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Technical Reports & Standards Collection Guide

Standards Collection

Theodor Horydczak, photographer Bureau of Standards. Cone mixer used for mixing standard samples for chemical analysis. 1920. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division.

The Library of Congress standards collection consists largely of publications that have been deposited at the Library of Congress to meet copyright registration requirements. This collection contains a selection of current and historical standards, issued by dozens of U.S. issuing organizations on paper, in various microformats or on external media, as well as unclassified U.S. military and federal specifications. 

For more information on which materials are added to the Library's permanent collections, see the Collection Policy Statement for Standards. 

Standards are housed in the Technical Reports and Standards collection as well as in the Law Library, which maintains a collection of OSHA standards and some building codes, and in the general collections. Indexes to standards are available from the Library's online databases. Standards that have been incorporated into the Code of Federal Regulations may be freely accessible through the IBR Standards Reference Portal

Standards in the general collections may be discovered by searching the Library's online catalog, but researchers wishing to check for or utilize standards from the Technical Reports and Standards collection should contact Science Section staff, either by visiting the Science and Business Reading Room, or by submitting an inquiry via the online Science and Technical Reports Ask-a-Librarian form.

Please note, copyright restrictions and associated costs severely limit the Library's ability to provide photocopies or permit photocopies to be made of many of the non-governmental standards in the collection.

For additional resources on standards, contact the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) or visit their website, standards.gov.

U.S and International Standards

A partial list of current and historical standard issuing organizations for which the Library holds standards:

  • AAMI: Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation
  • ACI: American Concrete Institute
  • AES: Audio Engineering Society
  • AGMA: American Gear Manufacturers Association
  • AICPA: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
  • ANS: American Nuclear Society
  • ANSI: American National Standards Institute
  • API: American Petroleum Institute
  • ARI: American Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute
  • ASME: American Society for Mechanical Engineers
  • ASTM: ASTM International (formerly the American Society for Testing and Materials; latest received materials are held in the Science Reading Room, and older standards are in general collections)
  • AWS: American Welding Society
  • AWWA: American Water Works Association (in print & CD)
  • CGA: Compressed Gas Association
  • EIA: Electronic Industries Association (in print & CD)
  • IEC: International Electrical Commission
  • IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
  • IPC: Association of Connection Electronics Industries
  • ISA: Instrumentation Systems and Automation Society
  • ISO: International Standards Organization (selected only - some ISO standards are publicly available)
  • NCCLS: National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards
  • NEMA: National Electrical Manufacturers Association
  • NFPA: National Fire Protection Association
  • RTCA: Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics
  • SAE: Society of Automotive Engineers (in print & CD)
  • SCTE: Society for Cable & Telecommunications Engineers
  • SMPTE: Society for Motion Picture and Television Engineers
  • UL: Underwriters Laboratories

The collection also includes historical U.S. Federal and Military Specifications on microfilm.

Non-U.S. Standards

The standards collection includes print copies of selected historical standards from the following countries:

  • The People's Republic of China
  • Russia (including the annual Russian National Standards Index series published by the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology, dating back to 1980)
  • South Africa
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