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Standards and Patents: Finding Standards

A guide to finding standards and patents online

Techstreet - our new platform for Australian Standards

Please use the database Techstreet for access to Australian Standards. Please read the section below titled Australian/New Zealand Standards on how to use Techstreet and the system requirements you'll need to meet to read the pdfs.

Introduction to obtaining standards

For most standards organisations, you will need to access a different database to obtain the standard/s you require. Refer to the applicable standard organisation in the section below for instructions on how to obtain your required standard/s.

If you have any questions about how to obtain a standard, please email scieng@usyd.libanswers.com

Australian/New Zealand Standards (AS/NZ)

User registration

Standards Australia requires each user to register for a Techstreet account using a University of Sydney e-mail address. Please read these instructions for full details.

Install the FileOpen plugin

Standards Australia also requires that Digital Rights Management (DRM) is enabled to secure PDFs on this platform. You will need the free FileOpen plug-in installed on your computer. Download the pdf to a local folder and open that pdf file with Adobe Reader. You cannot open a standard from within a browser window. Note: you may need to update your version of Adobe Reader to be compatible with FileOpen.

If FileOpen isn't being recognised by Adobe Acrobat Reader, consider using the alternative reader Foxit. It will install FileOpen the first time you try to open a standard. Restart Foxit once FileOpen has installed.

Save the file locally

Standards cannot be opened within a browser. Save the file to a local drive e.g. your downloaded files folder, and open the pdf file with Adobe Reader.

International (ISO), British (BS) and IEC standards

90% of ISO standards (and 50% of IEC standards) are now available for you to access yourself via the British Standards Online database (BSOL). The standards are the British implementation, but identical to the ISO. Once you open the standard, you will see a statement saying that it is identical to the ISO.

If you cannot find the standard because, for instance, it doesn't have a British implementation, send the details to scieng@usyd.libanswers.com. Where possible, we will add the requested standard to the database IHS Engineering Workbench.

You will also find a small number of international standards held in print - find these using Library Search.

FileOpen plugin requirement

In order to download and print documents from British Standards Online, you will need to download and install the FileOpen plugin.

ASTM standards

Current ASTM Standards are now available directly from ASTM Compass

The ASTM Compass is also available for technical content covering a wide range of materials and industries, including Special Technical Publications, manuals, technical papers and journals.

IEEE standards

The IEEE Xplore database contains a complete set of current IEEE Standards.

In order to search for IEEE Standards, follow this procedure:

1. Go to the IEEE Xplore homepage

2. Click on "Advanced Search"

3. Under "Publications", deselect everything except "IEEE standards"

4.  Run your search

SAE Technical Papers

SAE Technical Papers are purchased on demand or supplied from those obtained previously in the same year. Please e-mail scieng@usyd.libanswers.com with the details of the papers you are seeking.

All other standards

For standards produced by organisations not referred to elsewhere on this page follow these two steps:

1. Conduct a search for the standard via Library Search. Search by keyword using the standard designation or the title of the standard.

2. If not found via Library Search, contact scieng@usyd.libanswers.com to check if it can be requested. 

 

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