Standards
Standards are intended to ensure compatibility between products and appliances from different suppliers. They are produced by both national and professional organisations.
Organisations
Most countries in western Europe have a national organisation, which is responsible for standards, eg AFNOR in France, DIN in Germany and the British Standards Institution (BSI). In the USA, there is both a national body, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and also professional bodies each with its own standards, eg. the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM). There is also an international body for standards, the International Standards Organisation (ISO).
American National Standards Institute
American Society for Testing Materials
International Standards Organisation
British standards
The British Standards Online database offers full text access to over 37,000 current standards, published by the British Standards Institution. Its coverage includes:
- British Standards, with a BS prefix
- BSI national adoptions of European Standards (100%), with a BS EN prefix
- BSI national adoptions of selected international standards from ISO (International Organization for Standardization), with the prefixes: BS ISO or BS EN ISO
- IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) standards, with the prefixes: BS IEC or BS EN ISO/IEC
- Special sequences including: DD (drafts for development), PD (published documents), SP (specifications) and DC (drafts for public comment)
The Library's subscription does not include withdrawn or historic standards.
American and other foreign standards
You can access Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards within the IEEE/IEE Electronic Library database.
IEEE standards via IEEE/IET Electronic Library
For other American and foreign standards, there are three options.
BSI Knowledge Centre (formerly British Standards Institution library)
389 Chiswick High Road, London, W4 4AL
Tel: 020 8996 7004
E-mail: knowledgecentre@bsigroup.com
One of the benefits of our corporate BSI membership is that Brunel University students and staff can freely access a wide range of American and foreign standards on terminals in the BSI library.
The Techstreet database provides charged access to engineering standards from around 300 publishers, including: ANSI, ASME, ASTM, CSA, IEC, ISO and SAE. You can pay for downloading or printing standards from this database by credit card.
