NIGP 30572: Slide Rules

NIGP 30572 Slide Rules, an Item code, captures a narrow product line that state and local governments historically procured for engineering, scientific, and technical education purposes. The code reflects procurement of mechanical calculating instruments—slide rules themselves and related accessories—that were standard in educational and technical settings before digital calculators became ubiquitous. State and local issuing bodies soliciting under this code include school districts (particularly those maintaining vocational or technical programs), state education departments, and occasionally community colleges or technical institutes that retain slide rules for historical collections, instructional museums, or niche educational applications. The actual scope of work today is minimal; slide rules are rarely specified as active procurement line items in contemporary state and local RFPs, RFQs, IFBs, or ITBs.

No recent state and local contract opportunities under NIGP 30572 appear in available procurement records. The code remains part of the NIGP taxonomy for historical and categorical completeness, but procurement activity under it is effectively dormant in current state and local markets. Organizations evaluating this code for business development purposes should treat it as inactive for near-term pursuit; any demand that does surface would likely be sporadic, institution-specific, and tied to specialized educational or archival contexts rather than operational procurement volume.