Yale University Library Government Documents and Information Center

 

United Nations Collection

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UNITED NATIONS COLLECTION

I. OVERVIEW

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 publications
  • periodicals
  • United Nations Treaty Series
  • United Nations Development Programme and United Nations Environment Programme publications
  • other generally distributed documents and publications of the United Nations.
In addition to the depository collection, the Government Documents & Information Center holds the microfiche collection United Nations Documents and Publications, 1945-2006, which includes both depository and non-depository materials. 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, for participants only, and restricted documents and documents emanating from sessional and standing committees, functional commissions, conferences and regional bodies.

Other United Nations Depositories
 
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.  Consult the complete list of United Nations depository libraries for more information.

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II. HOW TO FIND UNITED NATIONS DOCUMENTS AND PUBLICATIONS

Print Catalogs and Indexes

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.

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.

Indexes to Proceedings in print:

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.

Official Records

The official records of the main bodies of the United Nations generally 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.
The Government Documents & Information Center holds a comprehensive collection of the official records of the main bodies of the United Nations, from 1945-2008, in print and/or microfiche.

Official records are available online from 1993-present in the United Nations Official Documents System.

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 held at the Center, in paper and/or microfiche.

The most detailed access to the official records is through UNBISnet or the printed Index to Proceedings volumes listed above. Subject access is provided, and in recent years, also access by country and speaker. The official records are also indexed online through Access UN, 1950- present; and in UNDOC, the printed quarterly index to United Nations documents and publications.

Statistical Publications

UNdata

Orbis Yale Library Catalog

Lexis Nexis Statistical provides the most detailed subject access to United Nations statistical publications. Some publications are available full text in pdf and some tables are provided in excel.

Treaty Series

United Nations Treaty Series 1947-present.

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III. 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. Search Orbis for documents from:

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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