United Nations Publications

About

For the latest information about library services and resources, go to the Library Web site (http://www.library.sfsu.edu).

The library has a selective collection of U.N. documents including the major statistical and legislative sources. The majority of U.N. documents are in Government Publications (Govt) on the 5th floor. U.N. documents are located by using indexes. Most of the indexes in electronic (database) form are available both on and off campus to SFSU students, faculty and staff. For an annotated list of the Library's databases and information about accessing them, go to the Library Web site (http://www.library.sfsu.edu) and select "Articles & Databases."

U.N. Document Series Symbols

The U.N. assigns numbers to most documents which represent particular agencies or bodies (for example, ST/LEG/SER.A.). When using indexes or the Government Publications card catalog, be sure to note this number as it is also used as a shelving call number in our collection. The numbers can also be related to the appropriate agency by using the following:

United Nations Document Series Symbols, 1946-1996. 1998. (Govt Desk ST/LIB/SER.B/5/Rev.5) See also the section of the United Nations Documentation: Research Guide on UN Document Symbols (http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/symbol.htm).

General Background Sources

U.N. Public Information Dept. Press Releases, Press Briefings, Daily Highlights and Journal. (http://www.un.org)
Useful sources of information about current U.N. debates and activities.

U.N. Public Information Dept. Yearbook of the United Nations, 1946- . (Govt Desk)
Excellent source with which to begin research; chapters review activities on major issues such as human rights or disarmament. Provides references to specific documents and guides to conventions and agreements. Includes texts of resolutions.

United Nations (U.N.) Chronicle, 1964- . (Periodicals and http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/index.html)
U.N. periodical; source of current information on General Assembly debates and activities. Indexed by the AccessUN database. Full text available on the Academic Search Premier database which includes some archival articles not available on the UN Web site.

Annual Review of U.N. Affairs, 1949- . (Govt Desk) (JX 1977 A1 A5)
Includes texts of key documents. Special supplements include the Chronology and Factbook of the U.N. (Govt Desk JX 1977 H64 1992)

A Global Agenda: Issues before the...General Assembly, 1978- . (Govt Desk) (JX 1977 A1 U5244a)
Includes references to articles about the "issues." The UN also publishes a quite useful Annotated Preliminary List of General Assembly agenda items (A/seesion#/100: for example, A/58/100).

Comprehensive Handbook of the United Nations, 1978. (Govt Desk) (JX 1977 C6123)
Compilation of documents relating to the establishment of the U.N., rules of procedure, laws, regulations.

U.N. Public Information Dept. Basic Facts About the United Nations, 2004. (Govt Desk JX1977 A37 B3)

U.N. Public Information Dept. Everyone's United Nations. 10th ed. 1986. (Govt Desk)
Basic handbook describing agencies and activities.

Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations. 11th ed. New York: Gale, 2004. 6 vols. (http://opac.sfsu.edu/search/i?SEARCH=0787677736)
An encyclopedia of geographic, historical, political, social and economic information on countries. Volume 1 treats the United Nations system.

Indexes to Official Records and Other Proceedings

AccessUN database, 1966- .
As well as indexing the Official Records, also provides the full text of resolutions and of selected provisional verbatim and summary records which contain voting records on General Assembly and Security Council resolutions as well as selected masthead documents.

Key Resolutions of the United Nations, General Assembly, 1946-1996. (Govt Desk KZ 5006.2 K49)

ODS (Official Document System of the United Nations) (http://documents.un.org/).
Index by document number, subject, full text, etc.

Resolutions and Statements of the United Nations Security Council (1946-2000): A Thematic Guide. (Govt Desk JZ 5006.5 I65 R47).
Includes texts, voting records, and membership lists.

U.N. Library. Indexes to Proceedings of the General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, Security Council and Trusteeship Council (the latter are in the Govt stacks as are the older indexes), 1946- . (Govt)
Compiled for each session. Contain indexes to documents, resolutions and speeches by subject and speech index by subject, country and speaker; memberships; meeting dates; agenda; lists of documents published and voting records.

U.N. Library. Indexes to Resolutions...1946-1970. (Govt)
After 1970, use the other indexes listed here.

U.N. Library. Index to Resolutions of the Security Council, 1946-1991. (Govt)

United Nations Press Releases Search (http://www.un.org).
The press releases provide unofficial summaries of meetings. Use the "Search" function on the U.N. Web site. See also the Press Releases section of the UN News Centre (http://www.un.org/News/) for more retrieval options.

UNBISNET (http://unbisnet.un.org/) database.
Index to speeches of the General Assembly, Security Council and Economic and Social Council, 1983- (Trusteeship Council, 1982- ). Index by keyword and by speaker/country/organization. Also indexes other U.N. official records and proceedings. Often includes links to the full text.

