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Books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die
No man and no force can put thought in a concentration camp forever
— Franklin Roosevelt
Many education communities build and maintain cultural resource properties whose safety and sustainability objectives are informed by local adaptations of consensus products developed by the International Code Council (ICC) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). We need to understand the ICC and NFPA product suites as a pair. For most real assets in the education industry they move “roughly” in tandem even though they are produced by different organizations for a different set of customers. Sometimes the out-of-step condition between NFPA and ICC permits subject matter experts on technical committees to make the best possible decisions regarding the safety and sustainability agenda of the interest group they represent; but not always.
Occupancy classification is always a first consideration and both the NFPA and the ICC have a claim to some part of this occupancy concept*. In the ICC suite we find code requirements for many “cultural places of worship” tracking in the following sections of the International Building Code (IBC):
Section 303 Assembly Group A-3
Section 305 Educational Group E
Section 308 Institutional Group I
Note that Sections 305 and 308 recognize the accessory and multi-functional nature of occupancy types in the education industry – i.e child care and adult care function can marge and be an accessory to a place of worship. The general rule in the IBC is that accessory religious educational rooms and religious auditoriums with occupant loads of less than 100 per room or space are not considered separate occupancies. Other standards developers are guided by this rule.
Close coupled to the IBC for this occupancy class is NFPA 909 Code for the Protection of Cultural Resource Properties – Museums, Libraries, and Places of Worship. From the document prospectus:
• This code describes principles and practices of protection for cultural resource properties (including, but not limited to, museums, libraries, and places of worship), their contents, and collections, against conditions or physical situations with the potential to cause damage or loss.
• This code covers ongoing operations and rehabilitation and acknowledges the need to preserve culturally significant and character-defining building features and sensitive, often irreplaceable, collections and to provide continuity of operations.
• Principles and practices for life safety in cultural resource properties are outside the scope of this code. Where this code includes provisions for maintaining means of egress and controlling occupant load, it is to facilitate the evacuation of items of cultural significance, allow access for damage limitation teams in an emergency, and prevent damage to collections through overcrowding or as an unintended consequence of an emergency evacuation.
• Library and museum collections that are privately owned and not open to the public shall not be required to meet the requirements of this code.
Since we are hard upon release of the 2021 Edition of NFPA 909 let us take a backward look at the current (2017) version of NFPA 909 Code for the Protection of Cultural Resource Properties – Museums, Libraries, and Places of Worship. Chapter 14 covers “Museums, Libraries and their Collections”. Chapter 15 covers “Places of Worship”
The 2025 Edition is now open for public input. Let us pick through proposals for the 2021 Edition to inform our approach to its improvement by referencing the technical committee transcripts linked below:
Public Input Report: January 12, 2023
N.B. We find committee response (accepted in principle) to Standards Michigan proposal to articulate conditions in which places of worship and libraries are used as community disaster relief support facilities. We consider this a modest “code win”.
Circling back to the ICC suite we find elevated interest in hardening community owned facilities to tornadoes, hurricane and floods and other storm related risk in the structural engineering chapters of the International Building Code.
Leadership and facility managers for enterprises of this type are encouraged to contribute obtain their own (free) NFPA public participation account in order to directly participate in the 2025 revision of NFPA 909 by logging in here: https://www.nfpa.org/login.
Public consultation on the First Draft of the 2025 Edition closes January 4, 2024.
This document is also a standing item on our periodic Prometheus, Lively and Fine Arts teleconference. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
Issue: [15-258]
Category: Fire Safety, Public Safety
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Josh Elvove, Joe DeRosier
*See NFPA 101 Life Safety Code
LEARN MORE:
Guidelines for the Security of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Other Special Collections, Association of College & Research Libraries, American Library Association, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611-2795.
“A Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections,” Malaro, Marie, second edition 1998
“Risk and Insurance Management Manual for Libraries,” Mary Breighner and William Payton, edited by Jeanne Drewes, ALA 2005 ISBN 0-8389-8325-1.
Wisconsin Historic Building Code, Madison, WI:Wisconsin Administrative Code.
