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Standards & Patents: Standards and patents

Which standards does QUB libary subscribe to?

The library has online subscriptions to the following standards:

  • British standards: You can view or download most British standards via the British Standards Online (BSOL) database, including
    • current, draft and historic British standards
    • BSI national adoptions of European standards (prefix BS EN)
    • selected international standards (prefixes BS ISO, BS IEC, BS EN ISO, BS EN IEC, BS EN ISO/IEC)
  • Eurocodes: Eurocodes are also available from the British Standards Online (BSOL) database
  • ASTM standards: You can download PDFs of ASTM standards from the ASTM Compass Digital Library database
  • IEEE standards: You can download PDFs of a range of IEEE standards from the IEEEXplore site
  • SAE standards: You can download PDFs of a range of SAE standards from the SAE Mobilus site

What about ISO or IEC standards?

The British Standards Online database includes ISO and IEC standards which have been adopted as British standards (e.g. BS EN ISO, BS ISO, BS EN IEC, BS IEC).

Search the British Standards Online database, to see if the ISO or IEC standard you need has been adopted as a British standard. You can search by the standard number (e.g. ISO 21222:2020) or by the title of the standard. If the ISO or IEC standard has been adopted as a British standard, you should find the relevant British standard (e.g. BS ISO 21222:2020) in the list of search results. You should be able to view or download the PDF.

Accessing standards which are not held by the library:

If you need a standard which is not available via the library's online subscriptions, you can request it via the Inter-Library Loans Service.

If you have any difficulties identifying or obtaining standards, please contact your Subject Librarian.

How can I access documents on the British Standards Online database?

There are two options for accessing documents on the British Standards Online (BSOL) database:

  • To view a document on the screen, select "Quick view"
  • To download a document, select "Download PDF"

BSI have recently applied digital rights management protection to PDFs on the British Standards Online database. This means:

  • downloaded PDFs can only be opened with a PDF reader (such as Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader). Downloaded PDFs will not open in a web browser
  • you are required to have the FileOpen plug-in installed on your computer
  • the first time you open a downloaded PDF, you will need to be connected to the internet, so that the document can be authenticated. Once the document has been authenticated, you can access it offline.

BSI provide further information and a download link for the FileOpen plug-in on their webpage 

BSI video tutorials (YouTube):

British Standards Online (BSOL) - How to download the FileOpen plug-in

British Standards Online (BSOL) - How to change Google Chrome browser settings

 

Printing documents downloaded from the "British Standards Online" database:

BSI only permit printing of a single copy of a document. Printing any number of pages of a document (even a single page) is counted as a single print. BSI recommend that if you need a printed version, you print the entire document.

European standards

European Standards (EN) are standards that have been ratified by CEN, CENELEC or ETSI. They have the status of a national standard in all member countries of the European Union. Access to the full text of all BS ENs including Eurocodes is available via the British Standards Online database

Further information:

Other national standards

Information about other national standards. Please note that full-text access is not included.

International standards

Information about international standards. Please note that full-text access is not included.

Standards organizations

The sites below provide information about standards published by various organizations. Members of QUB have full-text access to ASTM standards (via the ASTM Compass Digital Library), selected IEEE standards (via IEEE Xplore) and selected SAE standards (via SAE Mobilus). Other standards can be requested via Inter-Library Loan.

How can I find patents?

The Library does not hold copies of patents but many are freely available in full text from the patents sites listed below. If you cannot access a patent you require, you can request it via Inter-Library Loan.

Searching for patents can be tricky and there is is a network of Patent Libraries (PatLibs) offering information and competent advice.