Thomas Register
The Thomas Register of American Manufacturers, known as the "big green books" and "Thomas Registry", is a multi-volume directory of industrial product information covering 650,000 distributors, manufacturers and service companies within 67,000-plus industrial categories. It was first published in 1898 by Harvey Mark Thomas as Hardware and Kindred Trades. The company stopped publishing its print products in 2006 due to declining circulation as Internet searches eroded the products' usability.
Thomas has moved its database online as ThomasNet, published and maintained by Thomas Industrial Network, one of Thomas’ five business units. ThomasNet has expanded to provide not only product and company information, but Online catalogs, computer-aided design (CAD) drawings, news, press releases, forums and blogs.
Thomas Publishing Company, LLC of New York City has been privately-held since its inception. It used independent representatives to sell advertising space around its listings in print products like the Thomas Register and the Thomas Industrial Regional Directories, and these representatives continue to sell Internet related products to manufacturers, distributors, and other companies.
ThomasNet ceased publishing its print directories in 2006. In April 2006 the New York Public Library named ThomasNet.com as one of its 25 Best of Reference sources for the reference librarian.
In November 2010, ThomasNet has been a founding partner of GlobalTrade.net, a marketplace for international trade service providers.