ANSI Standards Action Weekly Edition
Starting 2023 we break down our coverage of education community energy codes and standards into two tranches:
Energy 200: Codes and standards for building premise energy systems. (Electrical, heating and cooling of the building envelope)
Standards Michigan: Building Transformers are Oversized and What We Are Doing About It
(Hint: We are routinely “outvoted” on the National Electrical Code by stakeholders whose revenue depends upon oversized transformers.)
National Electrical Manufacturers Association (Free Download): Benefits of Electrical Submeters
Energy Star Data Trends: Energy Use in Residence Halls
University of Alabama: Which Residence Hall Can Save the Most Energy?
Energy 400: Codes and standards for energy systems between campus buildings. (District energy systems including interdependence with electrical and water supply)
ΔE=ΔKE+ΔPE+ΔU=Q−W |
A different “flavor of money” runs through each of these domains and this condition is reflected in best practice discovery and promulgation. Energy 200 is less informed by tax-free (bonded) money than Energy 400 titles.
Best of 2015: Tough talk about US & Canadian energy conservation standards and regulationshttps://t.co/2BqxcR0tKE pic.twitter.com/84jTVruuMd
— Standards Michigan (@StandardsMich) January 2, 2016
Some titles cover safety and sustainability in both interior and exterior energy domains so we simply list them below:
ASME Boiler Pressure Vessel Code
ASHRAE International 90.1 — Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings
International Code Council 2021 Energy Conservation Code
cdpACCESS | Energy Complete Monograph for all 2021 cycle energy proposals (1270 pages)
International Code Council 2021 International Green Construction Code
NFPA 855 Standard for the Installation of Stationary Energy Storage Systems
IEEE Electrical energy technical literature
ASTM Energy & Utilities Overview
Underwriters Laboratories Energy and Utilities
There are other ad hoc and open-source consortia that occupy at least a niche in this domain. All of the fifty United States and the Washington DC-based US Federal Government throw off public consultations routinely and, of course, a great deal of faculty interest lies in research funding.
Please join our daily colloquia using the login credentials at the upper right of our home page. We are also rolling out another facility — [MEETING POINT] — which should be ready for use sometime mid-2023.
More
Economics of Energy, Volume: 4.9 Article: 48 , James L. Sweeney, Stanford University
Helmholtz and the Conservation of Energy, By Kenneth L. Caneva, MIT Press
“Eco-friendly”, “Green”, “Bio”… Companies are increasingly using those tags as a signal to consumers of their environmental awareness. Yet also on the rise is a public concern about potential corporate lies in this subject, a phenomena labelled as “greenwashing”.
According to IESE professor Pascual Berrone, “many companies highlight one green positive aspect of their product or service, and hide the true impact that its production has on the environment”. With more and more NGO’s act as public watchdogs, “the consequences of getting caught can be, in terms of reputation but also economically, severe”, he says.
“No work of art can be great,
if it is not composed of the smallest things.”
— Vitruvius (Book VII, Chapter 9)
Today we sweep through standards action in building glazing, entrances and means of egress. The word fenestration (Latin: fenestra) has become a term of art for the design, construction, and placement of openings in a building, including windows, doors, skylights, and other glazed elements. While the word has sparse use in the International Code Council and National Fire Protection Association catalog it is widely used by the Construction Specifications Institute in its MasterFormat system for organizing construction standards, guidelines and building contracts.
The percentage of a building envelope “skin” that is comprised of doors and windows varies depending on the specific building design, function, and location. However, a commonly cited range is between 15% to 25% of the total building envelope. The actual percentage will depend on several factors such as the building’s purpose, orientation, local climate, and energy performance goals. Buildings that require more natural light or ventilation, such as schools, hospitals, and offices, may have a higher percentage of windows and doors in their envelope. In contrast, buildings with lower lighting and ventilation requirements, such as warehouses, may have a smaller percentage of windows and doors.
