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Standards & Patents: Standards and Patents

How can I access standards?

The library has online subscriptions to:

  • British Standards: You can a download PDFs of most British Standards from 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: You can download PDFs of Eurocodes from the British Standards Online (BSOL) database (see above)
  • IEEE Standards: Your can download PDFs of a range of IEEE standards from the IEEEXplore site.

If you need to access 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 difficulty identifying or obtaining standards, please contact your Subject Librarian.

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

Information about standards published by various organizations. Members of QUB have full-text access to a range of IEEE standards. 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. Contact the PATLIB CENTRE BELFAST to find out what help is available locally.