I am a "little" guy. I have no employees, yet I am trying to comply with 70E.

I thought it would be a good idea to read the Handbook as well as the the Standard. So, because I was shocked at the NFPA prices and I wanted to see the standards a little bigger than through a "glass", I asked my local library to request a inter-library loan to get NFPA 70EH.

First thing they said was they couldn't ask for anything less than a year old. Then they complained about textbooks. Not that it much matters. There are very few libraries that hold either the Standard or the Handbook.

In fact, more public and university libraries maintain copies of IEEE rules than NFPA ones. Why is that?

If the object is to get the word out, charging hundreds of dollars doesn't help, nor does discouraging lending libraries.

One of the principles of our democracy is that everyone should be able to read our laws. If we have laws, or rules, or regulations that can't be accessed by everyone, then how can they be enforced?

While I understand that 70E is not a rule or law that can be enforced by law, when OSHA cedes power, then it has become a "de facto" regulation. To pretend it to be otherwise, would be foolish.

All the NFPA standards can be accessed for free from the website. http://www.nfpa.org/aboutthecodes/list_of_codes_and_standards.asp

However, I agree it's not a super user friendly format, and you can't view the handbook version. Choosing to purchase a copy is also a reoccurring cost if you buy the new edition every three years.

I am surprised the library wasn't able to be more helpful; that's discouraging.

Unlike some of the other NFPA standards, I didn't find that the handbook version actually has all that much more helpful material. The basic standard is about as good as it gets.