A company’s reference library is often one of the most important aids to its success. Why then, is it often the most neglected area of an architectural, design, or engineering firm? With out-dated price lists, missing cuts and important manufacturers’ catalogs nowhere to be found, potentially well-run organizations lose valuable time, money, and efficiency. And even if someone is hired to organize reference materials, they are often taken away to perform other tasks, leaving the reference area badly in need of attention.

SEI will do the work for you! We have over 20 years of experience organizing and maintaining reference libraries for some of the largest and most respected firms in the building industry, including Arup, Smith Group, Chong Partners, Dahlin Group, SMWM, and Perkins & Will.

The range and breadth of our services can be customized according to your specific needs. SEI will physically inventory existing catalogs at your location, as well as placing your firm’s inventory and location information onto our tradesources.net web-based database for quick access. We will also organize your library according to CSI standards, update manufacturers’ price lists, color-code all catalogs for easy referencing, review and update your library up to four times per month, train your staff to utilize the library system, and replace cuts and catalogs upon request.

tradesources.net®, SEI’s proprietary on-line service, provides a database of over 18,000 manufacturers in the building industry, with an inventoried collection of 7,000 reference books. Taking advantage of this Internet resource will also give you access to a highly efficient project management and tracking tool, automatically-fulfilled information requests, fully-updated local rep contact information, and a customized search engine (search by CSI number, manufacturer’s name, key word, etc).

If you were to build it yourself, tradesources.net is the library database you would build.

Rachel T. Stallworth,
President