Standards are nationally or internationally recognised ways of setting specifications or tests for products or procedures. In the UK the standards body is the British Standards Institution. Many UK standards are harmonised across Europe (EN) or Internationally (ISO).
British Standards can be searched using:
This is the database for all publications from the British Standards Institute (BSI). It includes current, historic, and draft British Standards; BSI adopted European and international standards; technical handbooks; codes of practice; guidelines; and specifications for products, dimensions, performance, and glossaries.
Please note you will need to download File Open to be able to download the full standards. Rather than download, you can view the document by clicking on 'Quick View' but please note it isn't always the full version.
America has a variety of different standardising bodies for different industries. The AISC (American Institute of Steel Construction) provides free access to its standards online.
A patent protects new inventions and covers how things work, what they do, how they do it, what they are made of and how they are made.
If a patent application is granted, it gives the owner the ability to take a legal action under civil law to try to stop others from making, using, importing or selling the invention without permission. Patents can give valuable technical information.
Statistics portal containing a vast source of worldwide statistical information across a wide range of topics. It gives access to more than 1.5 million statistics, forecasts, dossiers, reports and infographics on 80,000 topics from more than 18,000 sources. It covers topics such as social media marketing, film industry, mobile internet, digital music, digital games and much more. You can also search for statistics on a topic you’re interested in and see what’s available.
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UK building blackbook : the cost and carbon guide : Hutchins' 2011 : small and major worksThe latest comprehensive range of official UK statistics about the economy, population and society at national and local level. Summaries and detailed data releases are published free of charge.
Datasets from the last six UK census: 1961 through to 2011, provided through the UK Data Service. Statistics from the UK censuses help paint a picture of the nation and how we live. They provide a detailed snapshot of the population and its characteristics and underpin funding allocation to provide public services.
Provides statistics at European level (from the European Union statistics office in Luxembourg) that enable comparisons between countries and regions. Provides statistics on a range of areas, such as population, international trade and transportation to show comparisons between countries and regions within the EU.
