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PolyU Library

Find Standards

A guide to introduce resources to find technical standards

Terminology

  • International Classification for Standards (ICS) codes

is a technical standard published by the International Organization for Standards (ISO) and serves as a structure for catalogues. Many platforms allow browsing/searching standards by ICS codes. Learn more about ICS.

  • Redline

refers to highlighted changes between versions of a standard.

How to open protected PDF documents

The PDF documents downloaded from the platform are protected files. Steps to open these PDF documents are:

  1. Install FileOpen plug-in in your device (PC, Mac, iOS, Android). You only need to install once per device.

     
  2. Locate the downloaded PDF document in your local folder. Double-click on the PDF document to open it in Adobe Acrobat reader. Please DO NOT open it in a browser.

British Standards Online (BSOL)

Our current subscription to British Standards Online (BSOL) includes BSI and ISO collections:

  • BSI collection provides full access to British Standards (BSI) and other international and European standards that have been adopted as British Standards.
  • ISO collection provides full access to technical standards published by ISO (International Organization for Standardization). 

Searching in BSOL

  1. Search by standard number or keywords, and select from the suggested list


     
  2. Check the status of the document from the top of the page.
  3. Click on Download PDF to download the PDF files 
     
  4. Refer to the steps in the sidebar to learn how to open the protected PDF documents downloaded from this platform.

The browse function helps you browse the whole catalog by module or by ICS codes. This is useful when exploring a subject and identifying its related standards.

  1. Click Browse for Standards


     
  2. Select Browse by Modules or Browse by Subject (ICS code). The BSOL Modules are the main subject categories based on the ICS codes.

  1. Click Advanced Search from the top menu


     
  2. The advanced query could help further limit the results, e.g. Status, Publisher, Publication Date, ICS Categories, etc. hence makes your search more specific.

Subjects: How-to Guides