Fenestration presents elevated risk to facility managers. The education facility industry is a large target and a pattern of settling out of court. For example:
These cases illustrate that colleges and universities can face legal action related to doors and windows, either due to alleged negligence in maintaining or repairing them, or due to issues related to student housing and accommodations.
Our inquiry breaks down into two modules at the moment:
Exterior facing fenestration
Interior window walls and doors
Join us online at the usual time.
Related:
Scope: Standardization in the field of doors, doorsets, windows, and curtain wall including hardware, manufactured from any suitable material covering the specific performance requirements, terminology, manufacturing sizes and dimensions, and methods of test. The Japanese Engineering Standards Committee is the Global Secretariat.
Multinational manufacturing and trade in the door manufacturing industry involve the production, distribution, and sale of doors across international borders. This industry encompasses a wide range of door types, including residential, commercial, industrial, and specialty doors. Here are some of the key fine points to consider in multinational manufacturing and trade within the door manufacturing sector:
In summary, multinational manufacturing and trade in the door manufacturing industry require a comprehensive understanding of global markets, regulatory compliance, cultural differences, and logistics. Successfully navigating these complexities can help manufacturers expand their reach and compete effectively in a globalized world.
Relevant agencies:
ASTM International: ASTM develops and publishes voluntary consensus standards used in various industries, including construction. ASTM standards cover materials, testing procedures, and specifications related to doors, windows, and associated components.
National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC): NFRC is a U.S.-based organization that focuses on rating and certifying the energy performance of windows, doors, and skylights. They provide performance ratings and labels used by manufacturers to communicate product energy efficiency to consumers.
American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA): AAMA is a U.S.-based organization that develops standards and specifications for windows, doors, and curtain walls. Their standards cover performance, design, and testing.
National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS): NIBS is involved in research, education, and the development of standards for the building and construction industry in the United States.
Abstract. Research problem: Readability equations are widely used to compute how well readers will be able to understand written materials. Those equations were usually developed for nontechnical materials, namely, textbooks for elementary, middle, and high schools. This study examines to what extent computerized readability predictions are consistent for highly technical material – selected Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and International Standards Organization (ISO) Recommended Practices and Standards relating to driver interfaces. Literature review: A review of original sources of readability equations revealed a lack of specific criteria in counting various punctuation and text elements, leading to inconsistent readability scores. Few studies on the reliability of readability equations have identified this problem, and even fewer have systematically investigated the extent of the problem and the reasons why it occurs. Research questions:
(1) Do the most commonly used equations give identical readability scores?
(2) How do the scores for each readability equation vary with readability tools?
(3) If there are differences between readability tools, why do they occur?
(4) How does the score vary with the length of passage examined?
Method: Passages of varying lengths from 12 selected SAE and ISO Recommended Practices and Standards were examined using five readability equations (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning Fog Index, SMOG Index, Coleman-Liau Index, and Automated Readability Index) implemented five ways (four online readability tools and Microsoft Word 2013 for Windows). In addition, short test passages of text were used to understand how different readability tools counted text elements, such as words and sentences. Results and conclusions: The mean readability scores of the passages from those 12 SAE and ISO Recommended Practices and Standards ranged from the 10th grade reading level to about 15th. The mean grade reading levels computed across the websites were: Flesch-Kincaid 12.8, Gunning Fog 15.1 SMOG 12.6, Coleman-Liau 13.7, and Automated Readability Index 12.3. Readability score estimates became more consistent as the length of the passage examined increased, with no noteworthy improvements beyond 900 words. Among the five readability tools, scores typically differed by two grade levels, but the scores should have been the same. These differences were due to how compound and hyphenated words, slashes, numbers, abbreviations and acronyms, and URLs were counted, as well other punctuation and text elements. These differences occurred because the sources for these equations often did not specify how to score various punctuation and text elements. Of the tools examined, the authors recommend Microsoft Word 2013 for Windows if the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level is required.
Virginia Woolf: pic.twitter.com/8IPw1Fmevk
— Dr. Maya C. Popa (@MayaCPopa) May 25, 2023
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwB pic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
— USPTO (@uspto) July 13, 2023
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