NEWSLETTER

Reference Standards On Demand

The latest release of BSD SpecLink^® includes a valuable new feature. For the first time, virtually all reference standards in the master data include hyperlinks that provide immediate access to information about the standard and an opportunity to buy the document or, in some cases, view or download it at no cost.

BSD SpecLink includes citations to thousands of reference standards – a total of 2,194 documents at last count. By referring to these industry standards instead of repeating relevant content within the specification sections themselves, we can keep the master specification text (and the edited project specifications) more concise. Only choices offered within the standard and deviations from the standard need to be included in the specification text.

SpecLink has always incorporated some information about cited reference standards in the master notes attached to relevant paragraphs, particularly for standards that offer options. Over the years, BSD has frequently been asked by our users to make the actual reference standards available, in addition to the information included in the master notes. Technologically, that would be no problem for us. Unfortunately, it has proven to be a major business problem, because most of the standards organizations that publish these documents rely to some degree on the revenue generated by document sales. We include citations to standards published by 185 different organizations, so reaching agreements with all – or even most of them – would present a major obstacle.

Fortunately, BSD has entered into an agreement with another organization – IHS, Inc. – which is already in the business of gathering information from disparate sources and making it available to various industries, including the construction industry. Under our agreement with IHS, we have provided links to all documents that are available through their IHS Standards Store. In this SpecLink release, 1,855 of the 2,194 documents are available through this one site. The remaining 300+ standards are available through hyperlinks to other sites, typically the website of the sponsoring organization.

To access the hyperlink for a particular standard, find the citation in Part 1 of the section, open the master notes panel, and then click on the hyperlink. In a few cases, the document itself is available online at no cost. In most cases, however, at least a synopsis of the standard is available, and the document itself can be purchased online. Once purchased, most documents can be viewed or downloaded immediately. A minority of the reference standards will have to be shipped.

We are very pleased to be able to offer this unique reference standards service to our subscribers, and we hope it proves to be both convenient and helpful. Please let us know how you like it.