What are standards? Standards are guidelines produced by various societies on anything from specifications for manufacturing ladders to managing the safety hazards of lasers. The most well-known standards organization is the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), which often works with smaller organizations to publish their standards.

How do I find a specific standard?

The easiest way is to use the IHS Standards Expert , searching with document number, organization and/or keywords. Many industry and military standards are included, with full-text.  

 If you want an IEEE standard, go to ScienceServer.

Other standards available online are listed on our Standards, codes & specs page.

Another way to find a standard is the NSSN database - searchable by keywords or document number - to identify the standard number(s) and source.

Various hardcopy collections at the Lab are summarized on the LANL engineering standards list.

What if the above sources don't offer full-text of a standard? If none of the above sources have what you need or you need your own copy, it can be ordered from the issuing organization, at a local bookstore, by phone from Global Engineering at 800-854-7179 or from Information Handling Services at 800-447-3352, and on the Web with a purchase card. Contact the Library for more information (email or 667-5809).