Official Records and Other Proceedings

Documents concerning official actions of the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, and Trusteeship Council are considered "official records." Proceedings of the General Assembly have U.N. document numbers beginning with A, Security Council numbers begin with S, Economic & Social Council with E, Trusteeship Council with T (e.g., A/51/PV.21, S/PV.2123, S/RES/554(1992), A/51/130, A/C.3/48/SR.34, E/C.12/1993/SR.48). They include the following type of documents:

Annexes - working documents which were discussed during meetings of the whole.
Arranged by agenda item numbers that are listed in the Index to the Proceedings and in AccessUN.

Committee Meetings (General Assembly and Economic and Social Council)
Most are "SR's" or summary records of meetings. There are some gaps in meeting records available in the Library before 1990.

Index to Proceedings - see above.

Plenary Meetings - "PV's" or verbatim records of meetings.
There are some gaps in meeting records available in the Library before 1990.

Resolutions - special supplement for each session.
General Assembly resolutions are published in the last supplement for each session.

Supplements - reports from committees and commissions to the legislative bodies.

Masthead (formerly called Mimeographed) Documents (not considered Official Records but part of the Proceedings).
Reports and documents, including those with "L" in the call number (limited distribution documents), are available 1990- in the Readex Abridged U.N. microfiche collection.

Official records and other Proceedings are available in the Readex Abridged U.N. microfiche collection, 1990- . This noncirculating microfiche collection is arranged by U.N. document number. Official records in print form for the years before 1990 are noncirculating and are identified in our collection by "OR" after the series symbol number (call number) on each document. The official records are listed in a special section of the Government Publications card catalog. This section is arranged by agency (e.g., General Assembly), session or year and type of document as listed above. The official records are shelved in the Government Publications stacks in a special section arranged in strict number order without regard to chronological or organizational relationships.

Resolutions, recent meeting records and masthead documents, and press releases containing unofficial summaries of meetings are also available on the United Nations Web site (http://www.un.org). Use the "Search" function and browse under categories such as Member States, Documents (search the ODS and use the United Nations Documentation Research Guide), Peace and Security, Economic and Social Development or Human Rights.

Voting Records

There is no complete record available. Check UNBISNET (http://unbisnet.un.org/), the U.N. Public Information Office's Advance Text of (General Assembly) Resolutions, 1984, 1986- (latest Govt Desk), Voting Practices in the UN (S1.1/8 Govt and on the State Department Web site http://www.state.gov/p/io/conrpt/vtgprac/), the Indexes to the Proceedings, 1975- , the Yearbook and the United Nations Chronicle.

Other U.N. Indexes

AccessUN database, 1966- .
A quite comprehensive index to U.N. publications with multiple access points. Updated monthly. Indexes publications and periodical articles.

IIS: Index to International Statistics, 1983- . (Govt Index & database)
Subject, title, issuing agency, publication number and category index to U.N. and other international organization publications which include statistics. Searchable as the LexisNexis Statistical database, 1983-. Most of the publications are available in an accompanying microfiche collection.

MELVYL System (U.C. online catalog).
Provides full cataloging of many U.N. documents.

ODS (Official Document System of the United Nations) (http://documents.un.org/).
Index by document number, subject, full text, etc. Does not include press releases, sales publications and some other types of documents.

P.A.I.S. International, 1915-2005 (title varies).
(English language sources). Subject index to articles in periodicals and major international and U.N. documents.

U.N. Documents Index/UNDEX/UNDOC, 1950- . (Govt)
A comprehensive index to U.N. documents; contents and arrangement varies. Latest version is quarterly with an annual cumulation on microfiche. Includes subject, personal/corporate name and title indexes. Main listing includes distribution status information.

UNBISNET (http://unbisnet.un.org/).
Catalogue of UN publications and documentation indexed by the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold Library and the Library of the UN Office at Geneva. Also included are non-UN publications held in the collection of the Dag Hammarskjold Library.

United Nations Website "Search" (http://www.un.org).
Many additional documents can be located by browsing under relevant categories (Documents, Humanitarian Affairs, International Law, etc.).

Locating Other U.N. Documents

To locate documents other than the Proceedings, use the indexes listed above. They will provide you with a U.N. agency author and a title and, sometimes, a U.N. document number. To see if the Library has a particular document, check InvestiGator, the online catalog, and the GOVT card catalog under the name of the U.N. agency and then the title. U.N. documents are shelved in the GOVT stacks by U.N. document number. If they do not have a U.N. document number, they are shelved by agency and then by title in a section after the publications shelved by U.N. document number. If the publication is not listed in the catalogs, it may be available in the Readex Abridged U.N. microfiche collection (by U.N. document number or by agency, if no U.N. document number; a checklist of Readex microfiche publications available in this collection is shelved with the collection) or in the IIS microfiche collection (arranged by IIS number; you need to use the IIS title index or the IIS publication number index to locate the IIS number or search the LexisNexis Statistical database). Many recent documents are also available on the United Nations Web site (http://www.un.org).

