ACCESSIBILITY OF STANDARDS INFORMATION IN SOUTH AFRICA

Retha Snyman

Dept. of Library and Information Studies
Technikon Pretoria
Pretoria 0001, South Africa
E-mail: snyman@cis.co.za

Archie van Rensburg

South African Bureau of Standards
Pretoria 0001, South Africa
E-mail: archie@sabs.co.za

Competition and the continuous demand for new and better products, as well as the possibility for international trade, have compelled South African industry to produce and sell better and compatible products more quickly and cheaply. Progress in the industrial field depends to a large extent on the availability of standards information. It is therefore important that industry has effective access to standards information.

During an investigation it was found that in some industrial areas in South Africa a few public and academic libraries have collections of standards at their disposal. It was found that generally South African industry did not avail itself to these libraries to satisfy its standards information needs. Subsequently, an information technology oriented standard information center has an important role to play in the effective provision of standards information to industry. In this paper the utilization of new information technology to promote the accessibility of standards information in South Africa will be discussed.

 1. INTRODUCTION

In order to discuss the importance of standards information for industry, we need to define "standard".

Standards may be compiled by any type of organization. For example, standards for educational qualifications determined by educational authorities. However, the standards under discussion is this paper are those which are published by national or international organizations and which are applicable to trade and industry.

According to Behrens (1994, p. 261), a standard is a document that provides rules and guidelines for activities or their results.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines a standard as "the result of a particular standardization effort by a recognized authority (e.g. government body, national standards organization, international organization)" (Middlecote, 1980, p. 31).

What does such a standardization effort comprise? Standards are not compiled by standards organizations alone, but are the result of the combined effort of many different people and organizations with an interest in the product. As example the activities of ISO in the development of ISO standards will be used to demonstrate the process. ISO aims at developing standards which are acceptable worldwide and ensuring that international and national standards are easily accessible in various countries.

The word of developing international standards is carried out through ISO Technical Committees. For example, ISO Technical Committee 46 (TC46) is responsible for international standards for the presentation, identification and description of documents. Various other technical committees exist for different aspects. Every member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been set up, has the right to be represented on that committee.

All proposed standards go through four main stages before they achieve publication as a ISO standard. First the proposed New Work Item (NWI) must be approved by the members of the specific technical committee. Following that, a Working Draft (WD) is prepared by the designated project leader. The text is then circulated as a Committee Draft (CD) to all subcommittee members for comments and approval. The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) also receives a copy of the CD for comments and approval. The SABS then passes the draft on to experts on the specific subject treated in the draft for their comments. The final stage is the Draft International Standard (DIS) which must be approved by vote for publication as an international standard.

2. IMPORTANCE OF STANDARDS

According to Tunis (1990, p. 4), "international trade has reached a crossroad. World economics are becoming increasingly interdependent - a general broadening and opening up of regional trade has resulted in landmark agreements, leading to the development of free trade areas." These new economic outlook has provided impetus for:

• reducing technical barriers to trade,

• establishing and adopting common standards, and

• accepting and recognizing foreign national standards where harmonization is difficult or cannot be achieved.

  In this context, Nixon (1991, p. 8) stated: "Standards information has never been as vital as it is today. Multi-million dollar contracts can hinge on a company's ability to meet national or international standards for quality assurance, safety, performance and interchangeability."

Eicher (1991, p. 12) pointed out that standards, at the time of their publication, express the state of art as it has been proven in practice and accepted by the majority of experts in a given field. Nineteen years prior to this statement, Woodward (1972, p. 6) observed "standards that incorporate the fruit of the latest research ... provide the principal means of communicating this information to industry at large." Awareness of the latest versions of international and national standards of advanced countries provides, according to Eicher (1991, p. 12), developing countries (such as South Africa) with a guarantee against the purchase or adoption of outdated technologies.

With specific reference to the activities of industry, Woodward (1965, p. 1) stated as early as 1965 that "without standards the wheel of industry as we know it would very soon stop turning." Standards provide assistance towards the acquisition of material and components. This way it eliminates the necessity for the compilation of one's own specifications and thus causes a saving of input costs. The design phase of products is being enhanced by the availability of design data. Standards provide for the compatibility of various interrelated machine sets. They play a vital role within the factory quality assurance systems and provide criteria for the establishment of mark-bearing products. Regarding supportive services, standards provide guidance in the construction, erection and maintenance of industrial sites and machinery. Among others, there are standards for paint, electrical wire systems, installation criteria for machinery and equipment and building standards. Even the well-being of the worker is maintained through safety closing standards. A company's sales force can also benefit with respect to the market value of products known to comply with certain standards. Lastly the consumer experiences greater satisfaction because a measurable quality standard product is offered.

