Yale University Library Government Documents and Information Center

 

United Nations Collection

Research Tools
UNITED NATIONS COLLECTION

I. OVERVIEW OF DEPOSITORY PROGRAMS AND POLICIES

Depository Program
The Government Documents & Information Center has been a depository for United Nations publications since 1945.  The UN depository collection includes:
  • Official records of the main organs of the United Nations
  • sales publication
  • periodicals
  • United Nations Treaty Series
  • United Nations Development Programme and United Nations Environment Programme publications
  • all other generally distributed documents and publications of the United Nations.
 
Non-depository Publications
 

In addition to those documents and publications received on deposit the Government Documents & Information Center holds mimeographed versions of the verbatim records of the plenary meetings of the General Assembly and the Security Council  summary records of the plenary meetings of the Economic and Social Council,  selected publications not distributed through the depository program.

The Yale Law Library subscribes to the Readex United Nations Law Collection in microfiche and collects the International Court of Justice documents and publications.


Microform Collections
 
The Government Documents & Information Center holds the microfiche collection United Nations Documents and Publications, 1945-2006. Use the database Access UN to find items in this microfiche collection. The collection includes documentation from the six main bodies of the United Nations—General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council, Secretariat and International Court of Justice. Includes official records, mimeographed or masthead documents, sales publications, limited and restricted documents and documents emanating from sessional and standing committees, functional commissions, conferences and regional bodies. Readex films all United Nations publications indexed in UNDOC (the official index to United Nations publications produced by the UN) and its predecessors. Prior to 1963 the index (and the microform collections) included United Nations specialized agencies, i.e., UNESCO, ILO, World Bank, etc.). Some LIMITED and FOR PARTICIPANTS ONLY categories of documentation are included in the microform collection although they are not distributed to depository libraries.

Online Resources
 
United Nations Bibliographic Information System (UNBISnet) provides access to documentation published by the United Nations and about the United Nations from 1979 to present.

Access UN indexes and provides some UN materials full text from 1945 to the present. It is the index to the United Nations Documents and Publications microfiche collection.

United Nations Official Documents System (ODS) provides full text of United Nations official documentation from 1992 to present.

See the United Nations Scholars' Workstation for additional online resources for United Nations publications and information.


Other United Nations Depositories
 
Yale University is the only United Nations depository in Connecticut. Other United Nations depository libraries in the Northeast area include Brown University, Boston Public Library, New York University, Columbia University, Cornell University, and Princeton University. A complete list of United Nations depository libraries is available.

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II. HOW TO FIND UNITED NATIONS DOCUMENTS AND PUBLICATIONS

Search Orbis, Yale's online catalog. for United Nations journals 1989-present, and for United Nations books received 1995-present.

For older materials, or items not found in Orbis, search one or more of the databases or the print resources listed below. E-mail govdoc@yale.edu with complete citations to ask whether the Government Documents & Information Center holds the specific items and if so, to request them.



Catalogs and Indexes to Documents and Publications

Orbis, Yale's online catalog. includes records for United Nations serials received from 1989-present, and for United Nations monographs received from January 1995-present.

Checklist of United Nations Documents

United Nations Documents Index.  1950-1973

International Bibliography: Publications of Intergovernmental Organizations. 1974-1978

UNDEX: United Nations Documents Index.

UNDOC: Current Index; United Nations Documents Index.


Sales Catalogues
Sales publications are a distinctive category of publication issued by many international intergovernmental organizations, including the United Nations. Often sales publications are cited by United Nations sales number without any other identification. It may therefore be necessary to consult reference guides that provide more complete citations for sales publications. Listed below are selected sales catalogs and guides.

 The Complete Reference Guide to United Nations Sales Publications, 1946-1978. 

United Nations Official Records; a reference catalogue, 1948-1962.

United Nations Official Records, 1962-1981. with Supplement 1981.

United Nations Official Records, 1981-1984. 1977-present United Nations Publications Catalogue. (annual)

Current UN sales publications are listed on the UN Publications web site

Organization

Basic Facts About the United Nations

United Nations Handbook (annual).

Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements.


Resources about the United Nations Documentation and Publishing System
Guide to United Nations Organization, Documentation & Publishing

International Information: Documents, Publications, and Information systems of International Governmental Organizations

Publications of the United Nations System; a reference guide

Directory of United Nations Documentary and Archival Sources.


Indexes to Proceedings

The "indexes to proceedings" for the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council and Trusteeship Council provide:

(1) a comprehensive subject index to all the documents (reports, letters, meeting records, resolutions, etc.) issued by the body in question during a particular session/year; and
(2) an index to speeches delivered before the forum in question during a particular session/year.

The UN provides a useful, in-depth description of the indexes to proceedings.

UNBISnet: Index to Speeches (1983-)
Citations to speeches and links to full text.

UNBISnet: Voting Records
The voting records for all resolutions which were adopted, either without a vote or by roll-call or recorded vote, by the General Assembly beginning with its 32nd session (1977-) and the Security Council beginning with its 1st year (1946-). Links to the full text of resolutions are provided.

