By Sarah O Donnell

In John Alden’s Public Policy Committee Report, published this fall in AIAVT News, an exciting announcement was made regarding Code books. “AIAVT will be purchasing the current building code books and will make them available to any architect in the state through the inter-library loan program. This initiative was developed in response to stories shared about small, rurally located firms and solo practitioner offices finding it challenging to keep up with the acquisition of code books as they are updated and adopted. By donating copies to the library system, AIAVT aims to alleviate the burden on smaller offices, and do our part to make the permitting process as smooth and expedient as possible, both for architects as well as for the departments granting the permits.”

AIAVT’s board supported the funding of this initiative, in the hopes that making these materials widely accessible to members of the profession would be a step in the right direction in ensuring that Vermont’s Architects have the resources they need to be able to work to the highest standards.

The Public Policy committee purchased the following books:

NFPA Publications

NFPA 1: Fire Code, 2015 Edition

NFPA 101: Life Safety Code, 2015 Edition

NFPA 70: National Electrical Code (NEC), 2017 Edition

ICC Publications

2015 International Building Code

2015 International Plumbing Code

The codebooks have now hit the library system, and can be found by searching online here: https://vtlib-agent.auto-graphics.com/MVC/

Search by title, for example “NFPA 1: Fire Code” and the books will show in a list.

Architects should contact their local library to request an interlibrary loan (ILL). The Vermont Library system is working towards all libraries being able to offer user-initiated ILL, but until it is a system wide option, libraries are still mediating ILLs.

Architects are asked to limit their borrow time to 3 to 5 days to help ensure that the books are accessible in a timely manner for members of the profession who need to use them.  

Special thanks is due to Thomas McMurdo, Assistant State Librarian at the Vermont Department of Libraries, for helping to facilitate the donation and expedite the process of making the books available.