Start here
A standard is a published, agreed-on way of doing something: a test method, a material specification, a safety requirement, a drawing convention. A patent is a published description of an invention, with a legal right to exclude others for about twenty years. Students run into both in senior design, in quality and testing courses, and in any project with a real sponsor.
Both are hard to research for the same reason: they are written to be precise, not readable. Standards are also expensive, often $60 to $400 each, and they are revised every five years or so. This guide explains what Porter already pays for, how to get what it does not, and how to tell whether you have the current version.
Databases and indexes
| Source | What you get |
|---|---|
| Consolidated Standards Collection | Full text of about 31,000 standards from 14 standards organizations, covering materials, testing, quality, safety, packaging and electrical practice. Read online only; three users at a time. |
| Standards Index | Citations and abstracts for about 1.4 million standards worldwide, including withdrawn ones. Use it to find out what exists before you request it. |
| National Patent Full-Text Search | The national patent office’s free search of granted patents and published applications. No login needed. |
| Patent Family Finder | Links one invention’s filings across countries, and translates abstracts. |
| Trademark Search | Registered and pending marks. Useful for branding projects and for checking that your product name is not already someone’s. |
Books and e-books
| Call numbers | Subject |
|---|---|
| T 59–59.2 | Standardization |
| TS 156–156.8 | Quality control and inspection |
| T 201–342 | Patents and inventions |
| KF 2971–3192 | Intellectual property law |
Handbooks on reading patent claims and on patent searching are on ready reference on Level 1. So is the printed patent classification manual, which nobody has needed since the search tools got good. It stays because Gunnar Ostby likes it.
Specialized sources
- Requesting a standard Porter does not hold. Ask through the library’s standards request form. For coursework the library buys a single-user copy, usually within three business days. Each department has an annual standards budget, so requests for one-time sponsor projects go through the sponsor first.
- Old versions. Superseded standards are kept, because failure analysis and historical projects need the version that was in force at the time. Ask for the edition by year.
- Building and fire codes adopted by Porter County and the city are available at the county building department and online, and the library keeps the current editions on ready reference.
- Testing to a standard. The Structures & Materials Testing Lab and the Polymer Characterization Lab list the standard methods they are equipped to run.
- Your own invention. If your project might be patentable, read intellectual property and your work and talk to the office for invention disclosure and technology transfer before you present it publicly. Keep a proper lab notebook from the first day.
Citing and getting help
Cite a standard by its designation, including the year or edition, then its title and the issuing organization, for example “designation-year, Title, Organization.” Cite a patent by inventor, title, country, patent number and issue date. If you cite a standard without a year, your reviewer will assume you did not check which version applies, and will usually be right.
Gunnar Ostby is the engineering and standards librarian. On the first Wednesday of each month, from 3 to 5 p.m. in Halvorsen 244, he runs a patent search clinic with staff from patent licensing. Bring your idea and the words you would use to describe it. You can also book a consultation any week. The engineering guide and the packaging guide cover the rest of those fields.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. This standards and patents guide is fictional and is not legal advice; the standards collection, request budget and patent clinic are invented. The databases, call-number shelving, collections and librarians on this guide are invented, so nothing here can actually be searched, borrowed or booked, and none of it describes a real library.