ABSTRACT
Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) are well-characterized materials produced in quantity and certified for one or more physical or chemical properties. This chapter describes the National Bureau of Standards’ Handbook for SRM Users, relating the context in which the publication appeared, its impact on science, technology, and the general public, and brief details about the lives and work of the author. In 1985, the late John Keenan Taylor prepared Special Publication 260-100, Handbook for SRM Users to provide guidance for the use of SRMs and to explain the philosophy behind the SRM Program. Many users of SRMs are interested in the details of the procedures used at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to certify the SRMs. Taylor himself conceived the workshop, based on his feeling that US industry needed to be both educated and informed of NIST's Standard Reference Materials role regarding measurement quality and data comparability.
