This text contains papers presented at the IUTAM/IACM Symposium "Discretization Methods in Structural Mechanics II" held in Vienna, Austria, in June 1997. During the 1990s the broad field of discretization methods in structural mechanics has experienced a remarkable evolution. New aspects have come into focus. Many of them were stimulated by challenging requirements coming from high-tech applications. In these proceedings, developments are presented and discussed together with new trends and demands. In view of their relevance, emphasis was put on nonlinear finite element methods and boundary element methods as well as on the coupling of these two numerical methods. Novel developments in other discretization methods having the potential of opening new avenues for promising applications were also considered.