Research Guides: Mechanical Engineering: Standards

Requesting Standards

The University Libraries will try to obtain standards for UNM faculty, staff, and students use on a as-needed basis. In order to use this service, you must be currently affiliated with UNM. Contact your librarian for more information.

If you do not have a current UNM NetID, we suggest that you purchase your required standards directly from a document provider. We recommend either the IHS Standards Store or the Techstreet Store.

Find Standards

Identifying and tracking down standards can be a complicated process. Military and government standards are often available at no charge, but standards of other organizations generally involve a fee.

Subscription Databases

UNM subscribes to the following databases that have full-text access to standards. Our print collection also contains older, miscellaneous standards that can be found in our library catalog.

IEEE Xplore Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to journals, transactions, magazines, conference proceedings and standards published by IEEE since 1988, with limited content dating back to 1952.

Search Engines for Standards

These specialized databases aggregate the collections of major standards developers worldwide and can help you quickly search a global library of standards. Searching these databases is free and is a good option to locate the standard you need. Once located, please contact your librarian to request the full-text standard.

NSSN
The American National Standards Institute’s (ANSI) comprehensive standards search engine with more than 300,000 records; offers both a simple and advanced search.
IHS Standards Store
The IHS Standards Store has over 800,000 standards, specifications, and codes; available in English, French and Dutch.
TechStreet
Online database of over 400,000 industry codes and standards aggregated from 350 of the world's leading Standards Developing Organization.
ASSIST Quick Search
ASSIST Quick Search provides direct access to Defense and Federal specifications and standards available in the official DoD repository, the ASSIST database.
ANSI Incorporated by Reference Portal
The Incorporated by Reference (IBR) Portal provides a one-stop mechanism for access to standards that have been incorporated by reference in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). These standards incorporated by the U.S. government are offered at no cost in “read only” format and are presented for online reading. There are no print or download options.

What is a standard?

A standard is a document, established by consensus, that provides rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results (as defined in ISO/IEC Guide 2:2004). As a technical specification, it provides detailed information on how to design, manufacture, produce or manage a wide range of materials, products, systems or services.

Standards are important because they specify the size, shape, physical properties, and all other technical specifications for materials, tests, and products. Standards are used by a variety of people in a variety of ways including:

buyers and sellers incorporate standards into contracts;
scientists and engineers use them in their laboratories and plants;
architects and designers use them in their plans;
government agencies around the world reference them in codes, regulations and laws