Penn State University Libraries - Standards

Definition

Standards are guidelines or rules for various activities, products, processes, test methods, or materials. The goal of these guidelines is to produce a level of uniformity, interchangeability, means of comparison, efficiency, and reliability. For example, there are standards for Bluetooth, medical devices, and children’s plastic toys. Some standards are mandatory while others are voluntary. Standards are produced by the military, professional organizations, various industries, governments, and international organizations. Standards are important information resources in engineering.

Standard Producing Organizations

Standards can be written by government agencies and professional organizations both in the US, other countries, and by international organizations. Some of interest in engineering are listed below and linked to their web pages.

US Government agencies

• Department of Defense (DoD)
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
• Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
  
• National Institute of standards and Testing (NIST)
  
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
  
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
  

Organizations

• American Association of State & Highway Officials (AASHTO)
  
• American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
  
• American Nuclear Society (ANS)
  
• American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)
  
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
  
• National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
  
• Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)
  
• Underwriter Laboratories (UL)
  

International

• Association Francaise de Normalisation (France, AFNOR)
  
• British Standards Institute (BSI)
  
• Deutsches Institut fur Normung (Germany, DIN)
  
• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
  
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
  
• National Bureau of Standards (China, CNS)
  
• Nihon Kikaku Kiyokai (Japanese Standards Association, NKK)
  
• Standards Council of Canada (SCC)
  
  

How to Find Standards owned by Penn State

There are several ways to find standards at Penn State. You will be starting at the Libraries Home Page.

1. If the organization producing the standard is IEEE, go to the Libraries Home Page, select Databases by Title (A-Z) and select the link for IEEExplore. You can search for your standard by standard number or by title. Below is an example of a standard number search. We have full text access to the standards of IEEE.
   

2.  If the organization producing the standard is ASTM, go to the Libraries Home Page, select Databases by Title (A-Z) and select the link for ASTM. You can search for your standard by standard number or by title. We have full text access to the ASTM standards.

3.  If the standard is by another organization, you can search in the CAT by the standard name or number or subject or organization.

Subject and term standard

Organization and subject

4.If you do not find the standard in the CAT and it is not an IEEE or ASTM standard, check with a staff member or librarian in the Engineering Library. We will look into borrowing or purchasing the standard.

How to Search for Standards on your Subject

If you know the organization or agency that produced the standard, you can go directly to their web site to find complete information (standard number, date, title of standard) and then check the CAT to see if we own it.

You will want to search the CAT, IEEExplore or ASTM to see if we have a standard. However, while ASTM covers a wide range of subjects and includes over 12,000 standards, it does not cover all standards or subjects. For a more complete search, go to NSSN. You can search by standard agency/organization, number, or subject. Be sure to select the correct field to search from the dialog box. You can limit your search by a number of fields, search full text, title, or by a particular developer (standard producer such as IEEE or ISO.