A survey of construction industry libraries

Abstract

The majority of industrial libraries are small, and this is particularly true of those in the construction industry. There is therefore a lack of information about actual library practice in this area. This survey was carried out as part of a Ph.D. research project at the University of Aston in Birmingham, the major part of which was concerned with the computerization of the library of Taylor Woodrow Construction Ltd. The survey was done to see how far this library was typical, and whether computerization would be beneficial elsewhere. In this summary of the survey I have concentrated on the general aspects of construction industry libraries, and only briefly discuss computerization.