BNi Building News Construction Dictionary 2000 Edition

Editors: James Acret, Esq; Arthur F. O'Leary, FAIA; Roy Smith; William D. Mahoney, P.E.

Published by BNi Publications, Inc., Second Edition, Copyright: 1999, ISBN 1-55701-236-8 601Pages.

The BNi Construction Dictionary boasts more than 12,000 entries in 601 pages. The book, arranged in a two-column format, is easy to use. The type size is large enough to read, easily, even for those with maturing eyesight. The book relies entirely on text to define and explain each term. The definitions are presented clearly and concisely. Occasionally, the reader is treated with a little humor when stumbling upon entries for "thingamabob" and "thingamajig."

Industry organizations, associations and societies are listed by their full name and by their acronym. The full name listing includes the acronym, mailing address, and telephone number. The acronym listing refers to the full name only. The full name entry makes the organizations easy to contact. The phone numbers provided are not toll-free numbers, so the area codes will be subject to change and eventually will be out of date. With today's internet accessibility it would have been nice to have web site addresses included for these organizations.

In a short time, the book has taken its place as the dictionary of choice among our staff. The most frequent compliments include the completeness and the sense of humor. When starting with the BNi Construction Dictionary, our staff has not needed to rely on other sources to find required definitions.

The book jacket touts a free CD-ROM that is included with the book. The CD is tucked inside the back cover, nearly hidden by the opaque pocket that holds it. The CD installation instructions are printed on the CD and are simple to understand. The CD installs the Construction Dictionary and Construction Estimator, the "light" version of Visual Estimator Construction Cost Estimating and Bidding System by CPR Software. There is no way to select only the Dictionary during the installation, and there is no "Uninstall" provided to remove the estimating software. The default installation creates a new directory at "C:\BNI." The installer allows users to enter a different installation location.

The BNi Construction Dictionary is installed as a 520-page, 2.4 MB Microsoft Word file. The file is a simple word processing text file that is compatible with Word versions 6, 7, 97 and 2000. The file was opened successfully in WordPerfect versions 7, 8 and 9. The Readme file explains that the user should rely on the find function of the word processor to use the electronic file.

As a construction dictionary, the book is a good resource. The definitions are easy to understand. The format makes the book easy to use. The value of the CD-ROM is very limited because it relies entirely on word processor functions to make the file useful.

Reviewed by David Stutzman, RA, CSI, CCS

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©  Copyright 2007, The Construction Sciences Research Foundation, Inc.  Updated January 12, 2007.