The Electronic Blue Book of Building Design and Construction: Finding Your Way Around the Construction Industry

Since 1913, The Blue Book of Building and Construction (Westchester County, NY) has been a major information source for the US construction industry. It also publishes numerous regional directories, each containing both a classified and an alphabetical list of general contractors, subcontractors, architects, engineers, manufacturers, equipment, material and product suppliers, and service providers.

The Blue Book is now on the Internet (www.thebluebook.com), providing online access to continually updated information for each of The Blue Book’s regional editions. Overall it contains 800,000 company listings–which can be broken down by state–with 46,000 display ads and company profiles.

Suppose a contractor is trying to locate sewer-pipe suppliers in a particular state. He merely keys in sewer pipe and Michigan. The Blue Book now instantly displays an alphabetical listing of sewer-pipe vendors in that state. Clicking on the vendor’s name displays a company profile listing its address, phone and fax numbers, e-mail address, year founded, and other pertinent facts. Some listings include a home-page link, and clicking on it instantly conjures it up. With all entries, the contractor can click on the vendor’s e-mail address, instantly displaying an e-mail-message form with these message-title options: invitation to bid, request for quotation, request for qualification, and general question.

A feature called “My Vendors” enables the contractor to build automatically a preferred vendor list. He inputs his vendor selection criteria. The Blue Book software now displays a qualified list of vendors, who can be e-mailed. The Blue Book updates information on vendors regularly.

The site contains a very extensive Industry Links page, with links to organizations’ home pages clustered into these major groups: Associations & Organizations, Bidding Links, Chambers of Commerce, Government Links, Information Resources, News, Trade Publications, and Trade Show Information.