Although you may not primarily think of yourself as a buyer of products and services in the structural engineering industry, the feedback we receive from Structural Engineer subscribers is that practitioners are interested in new products. In fact, in our recent 2009 Compensation Survey—which will be published in June—71 percent of respondents indicated new product information is an important or very important topic to cover. To respond to reader interest, we have produced the third annual Structural Engineer Buyers’ Guide—a list of product and service providers specific to structural engineering.

Knowing that structural engineers are interested in learning about new product and service offerings, we wanted find out how professionals currently find information. Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the top three ways that respondents to our 2009 State of the Industry survey educate themselves about new products, especially software. The top responses for each included "Read new product information in printed publications." This is a direct order for our team to provide easy ways for you to access the wealth of product information that is available to you. In addition to this annual printed guide, we are initiating several projects in June to deliver substantative product information—more about that next month.

Figure 1: What are the top three ways that you educate yourself about products that you could specify on structural engineering projects?

Figure 2: What are the top three ways that you keep current on what software technology is available?

When asked for more details, respondents reported that the types of products they are most interested in learning about are concrete (54 percent) and structural steel (52 percent) products. This was no surprise considering that these two building materials are reported as the most common ones specified in structural engineering designs: 33 percent concrete and 54 percent steel. Other building materials are also of interest—36 percent of respondents primarily want to learn about cold-formed steel, 26 percent are most interested in masonry, and wood is a top priority for 24 percent of respondents.

For those of you new to our guide, it is organized into two parts: the categorical listing and the alphabetical listing. The categorical listing arranges product and service providers into groups specific to structural engineering interests such as building materials, geotechnical services and equipment, information technology, structural components, structural monitoring, and retaining and barrier walls. The alphabetical listing provides contact information for all of the companies and organizations listed in the categories section.

New this year are two feature articles—2009: The state of the structural engineering industry (page 8) and Building information modeling (page 36). These articles interpret the data from our 2009 State of the Industry survey that was conducted in March. Also new in 2009 are a comprehensive associations listing (page 25) and a resource for national events supporting the structural engineering profession (page 33).

Everything contained in this comprehensive resource is available to you at www.gostructural.com. In fact, next month we will be unveiling The Directory—a searchable, interactive online resource where you can learn about specific types of products and the companies themselves.