Finding standards on the Internet

All search facilities described here can be used free of charge. Standards documents, however, must be purchased; searches therefore provide only limited access to detailed standards content.

• DIN Media offers a simple search facility for standards on its website, together with information on prices and an ordering service. The location of the nearest DIN standards library, where standards can be consulted free of charge, can also be found on the site. Instructions on use of the search functionality at DIN Media can be found here.
• Alternatively, you can search via the DIN standards committees or use the search function at www.din.de/en to find current projects and documents assigned to a standards committee, the contact person at DIN (project manager) and the responsible committees (national/European/international).
• On its website, DIN Software GmbH lists all information sources provided free of charge by the DIN Group (in German).
• European standards can be found using the standards search facility of CEN and CENELEC, the European standardization organizations.
• International standards can be found on the website of ISO, the International Standards Organization or on the webite of IEC, the International Electrotechnical Commisson.
• ISO provides a very useful tool in the form of its Online Browsing Platform (OBP). This can be used for searches in the content of ISO documents and for graphical symbols. Instructions for use of the OBP can be found here.

• DIN and Beuth Verlag provide the free Standardization Monitor service. This service provides standardization experts with monthly updates on all relevant standardization projects based on search terms and subject areas selected by the experts themselves. Subscribers to this service receive an electronic report free of charge, containing information on the status of standardization projects, important deadlines and direct links to the selected projects and the responsible standards committees.
• Standards frequently list terminology. To find the English, French or German equivalents of standardized terms, use DIN-TERM, the trilingual terminology database of DIN.
• To find not only the translation of the term but also its definition, for example, use the DIN-TERMinology Portal. Use of the portal is free of charge, but users must first register.
• CEN BOSS (CEN Business Operations Support System) is the source of information on the rules, methods and procedures employed at CEN, the European Committee for Standardization. The objective of CEN BOSS is to answer the question: who is responsible for what, when and how in the procedures at CEN?

Whichever search tool you use to search for standards, we recommend that you:

• Search for hazard types (e.g. crush hazard, fire hazard)
• Search for specific occupational safety and health terminology; consider possible synonyms before searching; include terms in English in your search if appropriate
• Make use of the wildcard character (*) to search for truncated forms. For example, searching for machine* would find both "machines" and "machinery".
• Check whether search terms can be combined in a search, e.g. by means of an AND or OR operation. This function is available for searches on www.beuth.de/en, for example.
• Check the standard's table of contents to determine whether the standard contains the information you are looking for.
• If necessary, use several search portals and compare the results.
• When using a search engine to search for standards, always add the search term "standard". Check the resulting hits directly on the standards organizations' pages to rule out false information.

For assistance, please contact Katharina von Rymon Lipinski by e-mail.