This is a depository collection which includes:
Official Records of the main organs:
- The General Assembly
- The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
- The Security Council
- The Trusteeship Council
- Trade and Development Board
Sales publications - include information on
the history of the Organization as well as its structure and substantive
activities or programmes; major reports and studies; proceedings
of conferences and of some seminars and symposia.
Mimeographed/symbolled documents - this series
contains many drafts and provisional documents later issued in
both the official records and the sales series, as well as material
unique within its series.
Periodicals - published by the U.N. on a regular
and or irregular basis.
Arrangement
United Nations Documents are shelved immediately following the
Government Serials in three (3) sequences:
- Sales publications - using the sales number, the publications
are shelved first by category. Within each category the arrangement
is by year and number.
- Example: The title Population distributions and migration
has the sales number 98.XIII.12 so first you look for Category
XIII - Demography, then the year of publication 98 (i.e. 1998)
then the no. 12 signifying the 12th publication for the year.
- Notice that the categories are in Roman numerals and that
all sales documents about demography are in the same category
so the documents fall into a subject arrangement. A complete
list of categories is on the catalogue in the Government Serials
Section
- Symbolled Documents including the Official Records are shelved
in an alphanumerical sequence. The symbol is made up of elements,
separated by oblique strokes, that denote the acronym(s) of
the issuing body / a technical form division / an individual
document number e.g. E/ECE/AGRI/WP.5/Rev.1 is the first revision
of working paper no. 5 of the Agricultural Committee of the
Economic Commission for Europe which is a sub-body of the Economic
and Social Council.
If this seems complicated don't worry, just remember that it
is an alphanumerical sequence and the staff will always help.
Periodicals are arranged alphabetically by title.
Official Records of the General Assembly, Sessions 1-30 are
available on microfiche.
Information about the United Nations and its
publications can also be found on its various web sites. Here
are some examples:
You can also find information about many topics e.g.
"Reforming the U.N.", on ‘unofficial’ websites
such as:
