Structural Engineering books 2

[MotorCity]

No, this is not another thread about what books are essential for a SE's library. Rather, it is about an observation I have made recently in our office.

Have you ever noticed that we structural folks seem to have the most extensive collection of books and references? Its almost like we collect or hoard them as a hobby. I am guilty of this also and have no explanation. Perhaps we are just wired this way or it could be due to new codes come out before we even have a chance to crack the spine on the previous code book.

I have noticed that mechanical and electrical engineers in our office, for the most part, just have manufacturer catalogs on their shelves with maybe a binder or two and on the rare occasion a single book. How do they possibly get by everyday? What do they reference for calculations and examples?

SE's on the other hand seem to have every structural book and example problem known to man in addition to the most obscure reference papers. What gives?

 

[KootK]

And the plot thickens. I started in the US. I always had a an exceptional amount of books but everybody had a lot. When I returned to Canada, SE's would usually only have a few catalogs and and a couple of hard copies: concrete and steel code. Maybe wood if they did some res. There'd often be a company library but still? Who were these hacks I though to myself? And why don't they show proper love for the SE dogma? Originally, I though that it was because most books aren't written to the Canadian code. I've come to see it as something more endemic to the Canadian experience however. Junior folks I worked with went wild for the CRSI manual when I introduced it. It was like I was a missionary bringing penicillin to the natives. Senior folks seemed to view it with disdain. We have spreadsheets for that?

I like to debate structural engineering theory -- a lot. If I challenge you on something, know that I'm doing so because I respect your opinion enough to either change it or adopt it.

 

[mtu1972]

I also have a great number of books. Every Civil/Structual book from school and plenty of books I've added over the years. Started with a small firm and was hearing terms that were never discussed in school. Took money from first paycheck to buy a book on Building Construction. Cleared up a lot of my confusion.

At second job, one of the higher ups was retiring and I approached him about buying some of his older codes and texts. His first response was no. About two weeks later he dropped several books on my desk and said they were now mine. I offered to pay and he said no. I was the only one who asked and he was glad to know they would still be useful to someone. I still have them.

gjc

 

[CBSE]

HA! My wife just told me last week that I need to clean my office out and get rid of all my books because I don't use them Little does she know I crack at least a couple books open per week to review something or learn something new. My books are invaluable...except the math books like differential equations.

Also, I really like the looks of a book library in the office.

 

[appot]

I have an extensive library of hard copy books and also digital books.

I never got the hang of reading digital textbooks, especially when you need to flip back and forth between multiple pages to reference a chart/table.

I keep an Amazon wishlist of books that I need want. I also used to live near a commercial used book store that offered semi-reasonable buy-back prices (read: where your spouse brings your books if you die first); I have found a few gems at this store.

 

[bowlingdanish]

This is controversial I'm sure - but I don't own a single engineering textbook. That's not to say that I don't want any, but I just can't justify the expense over travel and beer. I have gigabytes of details, manuals and references though so I feel like I'm well covered. But strangely enough I still much prefer reading a paperback novel than a kindle.

 

[Yao1989]

I actually prefer electronic books, especially to reference them. I generally do all my design notes electronically, so it is easy to attach figures and tables from electronic books, for reference, in lieu of hard copies.

 

[txeng91]

I'm a little newer to the profession than most and don't have that many codes since most of them are available free online and the electronic versions are superior in that you can search for text quickly instead of trying to flip through it manually, and the paper versions are costly. However, I do hoard manufacturer catalogs like no other. My boss has lots of old books, especially wood framing, and I enjoy flipping through them and checking out all of the details.

 

[bridgebuster]

I haven't purchased any books in about 10 or 15 years but I have acquired a lot of electronic books from FHwA, NSBA, AISC, etc, mainly to keep up with LRFD bridge design. I have quite a few books and PDFs on bridge & structure design from the late 19th through mid 20th Centuries, (PDF's courtesy of Google Books). I do a lot of rehab work on old bridges and they do come in handy by providing insight into why certain things were done.

 

[L4Legit]

I am one of the young generation also and yes, so many reference books have now available online which actually make it easier for me as I need to have one copy at home and one at office. I still prefer the paperback though.

 

[KootK]

Based on my admittedly limited knowledge of M&E buildings work, I do have a theory regarding the disheartening failure of M&E folks to needlessly hoard design textbooks.

Consider the design process as having three aspects:

1) At one extreme, sometimes you're doing APPLIED SCIENCE. Statics, heat transfer, whatever electrical folks do. You really don't seem to need many books for this as it's pretty fundamental stuff that you've probably got committed to memory. I don't even keep a statics book at the office on account of my being so darn awesome at it.

2) At the other extreme, you have straight SPECIFICATION based on project requirements that may well have been arrived at from effort expended on #1. In structural, this may be delegated design stuff like connections or roof deck. In mechanical and electrical, it seems to be specifying the requirements for generators, air handling units etc. This requires only product literature, most of which is available online. No textbooks.

3) In the middle, between the extremes listed above, you have what I'll call APPLIED TECHNOLOGY. This is designing your own stuff rather than delegating it. In structural, this takes mountains of reference material because, as any practicing SE can tell you, a sound knowledge of physics will render one qualified to design not a damn thing in the real world of structural engineering. Not even a bolt. You can kind of see this here on Eng-Tips. Mechanical folks, who have the same fundamental applied science training as SE's, if not more, often struggle to design the simplest of structural members properly.

So, with that background in hand, here's my speculative theory:

A) Compared to structural engineers, mechanical and electrical engineers spend a lot more time in categories one and two where few textbooks are required.

B) Compared to M&E, structural engineers wallow endlessly in category there where you perpetually have the sense that, if you just bought one more specialized textbook, you might be able to feel as though you finally know what your doing well enough to justify your stamp/paycheck.

Obviously, I'm only capable of seeing all this from my own perspective which is structural. I've worked in a couple of ASME offices though so I've got a modicum of street credibility.



I like to debate structural engineering theory -- a lot. If I challenge you on something, know that I'm doing so because I respect your opinion enough to either change it or adopt it.

 

[Ron]

Reference books are invaluable to us....structural or other.
My library is about 675 hard copies and several thousand digital articles, books, standards and codes.

It is good to look at the different perspectives for solutions to issues. As engineers, we often think in the "black and white", when in fact, there are sometimes several correct solutions to issues and problems. Multiple references help us to sort these out.

 

[bridgebuster]

Ron, you're absolutely right. In my library, I have over 1000 sets of plans. Sometimes they give me ideas how to solve a problem or serve as a sanity check for details I've developed. Unfortunately, I think many in the younger generation don't appreciate the value of building a reference library.

 

[JStephen]

I'm kind of in the middle, have some books, but not a vast library either.
I did keep most of my text books from college, and on occasion, refer to some of them. Vibrations, fluids, heat transfer most commonly. That came in handy for my PE tests, which covered material I hadn't even thought about since graduating 10 years prior.
One thing that may affect the SE books is that in a lot of areas, you only need the "latest" version of a book, whereas with building codes, you need to have umpteen different versions.
I find myself keeping fewer catalog-type items. If it's available on the internet, it's quicker to look it up again there than it is to locate that one old catalog under a pile of similar material.

 

[Ron]

Thanks, BB....I agree. I see younger engineers with two or three books on their bookshelves....often singular in subject. I wish I had a collection of plans like yours! That's great. I have maybe 50 or so, but you're right...they are great for both sanity checks and in some cases, how NOT to do things!

JStephen....hang on the to old catalog info as well. I know from a structural standpoint, the old product info comes in handy more than you'd expect, since we often get called in to deal with issues in buildings that might be anywhere from 6 months old to 60 years old (and more!). Materials change, configurations change and construction techniques change.

Check with SlideRuleEra on the value of keeping the old stuff.....he is one of our most valuable resources in the forums for stuff no one else has kept!!
Here's a link to his website:

SlideRuleEra.net

 

[SLTA]

CBSE, if she makes you actually give some of those up, I'd love to hear about what you have and maybe take some off your hands. My husband has WAY too many bicycles and climbing gear things to talk about my book collection.

Please remember: we're not all guys!