Research Guides: Standards: Home

Librarian

Contact:

Walter 345

612-624-9399

Standards serve as a common language for engineers, designers and manufacturers, providing invaluable information to define quality and safety criteria; outline test methods and performance requirements; and provide rules and guidelines.

Standards tutorial

Tutorial: Standards: what are they and how can I find them?
Discover what standards are, why they exist, and identify major publishers of standards. Recognize where and how to get access to them.

Standards in the Libraries (physical copies)

The following list includes sources for identifying and locating specific standards both online and at the library.

AAMI standards on CD: Biological Evaluation of Medical Devices Series
Standards for the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, 2009.
AASHTO Standards
Standards from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Offices.
ACI Manual of Concrete Practice
Standards from the American Concrete Institute.
ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) Standards
The Science and Engineering Library has partial holdings of ASCE Standards.To find an ASCE Standard, look it up by title in Libraries Search
ASHRAE Standards
Standards from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers.
ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Standards
The most current editions of ASME standards are shelved in Walter Library Room 206.
ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC)
The Science and Engineering Library has some older editions of the BPVC in print.
IPC Standards
Standards for the Institute for Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Circuits
ISO Standards
ISO standards, which are internationally agreed upon by experts, cover everything from manufactured products and technology to food safety, agriculture, and healthcare.

The Science & Engineering Library has partial holdings of ISO Standards. To find an ISO standard, look up the standard by its title or number in Libraries Search. Most that we have are in print although a limited number of more recent standards are available online.

Be sure to check the ISO handbooks (TA368.I8) to learn whether your standard is included in one of the handbook volumes.

Standards online (databases and websites)

ASABE Standards (American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers)
Find standards governing the engineering and data practices adopted by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.
ASCE Library (Civil Engineering)
The American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) Library provides online access to a high-quality collection of civil engineering content. It contains articles from ASCE journals, papers from conference proceedings, and e-books and standards.
ASTM Compass
Produced by the American Society for Testing and Materials, this resource provides access to the standards in the current edition of the Annual Book of ASTM Standards along with other ASTM standards.

FDA Consensus Standards Database
Sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration.
IEC Standards
Standards published by the International Electrotechnical Commission. There are several publicly available ISO/IEC standards at the above link. Otherwise, the Science and Engineering Library has a limited print collection of IEC Standards, with partial coverage from 1961-1997.

IEEE Xplore
Full-text access to the transactions, journals, magazines and conference proceedings of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Includes all current Active standards & redline standards. Draft standards are not included.

ITU-T Standards
Standards produced by the International Telecommunication Union--Telecommunication Standardization Sector which define how telecommunication networks operate and interwork.
National Information Standards Organization (NISO)
NISO, the National Information Standards Organization, a non-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), identifies, develops, maintains, and publishes technical standards to manage information in today's continually changing digital environment.
OSHA Regulations
Provides a comprehensive and easy to use resource for current Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards and compliance-related information.
SAE Handbook
To search for SAE Standards, visit the SAE Standards Development Site. The Science & Engineering Library carries SAE J Standards (Ground Vehicle Standards) in the SAE Handbook, located on CD in Room 208.
Techstreet
Techstreet offers information on over 300,000 standards and codes from over 350 publishers.

I didn’t find the standard I need

If you are unable to find the standard you need, please ask us! If you are a current University of Minnesota affiliate, and you need the standard for your research or coursework, we can probably obtain the standard for you.

Last Updated: Aug 8, 2025 5:09 PM