Teaching and Collecting Technical Standards

Technical standards are a vital source of information for providing guidelines during the design, manufacture, testing, and use of whole products, materials, and components. To prepare students—especially engineering students—for the workforce, universities are increasing the use of standards within the curriculum. Employers believe it is important for recent university graduates to be familiar with standards. Despite the critical role standards play within academia and the workforce, little information is available on the development of standards information literacy, which includes the ability to understand the standardization process; identify types of standards; and locate, evaluate, and use standards effectively.

Libraries and librarians are a critical part of standards education, and much of the discussion has been focused on the curation of standards within libraries. However, librarians also have substantial experience in developing and teaching standards information literacy curriculum. With the need for universities to develop a workforce that is well-educated on the use of standards, librarians and course instructors can apply their experiences in information literacy toward teaching students the knowledge and skills regarding standards that they will need to be successful in their field. This title provides background information for librarians on technical standards as well as collection development best practices. It also creates a model for librarians and course instructors to use when building a standards information literacy curriculum.