Law

Standards

Your guide to finding New Zealand and international standards.

What are standards?

Standards are documents that specify a particular way of doing something. For example, technical specifications for building a product, or procedures for delivering a service or completing a process. When products, services, and processes comply with relevant standards they should:

  • meet a minimum quality level
  • meet safety requirements
  • perform as designed
  • be compatible with related products, services, and processes.

Did you know?

Everyday, you and your electronic devices use the IEEE 802.11 standard. This standard enables you to connect your device to any available wi-fi network, wherever you are.

What do the letter abbreviations mean?

Each organisation that creates standards uses an abbreviation of its name to identify the standards it has created. These abbreviations form the start of the standard document number and title.

Creating a standard is expensive and takes a long time. It needs a lot of research, subject matter expertise, experimentation, quality control testing, and constant revision to keep it up to date. Standards are usually created by organisations, such as:

  • professional institutions and societies that support specific industries
  • departments of national governments
  • specialist international groups.

Did you know?

Standards created by one organisation are often adopted by other organisations. When this happens the standard document number usually contains abbreviations for all organisations that have adopted it. For example, AS/NZS for Australia and New Zealand shared standards, or BS EN for British and European shared standards.

How do I find standards?

Did you know?

The Library provides access to standards from many organisations, but not all standards from all organisations. Many standards are accessible online but some are only available in print. If you cannot find the particular standard that you need using the instructions below, contact your subject librarian or make a purchase recommendation.

Find standards with document number abbreviation:

NZS – New Zealand Standards

Standards New Zealand Te Mana Tautikanga o Aotearoa is a unit within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) of the New Zealand government. They are responsible for New Zealand standards.

Access the full text of all standards using the Standards New Zealand Online Library. There are no entries for individual New Zealand standards in the Te Waharoa library search.

  1. Open Standards New Zealand Online Library.
  2. Search for the standard you want using the standard number, for example 14764, or the title.
  3. Check that the standard is Current and not Superseded.
  4. Use the "View PDF" link to download a copy of the full text to your device. You must download your own copy. You are not allowed to duplicate or distribute your copy.
  5. Delete your downloaded copy when you have finished using it, or when you leave the University. You are not allowed to keep copies of these standards.

You cannot add direct links to, or full-text PDF files of, individual New Zealand standards to Nuku, course wikis, course reading lists, or emails. The only access route is to download your own personal copy using the instructions above.

BS – British Standards

British Standards Institution (BSI) is the British government entity responsible for standards.

Find the full text of British standards that have been adopted by New Zealand in the Standards New Zealand Online Library. See NZS – New Zealand Standards.

Access the full text of 25 selected current standards using the British Standards Online BSOL database. For these selected standards you can also find each of them using the Te Waharoa library search.

  1. Open British Standards Online BSOL.
  2. Search for the standard you want using the standard number, for example 12464-1, or the title.
  3. Find the version you need. Check the publication date, and the Current, Revised, Superseded, or Withdrawn status.
  4. If the standard is marked as "In your subscription" use the download or quick view icon to access the full text.
    Screenshot of British Standards Online BSOL search results item marked as in subscription with active download and quick view icons.
    You must download your own copy. You are not allowed to duplicate or distribute your copy.
  5. You may need to install the Adobe FileOpen plug-in to download the full-text file. Follow the BSOL on-screen instructions. If you are using a University network computer you can install the FileOpen plug-in from the VUW Software Centre.
  6. Delete your downloaded copy when you have finished using it, or when you leave the University. You are not allowed to keep copies of these standards.

You cannot add full-text PDF files of these standards directly to Nuku, course wikis, course reading lists, or emails. The best solution is to link to the Te Waharoa entry for the individual standard to enable others to download their own personal copy using the instructions above.

Add your standard

If the standard you want is marked as "Not in subscription" you may be able to add it.

In BSOL, on the "My Account" tab, if there are fewer than 25 documents listed as available in "My custom collections" you may be able to add your standard to the collection.
Screenshot of British Standards Online BSOL My Account page highlighting My Custom Collections entry and the number of documents available.

To add your standard, contact your subject librarian or make a purchase recommendation.

The Library reviews the custom collection of standards documents annually in February. Standards that are no longer needed by the University community are removed, making space for you to add the standards you need.

IEEE – Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) develops global industry standards for a broad range of IT, energy supply, and telecommunications technologies through the IEEE Standards Association.

You can find the full text of IEEE standards that have been adopted by New Zealand in the Standards New Zealand Online Library. See NZS – New Zealand Standards.

Access the full text of all IEEE standards using the IEEE Xplore database. You can also find each individual standard using the Te Waharoa library search.

  1. Open IEEE Xplore.
  2. Select "Standards" from the Browse menu, or in the search box drop-down menu.
  3. Browse or search by standard number, for example 802.11, or title keywords, or topic.
  4. Find the version you need. Check the publication date, and the Approved, Draft, Redline, or Superseded status.
  5. Use the PDF file icon to view and download the full text. You must download your own copy. You are not allowed to duplicate or distribute your copy.
  6. Delete your downloaded copy when you have finished using it, or when you leave the University. You are not allowed to keep copies of these standards.

You cannot add full-text PDF files of these standards directly to Nuku, course wikis, course reading lists, or emails.

You can link directly to individual standards, either:

  • Link to the Te Waharoa entry for an individual standard. Search Te Waharoa for the title of the standard, open the full record and bookmark it directly into a Talis course reading list, or copy the permalink.
  • Link to the IEEE Xplore entry for an individual standard. When viewing the entry on IEEE Xplore, you can bookmark this directly into a Talis course reading list. The URL in your web browser will be of the form:
    https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6178212
    For links hosted or shared outside the Talis course reading list system, you need to add the Library's authentication prefix to make sure full-text access is available. The prefix is:
    https://go.openathens.net/redirector/wgtn.ac.nz?url=
    The complete link you need is of the form:
    https://go.openathens.net/redirector/wgtn.ac.nz?url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6178212

IEC – International Electrotechnical Commission

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is based in Switzerland. The IEC creates international standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies. These standards are based on the consensus of experts from many countries and are often adopted by other standards organisations.

You can find the full text of IEC standards that have been adopted by New Zealand in the Standards New Zealand Online Library. See NZS – New Zealand Standards.

You can access the full text of selected IEC standards using the British Standards Online BSOL database. For these selected standards you can also find each of them using the Te Waharoa library search.

Find detailed access instructions under BS – British Standards.

ISO – International Organization for Standardization

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is based in Switzerland. The ISO technical committees, consisting of industry experts from around the world, develop international standards for many different industries and social responsibilities. ISO standards are often adopted by other standards organisations, for example, the metric system for measuring distances in metres is part of ISO 80000-1:2022 standard.

You can find the full text of ISO standards that have been adopted by New Zealand in the Standards New Zealand Online Library. See NZS – New Zealand Standards.

You can access the full text of selected ISO standards using the British Standards Online BSOL database. For these selected standards you can also find each of them using the Te Waharoa library search.

Find detailed access instructions under BS – British Standards.