Library:Research Skills For Engineering Students/Module 06/Page 02

Engineers will often need to locate standards in the course of their work.

Standards are published specifications, criteria, and guidelines for the performance or composition of a product or process. Standards often supplement the design process by guiding the engineer, saving significant design time. They increase quality, reliability, and interoperability.

Standards are created by a variety of organizations and may be voluntary or legally mandated.

Some examples of standards include:

• the British Columbia Building Code, which sets out technical provisions for the design and construction of new buildings, as well as the alteration, change of use, and demolition of existing buildings
• Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Standards
• ASTM Standards
• safety standards and testing methods

Standards are updated frequently to keep pace with changing technologies. Usually, you want to ensure you’re looking at the latest version of a standard. But older, superseded versions of a standard may be useful in many cases, especially when evaluating a product or process created when the old standard was in place.

For more information, see Codes & Standards from the CSA Group.