The major standards agencies
include:
- American Concrete Institute (ACI)
- American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
- American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)
- American Society of Metals (ASM)
- Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE)
- International Standards Organization (ISO)
- National Institute of Standards (NISO)
- Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)
- Underwriters Laboratory (UL)
Standards are documents
that provide guidelines or rules for various activities, products, processes,
etc. The goal of these guidelines is to produce a level of uniformity and
reliability. Standards are developed by consensus and are endorsed by a
respected organization or organizations. Standards can be voluntary
or mandatory, considering the context. Standards are one of the integral
resources in engineering.
Standards are mandatory
in many situations. The use of a standard means uniformity, interchangeability,
means of comparison, and efficiency. Use of standards can simplify processes,
save money and decrease waste. Many proposals and reports require the use
and citation of the appropriate standards.
The CAT - If
known, the faster search is by title of the standard. You may also
search the name of the sponsoring agency, or keyword searches on the subject
of the standard.
IEEE Electronic Library on the E-Resource List on the Libraries home page- is both an index to the standards produced by IEEE and IEE (Institute of Electrical Engineers, U.K.) and links to the full text standard.
Annual Book of ASTM Standards (Engineering Library, Index Table TA401.A64, Abstracts and Indexes) collects all ASTM standards. An annual, Engineering maintains one complete set while the volumes in the current year are collected.
American Nuclear Society- The Engineering Library collects the standards
from ANS in the print, circulating collection. These are indexed
in The CAT.
Standards can be somewhat
of a challenge to locate since some citations to standards are not complete.
If you have a complete citation to a standard , it will indicate the sponsoring
organization and the standard number. Usually a date is included
since standard numbers will remain the same but updates are noted by date.
For example: ASTM D3807 - 98
This is a 1998 revision of an earlier version of the standard.
If the citation to a standard is incomplete the standard may be verified in several ways.
Standards bibliography: - See Index and Directory of Industry Standards (U.S. and International) (T59.2.U6 I501, Abstracts and Indexes) These volumes have subject indexes and numerical indexes by sponsoring standard organizations.
Web sites: The Engineering Web site - General Reference Page has several sites to search for or verify standard citations. One that is extremely useful is NSSN site thatallows you to search by keyword or standard number even if you do not know the sponsoring organziation.
If the University Libraries does not own a standard that you need, it
is suggested you contact one of the librarians or staff members of the
Engineering Library. There are procedures so the standard may be borrowed
or purchased.
