United Nations Documents

• Finding U.N. Documents on the Internet
• Search for U.N. Documents on U.N. Web Sites
• U.N. Information in the Government Documents Department

Finding United Nations Documents on the Internet

In addition to the United Nations homepage, there are other good electronic sources for finding United Nations Documents on the internet. The U.N. provides a Research Guide to United Nations Documentation which gives an excellent overview of U.N. publications and how to work with them, including the Official Website Locator for the U.N.

ODS: Official Documents of the United Nations covers all types of official United Nations documentation, beginning in 1993, and also provides access to the resolutions of the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council from 1946 onwards.

See also other guides to U.N. Documents and Information with useful links:

• United Nations Scholars' Workstation, by Yale University Library and the Social Science Statistical Laboratory. A collection of texts, finding aids, data sets, maps, and pointers to print and electronic information including the Yale Library's Concise UN Finding Aid
• United Nations Dag Hammarskjold Library has an overview of the various types of documents and publications including document symbols, basic research tools, indexes, parliamentary documents, resolutions, decisions, speeches, press releases, and special topics.
• United Nations Documents and Publications from the Jonsson Library of Government Documents of Stanford University Libraries. Covers organization, background information, current awareness, directories, statistics, indexes, official records, regional commissions, document numbers and other subjects.

United Nations Documents and Publications from U.N. Web Sites

The United Nations Home Page, in English, is at http://www.un.org/english/.

• Many full-text documents and publications are available on UN web sites.
• UN Documentation Centre http://www.un.org/documents/
  Current and retrospective documents including:
  Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Secretariat and the General Assembly,

Indexes and research guide to UN documents:

• UNBISnet An index to documents and publications published since 1979, however, indexing for resolutions of the General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, Security Council and Trusteeship Council are included back to 1945. http://unbisnet.un.org
• UNIQUE A ready-reference index to documents of a recurrent nature i.e. reports of committees/commissions; monographic series; journals; annual publications http://lib-unique.un.org/lib/unique.nsf
• United Nations Documentation : Research Guide designed for researchers and information professionals new to United Nations documentation http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/

There is a detailed list of links to UN sites on the International Government Organizations from Northwestern University Library United Nations Offices/Agencies/Regions.

Search for web sites by agency, body or department

• Main Bodies: General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, International Court of Justice, Security Council, Secretariat, and Trusteeship Council http://www.un.org/aboutun/mainbodies.htm
• Official Web Site Locator for the United Nations System of Organizations [an alphabetical index of web sites] http://www.unsystem.org/
• Organization Chart of the UN System [a clickable chart] http://www.un.org/aboutun/chart.html
• UN Departments http://www.un.org/Depts/index.html

Search for UN web sites by subject

• Index to UN System Programs http://esa.un.org/subindex
• Index to Economic and Social Development http://esa.un.org/Subindex/pgViewSites.asp?termCode=G
• Site index [all subjects] http://www.un.org/site_index/

Search for UN web sites by country or region

• Permanent Missions to the United Nations [Member States] http://www.un.int/missions/webs.html
• United Nations Information Centres from Around the World Directory http://www.un.org/aroundworld/unics/english/directory.htm
• World Map : Principal Offices of the United Nations http://www.un.org/aroundworld/map/

Search for information in special formats on UN web sites

Maps

• Cartographic Section: Maps and Geographic Information Resources http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/english/index.htm
• Relief Web Map Centre http://www.reliefweb.int/w/map.nsf/home
• Multimedia http://www.un.org/av/index.html

Press Releases : search engines to full-text press releases:

• 30 latest press releases http://www0.un.org/apps/press/latest.asp
• Search last 30 days http://www.un.org/News/Press/index.html
• Search the archive (from 13 October 1995) http://www.un.org/News/Press/archives.htm
• Statistics Division http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/

Finding United Nations Documents in the Government Documents Department

The United Nations documents collection in the Documents Department has two parts:

1. 1946 - 1992, paper copies of the Official Records of the main organs of the U.N. in the Document stacks.
2. 1991 - present, a complete microfiche collection of all non-copyrighted publications of the United Nations.

A limited amount of the U.N. material in the Documents Department is included in the Library's ALICE Online Catalog. For recent publications, there are three indexes currently available on the Athens campus.

1. To search for material published 1991-2002, you can use Access U.N.   Only available from any computer on the Athens campus.
2. United Nations Development Programme Project Reports issued and held by UN headquarters between the years 1972-1998 can be accessed through Access UNDP.   Only available from any computer on the Athens campus.
3. For a more inclusive index, you'll want to use Index to United Nations Documents and Publications   Only available from any computer in Alden Library.

Both indexes will give a citation and a U.N. call number. Most material published since 1991 is available on microfiche in the U.N. microfiche collection in the Documents Department. In addition to indexes to the Official Records, the Documents Department houses early indexes to U.N. material in paper form , such as United Nations Index - (1950-1973) UN/ST/LIB/SER.E/Vol. ..., UNDEX - (1974-1978) UN/ST/LIB/SER.I/ ..., and UNDOC (1979-1996) UN/ST/LIB/SER.M/ ....

The U.N. classification system and the indexes for U.N. documents tend to be confusing and somewhat difficult to use, so please ask for assistance. For a detailed explanation of U.N. Document numbers see Jonsson Library of Government Documents series of guides to government publications from Stanford University Library.

Arrangement of U.N. Documents in the Documents Department

U.N. material in the Documents Department is shelved according to the United Nations documents classification system. This is an arrangement by issuing agency, with call numbers consisting of letters and numbers. For example:

A publication from the U.N. General Assembly

A/36/32

A publication from the U.N. Economic and Social Council

E/1987

Other United Nations Documents in Alden Library

Publications from other divisions of the U.N. (such as UNESCO, WHO, FAO, etc.) are shelved in the main library collection, not in the Documents Department. You can use the Library's ALICE Online Catalog to locate these materials.