Index to Proceedings of the Economic and Social Council.

Index to Proceedings of the General Assembly.

Index to Proceedings of the Security Council.

Index to Proceedings of the Trusteeship Council.

Resolutions

General Assembly (from 1946)
Security Council (from 1946)
Economic and Social Council (from 1946)

UN Official Documents System
The official record version of United Nations resolutions and decisions adopted by the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council from 1946-1993 are in the “Resolutions” database, accessible only from the advanced search screen.


Roll Call Votes
UNBISnet: Voting Records
The voting records for all resolutions which were adopted, either without a vote or by roll-call or recorded vote, by the General Assembly beginning with its 32nd session (1977-) and the Security Council beginning with its 1st year (1946-). Links to the full text of resolutions are provided.

Print resources:

Nations on Record: United Nations General Assembly Roll-Call Votes
Published collections of the United Nations General Assembly roll call votes, in several volumes.

Beginning in 1975 the Index to Proceedings volumes for the General Assembly, Security Council, and the Trusteeship Council include tables of roll call votes.

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III. TYPES OF PUBLICATIONS


Official Records
The Government Documents & Information Center holds a comprehensive collection of the official records of the main bodies of the United Nations, including the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council and the Trade and Development Board of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Provisional verbatim records or summary records of the meetings of some of the bodies reporting to the main United Nations units, such as the Conference on the Committee for Disarmament and the Human Rights Committee, are received at the Center, in paper as well as microfiche.

In general, the official records of the main bodies of the United Nations consist of three components:

  • meeting records: verbatim or summary records of meetings;
  • annexes: collections of texts of documents related to and arranged by agenda items;
  • supplements: reports of subsidiary organs and other bodies, resolutions and decisions.

Access

The most detailed access to the official records is through the printed Index to Proceedings volumes listed above or electronically on UNBISnet. Subject access is provided, and in recent years, also access by country and speaker.

The official records also are indexed in UNDOC, the printed quarterly index to United Nations documents and publications; and online through Access UN, 1950- present; and through UNBISnet, 1979- present.


Mimeographed Documents
United Nations organs produce a large volume of provisional documents, working papers, draft resolutions, letters, memorandum, etc., which are issued as "mimeographed" documents. Mimeographed reflects the quality of paper on which the documentation is printed as well as the process by which it was originally produced.

The Center holds a large quantity of mimeographed documents in paper; however, because of deteriorating paper, early documents usually must be consulted in microform.

Since 1950 there are three categories of mimeographed documents---general, limited and restricted. Generally, depositories only receive those documents designated for general distribution. However, as noted earlier, some documents designated for limited distribution are included in the microform collection. Also, many limited documents are "republished" at a later date in the annexes and/or supplements of the official records.

Many mimeographed documents, including those of LIMITED distribution, are "republished" in the official records of the United Nations. A listing of republished documents appears in UNDOC.
 
These two volumes cumulate this information for the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council for 1946-1964/65.
 
United Nations Economic and Social Council Index
Document number index to material located in the Official Records.

United Nations Security Council Index
Document number index to material located in the Official Records.

Access

The mimeographed documents are indexed in the printed United Nations index,UNDOC, and online through Access UN and UNBISnet.

Current mimeographed documents are available through the Official Documents System (ODS) with a user ID and password in the Government Documents & Information Center.

Selected mimeographed documents for the General Assembly, Security Council, and the Economic and Social Council are available through the Internet.


Sales Publications
Many different types of materials may be designated as United Nations "sales publications". Most official records and treaty series volumes are sales publications as well as many periodical and serial titles. The major criteria for being designated as a "sales publication" is the amount of public interest that the publication is likely to generate.

Sales publications are assigned a United Nations sales number, but, usually they are also assigned a United Nations "series symbol" number. An example of the United Nations "sales number" is: E/F 92.I.5 (E indicates English; F indicates French; 92=year of publication; I=subject category of publication; 5=the fifth publication in this category issued in 1992. The United Nations "series symbol" is the classification number used for shelving the materials in many research libraries. As noted earlier, this number reflects the body from which the publication originates and the nature of the publication. The Center has a comprehensive collection of the United Nations sales publications and maintains a cross-reference index from the sales publication number to the United Nations series number. Since 1989 this cross-reference has been made available in Orbis. To determine which sales publication the library holds by sales number and to convert that number to the classification number or shelving location, search Orbis by title (t=United Nations publication sales no). Select the serial record, then select the number for the appropriate subject category. [NOTE: It is only appropriate to perform this type of search as a means of access when the only information you have about the publication you are seeking is the United Nations publication sales number.]

Access

The sales publications are indexed in the printed United Nations index, UNDOC, and online through Access UN and UNBISnet. In addition, since 1989, Yale's holdings of United Nations sales publications will be reflected in Orbis. Recent sales publications may be identified using the UN's Publications web site.


