I've seen it done both ways: very centralized and very decentralized. Who knows which is right.
Decentralized is what it is. Every office has their own specs, manuals, catalogs, etc.
The offices I've worked in that were centralized all had one thing in common: A big space where you could go to get the material. The best one I ever saw was at a sub's office. He called it his print room, but it was more than that. Along every wall was every building code and reference you could dream of. On one wall were all of his current projects in big fireproof cabinets (I think it was everything within the past 5 years). Right down the middle was a huge doule row of conference tables, big enough for a guy to lay out a roll of E-size prints on one side with room on the other side for someone else to work. There was also a side room with all of his drawings and a few xerox machines. More often than not, the room looked like a library. There was always someone in there with a role of prints open and code book open. Also, everyone worked out of oversized cubicles.
