Standards
Expressed popularly, standardization means “to once and for all solve recurring problems”. We have probably all become irritated about how the plugs for electrical devices do not fit the sockets in other countries, this despite the fact that there is a long history of standardization. But, it is really not until the 20th century that standardizations have developed in an organized manner.
SIS – standardization in Sweden
For this purpose there are a large number of organizations that work with standardization. The work is done either by official organs for standardization or by others, as for example trade and interest organizations. SIS, Standardization in Sweden is one example of the first mentioned.
CEN and ISO
Sweden is a member of CEN, Comité Européen den Normalisation, which produces European standards. The membership in CEN means that Sweden has undertaken the implementation of the standards taken by the organization. Through this membership Sweden also implements international standards taken in the organization ISO, International Organization for Standardization, since they are included in CEN.
SS
The common designation for SIS standards is SS or for example SS-EN-ISO, which means it is an international standard which has been taken at European level and then finally implemented in Swedish standardization.
Trade organizations
Alongside the official organs there are other institutions which represent e.g. trade organizations that work with, and form standards. They complement the official standards and they occur to a different extent in all countries. In the United States it is highly common for different trades to form standards, which results in a large number of documents.
IEEE standards
One example of an organization with an extensive publication is IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. IEEE is a membership organization which offers the industry a big package of standard programs. For computer science, signal processing, telecommunication etc. their standardization work is of great importance. At BTH we have access to all IEEE standards. At the Library you will also find some standards in print, e.g. SIS Katalog över svensk standard.
Finding other standards
If you can not find the standard you need you can contact the librarian who will procure the standard.
Kent Pettersson
2005-06-22
