ASTM Standards (IHS) is a subscription to the more than 11,000 full-text, active standards produced by ASTM International (American Society for Testing and Materials). The company through which the standards are accessed is IHS (Information Handling Services).

The search entry box of ASTM Standards (IHS) is not immediately apparent when you enter the database. On the first screen you must click on “Subscriber Login.” On the second screen, you must click on “Specs & Standards 3.0.” When the search page comes up, you may wish to limit to standards covered by the subscription, by choosing “Subscription Only” under “Quick Searches.”

Under “Doc. Number” you may put the standard’s number, such as “ASTM A1.” You may use an asterisk “*” to perform truncation searches such as searching to the left, to the right, or within a document number stem. Ex: “*123,” “123*,” “1*3.”

Under “Text” put in words likely to be present in the title or abstract of the standard. The IHS search engine assumes an “and” between the words you put in, and retrieves standards containing all the words anywhere within their titles or abstracts.

Under “Browse/Refine by,” you may limit your search by standards Organization, Status, and Date.

If you wish to order a non-ASTM standard, you will need to use Interlibrary Loan (open to UT faculty, staff, and students). Interlibrary Loan maintains a deposit account to purchase non-ASTM standards.

If you would like additional information about ASTM Standards or any of the Libraries' other databases, please direct your questions to   .

Jeanine Williamson, Engineering Librarian,
16 February 2004

To read about previously featured databases, please refer to the Featured Databases Archive.