Other Useful Library Guides

Foreign Country Information
International Law
News and Opinion

Also useful is the U.N.'s United Nations Documentation: Research Guide (http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/).

Other U.N. Document Collections

The U.C. Berkeley Government and Social Science Information Service and Stanford University are local research libraries with comprehensive U.N. document collections. See their guides to United Nations Documents and Publications (http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/doemoff/govinfo/intl/gov_ungde.html, http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/jonsson/collections/intl/un.html).

United Nations-Internet Sites

The following Internet sites are especially useful for U.N. research:

United Nations
http://www.un.org

World Wide Web Virtual Library: UN Information Services
http://www2.etown.edu/vl/un.html

Official WEB Locator for the United Nations System of Organizations (and Other International Organizations)
http://www.unsystem.org

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime UN Links
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/unlinks.html#Model%20United%20Nations

United Nations Scholars' Workstation at Yale University
http://www.library.yale.edu/un/index.html

Yahoo's Model U.N. links
http://www.yahoo.com/government/international_organizations/united_nations/ model_united_nations

International Governmnetal Organizations (see especially United Nations section)
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/govpub/resource/internat/igo.html

Researching Countries' Positions Using AccessUN

1. Speeches and statements in debates by representatives of a particular country are key documents in which national policies are expressed at the U.N. To find these documents, search your country's name in the AUTHOR field. Then search the topic you are interested in in the ALL FIELDS field and select the AND option to combine AUTHOR and ALL FIELDS. Example:
Author        China
All Fields     Human Rights

2. Letters addressed to the Secretary General by heads of state and representatives of U.N. member states also reflect national positions on issues. To find these letters, search your country's name in the COUNTRY field. Then search the topic you are interested in in the ALL FIELDS field and select the AND option to combine COUNTRY and ALL FIELDS. Example:
Country       China
All Fields     Human Rights

3. Resolutions drafted or sponsored by U.N. member states also reflect national positions on issues. To find these draft resolutions, search your country's name and draft resolution in the TITLE field. Then search the issue you are interested in in the ALL FIELDS field and select the AND option to combine TITLE and ALL FIELDS. Note: this strategy will also retrieve some draft resolutions about your country. Example:
Title           China and Draft Resolution
All Fields     Human Rights

Chuck Eckman, UCB
Rev. AK, SFSU
June 1996

Locating United Nations Documents Indexed by AccessUN

From the full citation copy down the U.N. document number, the U.N. corporate author, the title of the document and the date of publication. Most of the U.N. documents which the Library owns are located in Government Publications, 5th floor.

Most documents with A/, E/, S/ and T/ numbers published 1990 to the present are available in the U.N. Abridged Readex microfiche collection which is arranged by year, then by document number (arranged in a hierarchial order). A checklist of the documents in this microfiche collection is shelved on top of the collection.

Some international law documents published during this same period (e.g., LOS numbered documents, International Court of Justice documents) are also available in the U.N. Abridged Readex microfiche collection.

Documents with A/, E/, S/ and T/ numbers published before 1990 are listed in the Government Publications card catalog "Official Records" section if they are plenary or summary meeting records, annexes, supplements or masthead documents. Some masthead documents of the General Assembly are published in the Annexes which are listed in this "Official Records" section of the catalog. Other masthead documents of the General Assembly and its sub-bodies, Economic and Social Council, Security Council and Trusteeship Council are available in the IIS microfiche collection (1983-). The easiest way to look them up is to check the IIS Index by title or by U.N. document number (e.g., A/AC.105/492, A/46/600) or by issuing source (or search the LexisNexis Statistical database (1983- to the present) by title or by UN document number.

Other documents with A/, etc., numbers (e.g., A/Conf.94/35, E/Conf.66/34-UN conference reports) are not Official Records and so are listed in the Government Publications card catalog under corporate author/title (e.g., United Nations World Conference of the International Women's Year. Report) not in the "Official Records" section of the catalog. Recent documents may be cataloged on InvestiGator.

Many U.N. documents are now retrievable on the U.N. Web site by searching the ODS (http://documents.un.org/) or by browsing the site (http://www.un.org) by category. Also you can try searching Google by document title or document number.

Statistical documents are almost always in the IIS microfiche, so be sure to check the IIS Index for these. Check the IIS Index by U.N. document number or by title (or search the LexisNexis Statistical database by document number or by title).

For other documents, first look them up in the Government Publications card catalog under the United Nations issuing body (author) and then by title. Note: recent United Nations documents received in print form are cataloged on InvestiGator, the Library online catalog. If the document is not listed in the catalogs, look the document up in the IIS Index by title or by U.N. document number or by issuing source and then by title (or search the LexisNexis Statistical database by document number or by title).

United Nations official records are shelved in the Government Publications stacks in a special "OR" section by document number. Non-official-records with document numbers are filed next, followed by U.N. publications with no document numbers filed in order by U.N. corporate author and then by title.

(Rev. 3/8/07) AK