Standards at SIBL

What are STANDARDS? | WHERE to find standards at SIBL? | Standards at SIBL

What are STANDARDS?

Standards are: documented agreements containing technical specifications or other precise criteria to be used consistently as rules, guidelines, or definitions of characteristics, to ensure that materials, products, processes and services are fit for their purpose.

What standards do: they establish accepted test methods and procedures; characterize materials; define processes and systems; and specify product characteristics.

Benefits of standards: Standards help to reduce cost and improve quality; reduce trade barriers; promote efficient markets; create new markets; and create industrial infrastructure.

The above definitions were reproduced with the permission of the American Textile Manufacturers Institute (ATMI).

Voluntary standards are developed by various groups/individuals, organizations and/or associations usually involved with the activities or materials being standardized, since they benefit most from their creation. Voluntary standards can be referenced in regulations or cited in contracts at which point they become mandatory or legally binding; this is the case with the New York State Building Code which is based on the International Family of Codes developed by the International Code Council (ICC). Governments also create mandatory standards, for example regulations relating to health, safety or environmental concerns. New York City has its own mandatory building standards which are compiled together in the Building Code of the City of New York.

A more in-depth explanation of standardization can be found on the American Society for Testing and Materials’ (ASTM International) Web site. Go to the organizations home page, http://www.astm.org, click on “News & Information”, and select The Handbook of Standardization. The latter publication describes standards, how they are written, the U.S. standards system and more.

WHERE to find standards at SIBL

The Science, Industry and Business Library does not collect standards comprehensively, instead you will find many reference guides to standards in the Library’s collection. The following are steps for locating standards at the library, and what to do if the document you need is not in SIBL’s collection:

Check in CATNYP, the Research Libraries’ online catalog, for the title of the standard (for example: National Electrical Code) and/or search the standard making body as an author (for example: National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)). Also, look at the list of Standards at SIBL below.
For government standards and regulations, at the federal level search the Code of Federal Regulations, available online for fulltext access at the following site: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/
At the state and city level, search CATNYP for the title of the standard and/or the name of the state or city as an author. Sometimes the latter can be found online, for example the Building Code of the City of New York: http://nyc.gov/html/dob/html/code.html
To locate reference guides for a particular set of standards, try either a keyword search in CATNYP with the name of the standard (for example: International Building Code) or a keyword search of the industry of interest combined with the term “standards”; some examples:

building* AND standards
telecommunication* AND standards

Note: the asterisk (*) is a truncation symbol, more information on its use can be found on the keyword search page in CATNYP
If you do not find the standard you need in the library’s collections, you may need to purchase it. ANSI, the American National Standards Institute (http://www.ansi.org), is a good source for standards, many available online. You may also be able to buy the standard from the standard making body itself.

Some important national and international organizations concerned with standardization are:

- ANSI: American National Standards Institute http://www.ansi.org
- ASTM International: American Society for Testing and Materials http://www.astm.org
- ISO: International Organization for Standardization http://www.iso.ch
- IEC: International Electrotechnical Commission http://www.iec.ch
- ITU: International Telecommunications Union http://www.itu.int
- NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology http://www.nist.gov
- NSSN: National Standards Systems Network http://www.nssn.org/
To identify standards for a particular industry try using one of the following indexes. These publications can be found in the open-shelf reference collection on the lower level of SIBL, call numbers are given:
- Index and Directory of Industry Standards
*R-T59.2 U615
- Index of Federal Specifications, Standards and Commercial Item Descriptions
*R-JK1679 I53
Available online at: http://apps.fss.gsa.gov/pub/fedspecs/index.cfm