Nowadays, scientific calculators, numerical analysis software packages, and computer algebra systems have replaced the function tables, but the Handbook remains an important reference source.

Government sales exceed 150,000 copies, and an estimated three times as many have been reprinted and sold by commercial publishers since 1965.

And its influence will persist as it is currently being updated in digital format by NIST.The chapters are: Because the Handbook is the work of U.S. federal government employees acting in their official capacity, it is not protected by copyright in the United States.

While it could be ordered from the Government Printing Office, it has also been reprinted by commercial publishers, most notably Dover Publications (ISBN 0-486-61272-4), and can be legally viewed on and downloaded from the web.

[15] A digital successor to the Handbook, long under development at NIST, was released as the “Digital Library of Mathematical Functions” (DLMF) on 11 May 2010, along with a printed version, the NIST Handbook of Mathematical Functions, published by Cambridge University Press.