The Blue Book of Building and Construction, is a yellow pages-like buyers guide of company information targeted towards commercial construction, first published in 1913.[1] The guide contains information on architects, contractors, manufacturers, suppliers, vendors, and other companies relevant to the commercial bidding and build process. The hardbound book was retired in 2016 and subsequently replaced by a bi-annual regional magazine called the Who's Who in Building and Construction. The prior content of the hard bound book is now completely online and called The Blue Book Network. Since 1996, the company which publishes the information has been Jefferson Valley, New York-based Contractor's Register, Inc.[2]
One industry source describes The Blue Book as a series of regional construction directories published annually that list providers of construction, contact information, products and services. In addition to the listings, the Blue Book offers paid, display advertising. They also offer an online version with searchable databases at www.thebluebook.com. The Blue Book is a particularly strong tool for product suppliers and sub-contractors, but not as effective for engineering firms".[3] Another describes it as "the U.S. industry's leading directory of information on construction products and firms, categorized by area and specialization".[4][5] As of 2001, the Blue Book was claimed to feature "over 800,000 company listings with over 46,000 display ads and company profiles".[5]
Another source notes that when seeking bids for contracts, the entity seeking such bids may "select firms to add to the invitation-to-bid list from other resources, such as customer-provided sources, engineer-provided sources, internal contractor databases, resource books such as Thomas Register; The Blue Book of Building and Construction, regional directories of building and construction vendors, and any alliance partnering source".[6]
References
- ↑ Gale Research, Information Industry Directory, Volumes 1-4 (2009), p. 385.
- ↑ Steven W. Sowards, Guide to Reference in Business and Economics (2014), p. 330.
- ↑ Brian Gallagher, Kimberly Kayler, Leading with Marketing: The Resource for Creating, Building and Managing Successful Architecture/Engineering/Construction Marketing Programs (2009), p. 50.
- ↑ Bonnie A. Osif, Using the Engineering Literature (2016), p. 153.
- 1 2 Chris Sherman, Gary Price, The Invisible Web: Uncovering Information Sources Search Engines Can't See (2001), p. 329.
- ↑ Health and Safety Requirements in Construction Contract Documents (2005), p. 16.