Standards: About Standards

Engineers will often need to locate standards or specifications in the course of their work. A standard is a document

established by consensus and approved by a recognized body, that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context (definition from the ISO/IEC Guide 2:2004).

Standards may be developed by a variety of groups, such as government agencies, technical or trade associations, professional societies or associations, or international or national organizations.

Copies of standards can be difficult to locate. The Engineering Library owns some in print and online, and these are findable in UC Library Search. 

If you do not find the standard you need, please ask us for assistance.

UC Berkeley faculty, graduate students and research staff may request individual standards not currently owned by the library. Contact the Engineering Library for more information.