Research Guides: Resources by format: Engineering standards

We have access to many standards online or in our print collection. Any standards not part of our collections can be requested through interlibrary loan.

Ordering standards

Standards not available from the sources below will be ordered and paid for by the library. The following guidelines apply:

In general, you should request the item through Interlibrary Loan, using the special standards button on the ILL request page, BUT,
If you want the item placed on Reserve, please place your order through your college librarian so the item can be added to the library collection.
Most of the time the standard will become your property, but the library retains the right to place any purchased item in the collection.
Only faculty and grad students may request standards.
Limits of $1,000 / requester / calendar year will apply

ACI: American Concrete Institute standards

MADCAD
MADCAD indexes full-text building codes, evaluation standards, design standards, and technical bulletins from ASCE, ASHRAE, ASME, ASTM, FEMA, NFPA, and SMACNA, plus state codes from Virginia in HTML and PDF. 1981-present

ASABE standards

ASABE Technical Library
The ASABE Technical Library contains the full text of conference proceedings, meeting papers, journals, standards, and technical papers of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (PDF and HTML). Some books and textbooks are also available (each chapter is a separate PDF).

ASCE standards

ASCE Library
The ASCE Library contains the full text of journals (from 1983), conference papers (from 2000), standards (current and historical), and ebooks.

ASME standards

ASME standards are available as a request through interlibrary loan. Virginia Tech has selected holdings of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code in hardcopy at TJ290 A52 on Reserve.

ASTM standards

ASTM Compass
ASTM Compass is the portal for the ASTM full-text standards, technical engineering reports, journals, manuals, ebooks, and data series. These materials cover a wide range of engineering disciples: aerospace, biomedical, chemical, civil, environmental, geological, health and safety, industrial, materials science, mechanical, nuclear, petroleum, soil science, and solar engineering. The site includes all current issues and backfiles of all ASTM journals, all symposia papers (published in book format as Special Technical Publications), and all ASTM manuals and monographs. The library also includes current and historical ASTM standards. 1931-present.

Earlier versions not available in ASTM Compass can be found in print in the Annual book of ASTM standards.

IEEE standards

IEEE Xplore
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IEEE Xplore contains full text documents from IEEE and IEE journals, transactions, magazines, ebooks, letters, conference proceedings, standards, and IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology) publications. Full text content is provided as PDFs.Full-text journals back to 1884, conference proceedings back to 1951.

An IEEE standard is a document authored under the IEEE-standards Association standards Development Process from Project Authorization Request through to IEEE-standards Association Standards Board Approval. However, there are other standards distributed via IEEE Xplore, namely C63, C136, etc. standards, that are Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) standards, and which do not follow the definition outlined above. An ASC standard is a document authored by a standards developing organization other than the IEEE, for which the IEEE holds secretariat responsibility.

SAE J standards

SAE Mobilus
Our subscription provides online access to technical papers from 1906-present, Ground Vehicle Standards, SAE ebooks, and STAPP Car Crash proceedings.

Military specifications

Military specifications (and other standards) can be searched through the IHS Standards Store. This IHS database indexes standards from many organizations worldwide. We no longer have a subscription to this database, so you won't be able to download full-text standards unless you pay for them yourself. Instead, you can use this database to verify standards information to request via interlibrary loan.

Searchable standards indexes

In general, full-text standards are not available free on the Web. The following links provide information on standards, as well as searchable indexes.

ANSI - American National Standards Institute: This is the coordinating body for standards in the U.S.
Codes and Standards: Sponsored by ASME, this site offers information on ME related standards.
Global: A commercial provider of industry standards.
IEEE standards info: Info about IEEE standards, the IEEE standards process, and the status of IEEE standards.
ILI: A commercial provider of industry standards.
ISO - International Standardization Organization: Information about ISO, as well as a searchable catalog.
ITU - International Telecommunication Union: List of standards currently in force, as well as forthcoming recommendations.
National Institute of standards and Technology (NIST): Affiliated with the U.S. Department of Commerce, primarily concerned with measurement standards.
NISO - National Information standards Organization: Provides standards about information retrieval, metatdata, etc. in free PDF format online!
Online standards documentation: A compiled list of various online standards resources.
OSHA - Occupational Safety and Health Administration: A searchable resource of OSHA related standards and regulations.
TechStreet: Commercial standards supplier.
UL standards - Underwriters Laboratories: UL standards adopted by the American National standards Institute. Individual standards are listed under Underwriters' Laboratories as a corporate author. Select standards of safety are also available.
W3C - World Wide Web Consortium: W3C contributes to efforts to standardize Web technologies by producing specifications (called "recommendations") that describe the building blocks of the Web, such as HTML and XML.