Statistical Publications
The United Nations Statistical Office has compiled and published statistics from its member countries for more than 40 years. Some of the well-known titles are the Statistical Yearbook, the Demographic Yearbook, the Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, and National Accounts Statistics. The regional commissions, the Conference on Trade and Development, the United Nations Economic and Social Council, and the United Nations Development Programme also publish a considerable amount of statistical data. The UNdata provides statistics on member countries from several United Nations related agencies.

The Government Documents & Information Center holds a comprehensive collection of the statistical publications of the United Nations. The Center has the microfiche collection which accompanies the Index to International Statistics (IIS) (1983-present). Statistical publications of the United Nations and its related agencies are included as a part of the IIS microfiche collection.

Access

Many of the United Nations statistics publications are published on a regular basis---monthly, quarterly, annually. Since 1989 the Center has entered holdings for all currently received serial and periodical issues into Orbis. Also, the United Nations statistical publications are indexed in the printed United Nations index,  UNDOC, and in United Nations Bibliographic Information System (UNBIS).

Since 1983 the most detailed subject access is provided by the Index to International Statistics or electronically in Lexis Nexis Statistical. Abstracts are included with the citations that provide information on the geographic area represented, the dates of coverage and the data elements included. Some publications are available full text in pdf and some tables are provided in excel. Other international data sets may be located through the StatCat. StatCat includes information about numeric datasets in the Yale Social Science Data Archive, data available to the Yale community from ICPSR, selected datasets available in the Yale University Library, and selected data sources on the Internet.


Treaty Series
By provision of the United Nations Charter every treaty and international agreement entered into by any member of the United Nations after coming into force shall be registered with the Secretariat and published by it. Treaties are published in the United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS) sequentially in the order in which they are registered. Cumulated indexes to the treaty series are published irregularly. The United Nations Treaty Series is now available electronically 1947-present.

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IV. UNITED NATIONS SPECIALIZED AGENCIES

The United Nations system of organizations is a decentralized system of intergovernmental agencies; each one is autonomous and has its own constitution and its own specific organizational structure, budget and documentation. Some agencies operate a depository system for their documentation; most of them publish and/or sell their documentation through commercial vendors or operate their own sales systems.

The Government Documents & Information Center is a depository for one of the specialized agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organization (see this description of the FAO collection at the Government Documents & Information Center). Documentation for the other United Nations specialized agencies is collected and housed by several libraries at Yale.

Many, but not all, of the publications received from these agencies will be cataloged in Orbis.

Publications from the following United Nations agencies are collected selectively by Yale libraries; refer to Orbis for identification of holdings.

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V. UNITED NATIONS DOCUMENT SYMBOLS (i.e. call numbers)

The United Nations document symbols (i.e. call numbers) denote both the body that produces the document and the type of publication. The symbols are composed of capital letters, combined with Arabic numerals. Roman numerals, when used, designate the number of the session. A slash (/) separates the components of the symbol.

The first letter(s) indicates the main organ of the United Nations to which the document was submitted:
A/- General Assembly
E/- Economic and Social Council
S/- Security Council
T/- Trusteeship Council
ST/- Secretariat Special symbols have also been designed for certain subsidiary organs of the United Nations, for instance:
CCPR/- Human Rights Committee
TD/- UN Conference on Trade and Development
UNEP/- United Nations Environment Programme After the first slash, the second series of symbols indicates the sub-body within the main organ that produced the document:
-AC./- Ad Hoc Committee or similar body
-/C./- Standing, permanent, main committee
-/CN./- Commission
-/CONF./- Conference
-/GC./- Governing Council
-/PC./- Preparatory Committee
-/SC./- Subcommittee
-/Sub./- Subcommission
-/WG./- Working Group
-/WP./- Working Party Subsidiary bodies are given an Arabic numeral, which usually is assigned in order of their establishment. The General Assembly main committees, for example, are identified by the following symbols:
A/C.1/- First Committee (political and security)
A/C.2/- Second Committee (economic and financial)
A/C.3/- Third Committee (social, humanitarian and cultural)
A/C.4/- Fourth Committee (trusteeship)
A/C.5/- Fifth Committee (administrative and budgetary)
A/C.6/- Sixth Committee (legal)
A/SPC/ Special Political Committee The following letters are added to the basic series symbols to denote the type of document. Examples:
-/INF/- information series
-/L. limited distribution documents
-/MIN. minutes
-/NGO/- statements by nongovernmental organizations
-/PC/- preparatory committee
-/PET/- petitions
-/PV./- verbatim records
-/RES./- mimeographed texts of adopted resolutions
-/SR./- summary records of meetings
-/WG./- working group
-/WP./- working paper Specific United Nations series symbol numbers may be identified in the following volume: United Nations Document Series Symbols, 1946-1996. They are updated quarterly by a table in UNDOC entitled "New Document Series Symbols". For more detailed information on the documentation system, see United Nations Documentation: Research Guide

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The collections of the Government Documents & Information Center are available for use by the public.

How to access Government Documents & Information Center materials
Phone: (203) 432-3211
E-mail: govdoc@yale.edu