The University at Buffalo Libraries have a selected collection of standards and specifications. All ASTM, IEEE, and SAE standards are now accessible online (see databases in the sidebar to access), along with a few select standards available through the TechStreet platform. Some other standards are available in print. Use the tabs above to find U.S. and international standards here at UB, as well as information regarding government regulations and standards.

Please contact us first to see if we might have the standard you need here at UB or if it might be possible for us to secure a copy via Delivery+. If not, another option for you may be to directly purchase the item. The final tab, labeled "Obtaining Standards," provides further information on freely accessible standards, as well as details on how you can purchase a standard you need.

Standards provide people and organizations with a basis for mutual understanding and are used as tools to facilitate communication, measurement, commerce, and manufacturing.

Standards are everywhere and play an important role in the economy, by:

• facilitating business interaction
• enabling companies to comply with relevant laws and regulations
• speeding up the introduction of innovative products to market 
• providing interoperability between new and existing products, services, and processes.

- CEN CENELEC

Standards impact our every day lives.

• See also Standards are Everywhere: An Information Literacy Approach to Standards Education by Purdue Libraries for more information on what standards are, as well as where standards can be found in everyday objects.

Standards are important to businesses, governments, engineers, scientists, architects, designers, students, and more.

• See the Value of Standards webpage from the Standards Boost Business website. 

For more information, watch the video below from ISO on What Standards Do for You.

Another video, below, is from NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology and illustrates how standards are important to technology and innovation.

To locate a standard, you should (ideally) know the following:

• Acronym and name of the publishing organization
• Standard number
• Title of the standard
• Date of the standard
• Subject of the standard

To identify a standard on a particular topic (e.g., seat belts) or to verify a standard's date or number, use the following publicly accessible database:

• TechStreet (a standards provider)
  Search 500,000+ standards and industry codes from around the world. This includes US standards like ASTM and ANSI, JIS Japanese standards, European standards such as BSI and EN, as well as international ISO standards. Standards can be purchased directly from TechStreet in PDF or print formats.
• ANSI WebStore
  Search for ANSI, ASTM, ISO, IEC, and other standards publishers by keyword or document number. Be sure to re-set the search box to "KEYWORD" if searching that way. This will provide you with the acronym and name of the publishing organization (as well as a standard number and the title of the standard).

Other specialized indexes exist for military standards, federal standards, foreign national standards, etc. These indexes are identified and cited in the respective sections accessible through the tabs above. Links are provided to the web version of an index where one is available.