Introduction
Standards and codes are needed to enhance productivity, facilitate trade, and improve the quality of life. Standards may be developed by innumerable national or international trade associations, groups of industries or government agencies. To identify current standards search the comprehensive ILI Standards Database
To identify codes, see MAD CAD, which has cross-referenced collections of building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, fire, and maintenance codes such as: IBC, IEBC, IEC; IECC; IFC; IMC; IPC; IRC; UBC; BOCA; SBC; ADA; ANSI; Fair Housing: UFAS; and NFPA.
Upon publication the acronym of the publishing organization together with a number and the current year identifies a given title e.g. ASCE 36 - 2001. Acronyms of organizations involved in writing standards, e.g. IEEE, API or UL, are listed at NSSN: Search Engine for National Standards.
General information about standards can be found at websites of ANSI, NIST, ASTM or ISO among others:
Finding Standards in the Engineering Library
Indexes to national and international standards are found in the Reference section on the first floor. These include the ASTM, NEMA and Pressure Vessel Standards. Some others are located in the Reference Handbooks section, such as ACI Manual and SAE Handbook. Other standards are located in the stacks by call number, e.g. ANSI and IEEE standards. ANSI A-Z numbered standards are shelved first, followed by ANSI/xxxxx (acronym) such as ANSI/ACI in alphabetical order. Only a few standards have been entered individually into the online catalog and are located directly in the stacks. A brief overview with locations is given in the following table:
| Acronym | Title of Resource | Call Number or Website | Location |
| ILI | ILI Standards Infobase (for finding all standards) | | |
| - | Index and Directory of Industry Standards | T59.2 .U6 I38 | Ref. Standards Section |
| ISO | International Organization for Standardization | | - |
| WSSN | World Standards Services Network Publicly Accessible Sites of Standards Organizations | | - |
| | | US Organizations Involved in Writing Standards | |
| ACI | ACI Manual of Concrete Practice | TA 681 .A51 M22 | Ref. Handbooks Section |
| ANSI | American National Standards Institute
(Includes some ANS, ASAE, ASCE, ASHRAE, ASME, AWWA, EIA, NFPA, SAE, UL standards, filed as ANSE/ASME...) | | Stack III |
| ASCE | American Society for Civil Engineers standards
| TA 59 .A51 | Stacks
|
| ASTM | Annual Book of ASTM standards (A Multivolume Set of Full-text Books) | | Latest inRef. Standards Section Older sets located in the Basement and the Library Annex
|
| ASME | ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code
ASME standards | TJ290 .A514
Some ASME standards are located at T59 A51 | Stacks, except Boiler & Pressure Vessel in Ref Standards
|
| IEEE | IEEE standards Networked Resource | IEEE Xplore TK5700 .I592 -- print copies of IEEE Standards, each numbered with individual title | |
| NFPA | National Fire Protection Association
| MAD CAD
| |
| NISO | National Information Standards Organization | | Standards are free in pdf format |
| - | National Electrical Code,
| MAD CAD, KF5704 .N38 2002 | Ref. Handbooks Section |
| NIST | National Institute of Standards and Technology Standard Physical Reference Data Page (SI standard units, conversion factors, universal constants) | | Ref. Handbooks Section |
| NSSN | National Resource for Global Standards (National Standards Systems Network) | | - |
| - | Uniform Building Code 1997 Superseded by International Building Code | TH223 .P3 1997 K3538 .A15 I57 | Ref. Handbooks Section |
| MilSpecs | U.S. Department of Defense Military Standards and Specifications | DODSSP UC263 .A39 (print index) | Ref. Standards Section |
| SAE | SAE Handbook
Society of Automotive Engineers | TL 151 .S67 SAE Publications and Standards Database (CD) | Ref Handbooks Section |
Some Foreign National Standards
| BSI | British Standards Institute | |
| DIN | Deutches Institut fur Normung | |
| JIS | Japanese Industrial Standards | |
Webpages of all the national and international organizations may be consulted directly. URLs not listed here can be found at some of the international organization websites above, or with a search engine, such as http://www.google.com. Standards not held at Cornell may be ordered by the library - please inquire at the Service Desk or send an email to engrref@cornell.edu. Otherwise, items may be purchased online from commercial websites and downloaded promptly.
Commercial Suppliers of Standards
| ILI Standards Database | |
| Document Center | |
| Document Engineering Co., Inc. | |
| Global Engineering Documents | |
| IHS (Information Handling Services) Web Server | |
| Linda Hall Library Document Services Department | |
NSSN was started as National Standards Systems Network, but is now "A National Resource for Global Standards", which includes more than 600 national, foreign, regional and international bodies. This online service allows searching for standards across agencies and organizations. Together with the ILI database it is a good place to start when identifying a given standard.
National Information Standards Organization specifications are available free for downloading in pdf format from NISO. NISO has developed standards for Information Retrieval (Z39.50), 12083 (an SGML Tool), Z39.2 (Information Interchange Format), Codes for Languages and Countries, and Z39.18 (Scientific and Technical Reports).
The International Organization for Standardization is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from some 130 countries. In the US the ISO standards can be ordered through ANSI, ILI and others cited above.
Some other sites:
Yahoo Directory - Standards
University Of Michigan Library standards guide
University of Manitoba Library standards guide
