Finding Construction Management Materials in the COD Library
This guide will help you find books, videos, articles and websites about Construction topics.
If you need additional help, come to the Library Reference Desk or Ask A Librarian.
Books
Use the Library catalog to search the COD Library's collection of books, videos, e-books, and streaming media. Use your COD Library card to check these items out or access them online.
The best way to start searching the Library catalog is to do a keyword search for words that describe your topic. Try to choose specific keywords. You may need to experiment with keywords to find ones that work for your topic. Once you find some items, you can use subject headings to find other items that cover the same topic. Library catalog
Call Number Ranges
Use these call number ranges to browse the General Collection and the Reference Collection.
| HD9715 - HD9717.5 | Construction Industry |
| TH1 - TH9745 | Building Construction |
| TH443 | Construction Industry--Safety |
| KF902 | Construction Contracts |
| KF5701 - KF5710 | Building Laws |
Reference Materials
The Library holds many recent national codes, standards and building management guidelines from the International Code Council and the U.S. Green Building Council in the reference collection. Some older iterations of these materials are available for check-out in the general collection. For fire codes, electrical codes and safety standards, consult this online resource: NFPA Codes Online. You'll need a current library card to access the NFPA from off-campus. The International Code Council makes their codes freely available to read on their website. You'll not be able to print the whole code, but you can copy and paste small sections.
E-books
Here are some examples from the Knovel Library:
Construction Field Guide
Construction Delays - Understanding Them Clearly, Analyzing Them Correctly
Videos
The Library has a variety of videos for checkout. Browse the Library catalog. Use the Limiting features on the left side of the catalog to narrow your search to videos.
Streaming videos are also available:
Article Databases
The Library has a large collection of article databases for locating articles. For Construction Management, try both the general databases and the business databases. Associates Program Source Plus and Business Source Complete are the best for construction topics but you may also find good materials in Academic Search Premier and in newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times.
Construction Research Databases List
Here is a selection of magazines, journals and trade publications in the Library on:
Building
Construction
Websites and Images
There are several tools available for searching the Internet. Using a variety of tools is always a good rule of thumb when looking for information on the web. Google is a great resource but also try some of the other tools on the Library's Search the Web pages.
Its important to evaluate the information from websites. When reviewing information, ask the following questions:
- How old is this material? Is there a date of publication? Is the material out-of-date?
- Who wrote this information? Is the company or person who sponsors the website reputable?
- Is the website trying to sell you something?
- Is the information biased? Does it seem like the author is just giving his/her opinion? Is the author making a one-sided argument? (not offering an alternate point-of-view?)
- Is the information backed up with facts that you can confirm using other sources?
- Be sure to check out the library's Evaluating Web Sources Guide
Here's a small selection of quality websites for construction management: