many architects have material libraries...essentially a ton of material samples in boxes and on shelves, etc. I know that our material library needs to be organized somewhat. Also, we have lots of binders of material literature that needs to be organized

Definitely! I know there are several large corporate firms that have full time librarians who organize and manage material sample libraries and prouduct binders, not to mention architectural related books and publications. Their jobs also require coordinating with designers, spec writers and product represenatives.

I bet many smaller firms would also like to have outside consultants who can come in and help them with these tasks as well.

i work in an office of around 40 ppl, and we have a 'librarian' work 2 or 3 days a week atm to get our library straight. i believe she was employed specifically to get it organised and a system running, not sure what happens to her when its done, probably reduces to a day every two weeks or something.

i think many mid to large offices do have librarians, you should enquire at your local offices.

deeGee...to echo mdler's post, our office hires someone who comes in once a week to organize and catalogue our interior material library...though it's not the library you speak of, it does use some of same skill set...my previous office had a small arch. library (reading material...books/magazines) but it took care of itself (sign out sheet)

so, if your dream allows for some material literature to be involved, i am sure some offices could be interested..

i should say the librarian i was talking about is specifically for books, not product library - man cleaning up that sucks!

I worked for an office of about 30 people, and we shared a librarian with another firm of about the same size. It was great, she'd come in a couple days a week, and she'd also let us know when new catalogues, binders and products would come in. I think she even liased with product reps directly, because they knew she worked for big architectural firms and that she'd make sure their product would be on the library shelves for all the staff to see. I think your dream can be a definite reality!

Thanks to all for responding. I'm encouraged, maybe reality is at my heels instead of my bum! I now have some of the terminology and job details I was lacking. Very important for moving forward.

As for the picture, truly the essence of me. She is obviously well (insert pause) organized, confident (probably doesn't have to shush anyone) with a fun, flirtatious side. Yep, I'm all that and more.

Again, a genuine thanks.

Our firm uses a libriarn service, so to speak. Multiple firms use the service. The service assigns and manages a pool of librarians. We've had the same librarian assigned to our firm for a few months; she'll be on maternity leave, so the service assigned a substitute to us. I think she comes once (maybe more) a week to help keep the library organized. She probably also hosts the reps (It's a common notion among architects that we should NEVER let reps loose in our libraries alone. They've been known to re-arrange materials to give theirs a more prominent location. We've got billable resonsibilities, so it's nice to have someone who can keep an eye on the reps for us.)

DeeGee: I would suggest that you look more into firms with more interior designers than architects. Sure architects have material libraries, but our selection does not get updated as often as interior designers'. Our brick and glass selection does not change as often as carpet and tile choices.

It just so happens that there was a whole article about this very thing in last month's Architect magazine. Enjoy!

Also, I would KILL to have someone perform this service at my firm. Unfortunately we're probably to small to be able to afford it, but it would be so awesome. I'm envisioning someone who catalogues magazine content, too, so if we get something like, say, a new type of school project or something, the librarian can come in and pull a bunch of stuff from the 8 or 10 various magazines we get and present it all to the firm in a kickoff meeting to get our juices flowing. I often think things like, "oh, I know I've seen something like this project recently, but where was it?" Or you can scan and catalogue all the good images from the magazines, so we could have a whole online resource for the firm where you can type in "bookshelf" and suddenly a million cool bookshelf ideas (culled from our library resources) pop up. Wouldn't that be amazing???

DeeGee-

first- where are you? you may get some job offers from this thread.

2nd- most architectural/interior/landscape/engineering firms organize their materials/products library based on the CSI system. What is CSI? well, it's a system developed by the construction specifications institute for organizing project specifications.

3rd- most design firms also have a collection of reference and design books that are organized crudely by subject (often in a random manner)- if you can figure out a great way to catalog them...

4th- many firm librarians have the additional responsibility of researching new materials and products, coordinating/scheduling product demonstrations 'rep lunches', sometimes also do a bit of marketing, and all the other stuff described by the other posters.

5th- if you have web skilz, you can create a website dedicated to these various things. there are some good materials libraries already online (url=http://transstudio.com/tm/]transmaterials[/ur] and material exchange. But the others are random collections of product literature (like sweets catalog or 4specs)- but these are cold and miserable places created by manufacturers and uncreative engineering types - if you can add some curatorial sophistication and human soul, you will have done a great service to the profession.

good luck!

This has been great! I have learned so much from your comments. It has really affirmed my core belief that, for the most part, people are willing to share what they know if you ask. For me, information is a gift that only the recipient can put a value on. Between affirmations and just plain useful stuff this could be a Mastercard commercial. Me with a dream job...priceless!

If you really want to know, I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I think my next step is to score a site visit at a local firm with a well managed library.

Information organization that is user oriented, whether it's books, catalogs or industry unique ephemera, is what I'm passionate about. Understanding the industry is where that begins.

Thanks again.

myriam-I don't think you will need to kill for the service. Contact the closest Library & Information Science School, even if it is in another state. There are students taking online classes all over the country that need projects where they live.

DeeGee-there is an opening for a director at the materials lab at UT in Austin-don't know if it is being advertised but their director has left-its a library of building materials...pretty cool.