It is therefore quite evident that standards as an information source contribute significantly towards the success of industrial activities. To levels of standards can be distinguished, namely, national and international.

On a national level they:

• enhance the harmonizing of production,

• assist with reduction of incompatibility within the local industry,

• enhance safely in the workplace,

• protect the consumer,

• assist environmental conservation, and

• serve as medium for the exchange of experiences among manufacturers.

 International, they simplify communication and cooperation among nations, and serve as a medium for the exchange of experiences and technology between industrialized and developing countries.

Industry is obliged to follow the most recent standards and technical regulations in order to ensure that their products and services comply with developments and to be competitive on a national and international level. In the publication Standardline (BSI, 1991, p. [2]) and with trade and industry in mind, it was stated that "if your competitor saves time and duplication of effort by using standards, then you need to do the same."

3. NEW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE ACCESSIBILITY OF STANDARD INFORMATION

During an investigation undertaken in 1993 (Snyman, 1993, p. 75) it was found that:

• In the standards information arena, there is a clear movement away from print-on-paper to electronic products. CD-ROM technology is rapidly taken hold. Various standard organizations are making their information available in this format. A large number of bibliographic tools for the identification and verification of standards already exist in electronic format (e.g. Perinorm and Standards Infodisk). Full-text access to standards information on CD-ROM is also gaining ground (e.g. NormImage, British Standard Service on CD-ROM and Standards on CD-ROM of Standards Australia. This has resulted in a more open viewpoint towards copyright.

• There is a realization that information (specifically standards information) is, in fact, an asset which justifies a financial return for the owner.

• It is becoming increasingly important to establish and keep track of the information needs of a standard center's clients (e.g. industry).

• Standards and their locations should be easily accessible to clients. Since these centers are responsible for covering the full spectrum of both national and international standards, they should have the full range of sophisticated electronic and optical reference tools available to meet the demands for information.

 The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) succeeded to improve their standards communication through the electronic media.

4. STANDARDS IN ELECTRONIC FORMAT

4.1. Why Standards in Electronic Format?

• We have started a project to develop standards in electronic format because of the increasing demand of industry for standards in this format. They needed electronic search capabilities to access information quicker.

• As a member of ISONET we are participating in the supplying and/or exchanging of information concerning standards on an international level.

There are certain guidelines concerning the format for the exchange or supplying of information amongst members of ISONET. We had to choose an acceptable format concerning electronic documents.

  4.2. Format Considerations • If it is only bibliographical information concerning standards, meaning a short text scope, the development process is shorter and easier.

The cost for a search-engine will also be lower. Reproduction agreements is in most cases not necessary because the search-engine might be royalty free.

• The search for information on a full text format document might however be more complex and needs a more powerful search-engine which can do searching across documents in a collection.

Tables, equations and graphic are very important in a document in a standard environment and information concerning them needs to be easily accessible.

Some of the formats that we have used for this purpose are TIFF, BMP and Vector. The size of TIFF files can be very large. Vector files are smaller in size.

• The SABS has chosen the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) format to develop its electronic documents for reasons that will be explained in the next section.

SGML is hierarchical. SGML document contains elements such as chapters, titles, sections, paragraphs and lists. The advantages of SGML include:
 

- Life-span: Documents will outlive existing word processors.
- Database functionality: One can retrieve document components like database records.
- Portability: It is hardware and software independent. It operates on UNIX and PC hardware
- Reusability: It can be used for both online and hardcopy production  
  REFERENCES

Behrens, S.J. (1994). Bibliographic Control and Information Sources. 2nd ed. Pretoria, South Africa: University of Pretoria.

British Standards Institute. (1991). Standardline: Programmed for Progress. Milton Keyes: BSI.

Eicher, L.D. (1991). International standardization: A link between industrialized and developing nation. Consensus, 18 (4): 12-14.

Middlecote, A.A. (1980). Standards as vital source of information. South African Libraries, 48 (1): 29-35.

Nixon, D. (1991). Standards information: The new leading edge. Consensus, 19 (1): 88-90.

Snyman, M.M.M. (1993). Die toeganklikmaking van standaarde-inligting vir die Suid-Afrikaanse nywerheid. M. Bibl. dissertation. Johannesburg: RAU (Unpublished).

Tunis, A.A. (1990, Spring). Networking: Sharing standards information and technology. CGSB Quarterly Journal, pp. 14-16.

Woodward, C.D. (1965). National standards - essential framework for a company standards programme. In Standards for Industry, ed. C.D. Woodward. London: Heinemann. pp. 1-14.

Woodward, C.D. (1972). BSI: The Story of Standards. London: British Standards Institute.