What?

Have you tried "colored tape?"

for architectural product binders? why would you not use the CSI system. . . mainly using the furst 4 digits as the catalog number?

We file product catalogs in either the trash can or recycling bin.

A few are worthy enough of making it to the shelf, in which case they are arranged by CSI division. But most are discarded unless we requested them since we can look up the info on the internet.

officially, we use the CSI division for organization, but like everything else in the office, the system can really be divided into two categories:

1. on the conference table
2. on the floor next to the conference table when it was moved to make room for other items on the conference table

Thanks for the responses, I am interested in the CSI division, is this a global system or a specifically American system? I ask as my office is in Amsterdam. DO you know where I can purchase the system? Is there a weblink?

I found the link to MasterFormat

Does anyone know if there is a system specific to Europe or Netherlands?

to be honest, we recycled all of our product catalogs and got rid of them. . . all of them. we cataloged them into a data base so you can search by any number of means which will then direct you to the manufacturers web page. we don't bring in anymore catalogs.

what we noticed was almost all catalogs were outdated (we had about one thousand catalogs). we only tracked 21 reps who came in and updated their catalogs in a year. we found some catalogs that hadn't been updated since the 90's and one from 1989. when we cataloged them, we verified each manufacture and what we discovered was that many had gone out of business or had been bought by other companies.

we also found that only a few people were ever using the binders. the one exception are the lighting catalogs. we kept all of them as we have a lighting designer on staff and they're kept up to date with an amazing frequency.

Devil Dog,
We did a clean sweep last year and found a few binders from the 80s. We found a BOCA code book from 84 or 85, can't remember... We also found an old mac SE/30!

Anyway, what database did you use? Access? Did you scan in images/ details from the binders? Who input all the info? We still have a lot of old binders in the office and it would be great to clear out the shelf space.

I will say that I think it's much easier and more comfortable to browse through a hardcopy of a catalogue than online, but I think there are very few products for which this is beneficial and even fewer occasions when you are actually doing this. So I'm with those who have gone online mostly, only keeping a handful of frequently updated catalogues of products you are likely to use.

Even though I hardly ever use them, I can not part with my catalogs. We file by CSI.

As to the original question: organize the catalogs the same way you organize your specifications, assuming there is a standard way that specs are organized in the Netherlands/EU.