In the summer of 2007, the inexorable move onto the web of international government documents - especially those of the United Nations - give anyone in the world with Internet access a front row seat for - well - the making of history. As well, these sites also provide ready access to critical measures of international law, business, the production and distribution of money, education, food, energy, and water, the condition of entire poplations, and certainly most important if such things can be measured, the children of the world. The number of sites, and their breath and scope, along with the current news overlay that occupies the top layer of many, can make access daunting. Many are provided by the United Nations
itself. Others have been prepared at reliable sites outside the United
Nations. This page contains a highly selective listing of a few that
seem especially interesting. But more important, the technique suggested here, of identifying key sites for international documents or for reference to those documents , and then approaching them in a particular systematic way, can open a rational portal to this "E World of United Nations Documents."
I. League of Nations. Read here the actual documents of a world community failing at the political process and plunging into war, but leaving behind a curious legacy of how they failed, and some key statistical measures not found elsewhere.
GUIDES AND INDEXES
Research Guide to League of Nations Publications from Northwestern http://www.library.northwestern.edu/govpub/collections/league/background.html
FULL TEXT
League Documents and Sales Publications from Northwestern http://www.library.northwestern.edu/govinfo/collections/league/
League of Nations. Statistical Yearbook. 1926-1944from Northwestern,. http://www.library.northwestern.edu/govinfo/collections/league/
Select League documents: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/league/league.htm from Yale
Versailles Treaty http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/menu.htm from Yale
BY SUBSCRIPTION
League of Nations. Official Journal, Vols. 1-21 (1920-1940) All Published. Hein Online
II. United Nations Documentation. Here are found indexes and for some items, the actual full text of working
documents, reports, speeches, and resolutions actually generated and used
by the General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, Security Council,
and other parts of the U.N.
1. The HomePage of the United
Nations (www.un.org/english) This page is a portal to international
information about the UN and international issues on a grand scale, with
excellent functionality and great content. It is so rich in information
that some elements can seem buried, but becoming very familiar with this
page is very much worth the effort.
2. UNBISNET (http://unbisnet.un.org) 1985 to present, few earlier Superb index to U.N. documents, speeches, sales publications, and voting records. UNIQUE ( http://lib-unique.un.org/lib/unique.nsf) index and full text for a few key documents 1946 to present.
3. ODS - Official Documents of the United Nations Full Text - 1993 to present (http://documents.un.org/)
and UN Treaty Collection , (http://untreaty.un.org/English/treaty.asp)
4. UN Depository Libraries (http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/deplib/) Worldwide listing where all UN documents and publications can be accessed. Other research libraries often hold many years of UN documents which they acquired on subscription. Depository and these research libraries can provide full text of UN documents from 1946 to the present.
5. United Nations Documentation:
Research Guide (www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide) Excellent overall
guide prepared by the staff of the Dag Hammarskjold Library at UN Headquarters, (http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/)
6.
Document
Symbols (www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguuide/symbol.htm ) UN
Documents are identified by document symbols as shown here. Symbols
are organic, arising from the nature of the part of the UN issuing them
and the function of the document. They gather documents together
in families which can be helpful in answering a reference question.
7. UN System
Pathfinder (www.un.org/Depts/dhl/pathfind/frame/start.htm) Identifies
basic reference tools for UN Research. It is comprehensive in its coverage of reference-type
materials and includes key publications of historic value (i.e., dating
back to the founding of the UN).
8. U.N. Documentation Centre
(http://www.un.org/documents/)UN official documents full texIncludes
full text of all Security Council Resolutions and General Assembly Resolutions
from 1976 to present.
9. CyberSchoolBus
(http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/) Fantastic resource for younger
kids on the UN and all sorts of international topics, very much age appropriate. Fun and good educational value. Also found here Model UN site, comprehensive and age appropriate for teens
10. Yearbook of the United Nations. 1946-2002, CD-ROM by purchase from the UN This electronic form of the quientessenail reference book on the United Nations, published annually since 1946, allows a topic to be searched across the years, and a anme or event to be readily identified, Also allows easy printing. Well worth the several hundred dollar price.
