equally well as an excellent and up-to-date source of information for experienced researchers in the field, as well as as an introduction for newcomers.