How to access this e-resource
Select Institutional Login and find the University of Kent
Log in with your Kent IT Account details.
Description
BSI produces British Standards, and, as the UK's National Standards Body, is also responsible for the UK publication, in English, of international and European standards. This online collection provides abstracts as well as copies of these standards across a range of disciplinary and technical fields.
There are several types of documents that appear in BSOL, these include standards which are published by BSI, adopted or in the process of adoption by BSI. Certain third part content providers are also available on BSI, currently this includes ASTM, IEC and ISO.
Useful if you study:
- Architecture
- Business
- Bioengineering
- Chemistry
- Computing
- Conservation
- Engineering
- Law
- Physics
Our subscription allows us to unlock access to up to 100 standards per year. Users can request standards for the library to approve (see Help section).
You can search for standards you need by the standard number or keywords. If you are unsure of the letter prefix of a standard number i.e BSI EN 123, then leave this out and just use the number. This will return all updates and versions with BSI and other standard bodies in your search results.
There is also the option to browse standards by subject. BSOL uses the ICS (International Classification for Standards) structure which guides you from broad areas to more specific and can then be combined with search terms as well.
Help for using this e-resource
Once you find a standard you are interested click on the title to get full detail of the standard and check it is exactly what you need.
You can preview the first few pages including the contents before you request it to ensure it is the right standard.
If you have found what you need then click on ‘send request to add to custom collection’
To have your request approved please also complete an online form stating the standard and reason for request for example, “for use in research project “. We will then check this standard is not available elsewhere and approve your request.
Each year we will contact you and renew access to the standard if it is still needed.
To access the pdf of a standard you will need to download FileOpen plug-in. This 'how to' video will show how to do this.