III. Documentation From Other UN Bodies. Here are found many full text documents, especially for the last five to
ten years.
Common Database of Statistics - UN's magnificant basket of statistics drawn from many UN agencies - some unique here. (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/cdb/)
International
Court of Justice (http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library/International_Resources/icj.html)
International Labour Organization Documents mirror site (http://library.lawschool.cornell.edu/International_Resources/ilo.html
ILO - Labor Statistics (http://laborsta.ilo.org)
Permanent
Court of Arbitration
(http://library.lawschool.cornell.edu/pca/default.htm)
Project on
Dispute Settlement in International Trade, Investment and Intellectual
Property - UNCTAD (http://r0.unctad.org/disputesettlement/index.htm)
United Nations Development Program,
UNDP,
includes Human Development Report
(http://www.undp.org/)
UNESCO Statistics (http://www.uis.unesco.org/ev_en.php?ID=2867_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC)
UNESCO Working
Documents Index from 1946, full text from 1995, both to the present..
(http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ulis/index.html)
UNICEF, United Nations Children's
Agency,
includes annual State of the World's Children full text
(http://www.unicef.org/)
UNICEF - Innocenti Research Centre - significant publications on children's rights (http://www.unicef-irc.org/)
United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees, encyclopedic full text refugee information (http://www.unhcr.ch/
UNISPAL, United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine Online collection of full text United Nations documents on the question of Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict. (http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/outline6%21OpenPage)
United Nations Standards for Trade
and Electronic Business full text database (http://www.unece.org/etrades/)
World Health Organization WHOSIS, includes
annual World Health Report full text, 1995 to present (http://www.who.int/whosis/en/)
World Income Inequality Database, 1950 to the present, from Wider Institute at UN Univertsity (http://www.wider.unu.edu/wiid/wiid.htm )
World Trade Organization Working
Documents Full Text 1995 to the present. (http://docsonline.wto.org/gen_home.asp?language=1&_=1)
WTO
Legal Documents and Disputes Updates , World Trade Organization (http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/distab_e.htm)
World Trade Organizatoins - Decisions of
the Appellate Body, Analysis from
the European Journal of International Law (http://www.ejil.org/journal/curdevs/AB.html)
IV. Web Sites of the UN Specialized or External
Agencies Many contain full text documentation for recent
years, and useful indexes, sometimes for the entire history of the organization.
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (http://www.fao.org/)
IAEA International Atomic
Energy Agency (http://www.iaea.org/)
ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization (http://www.icao.int/)
IFAD International Fund for Agricultural
Development (http://www.ifad.org/)
IFC International Finance Corporation (http://www.ifc.org/)
ILO International Labour Organization (http://www.ilo.org/global/lang--en/index.htm)
IMO International Maritime Organization (http://www.imo.org/)
IMF International Monetary Fund (http://www.imf.org/)
ITU International Telecommunications Union ( http://www.itu.int/net/home/index.aspx)
UNCTAD United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development (http://www.unctad.org/Templates/StartPage.asp?intItemID=2068)
UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development
Organization (http://www.unido.org/)
UNESCO United Nations Educational,Scientific
and Cultural Organization (http://www.unesco.org/)
UPU Universal Postal Union (http://www.upu.int/)
World Bank ((http://www.worldbank.org/) )
WHO World Health Organization ( (http://www.who.int/en/))
WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization (http://www.wipo.int/portal/index.html.en)
WMO World Meteorological Organization (http://www.wmo.ch/pages/index_en.html)
WTO World Trade Organization (Began 1995,
formally GATT) (http://www.wto.org/)
WTO World Tourism Organization (http://www.world-tourism.org/)
V. Regional Commissions A
wonderful amount of detail is found on the web sites of the five United
Nations Regional Commission, including lots of country information and
full text documents.
-
Africa (includes Egypt) (http://www.uneca.org/)
-
Asia and the Pacific (includes many
states of former Soviet Union) (http://www.uneca.org/)
-
Europe
(also includes many states of
former Soviet Union) (http://www.unece.org/)
-
Latin America and the
Caribbean is especially strong. (http://www.eclac.org/default.asp?idioma=IN
- Western Asia (the Arab countries
of the Middle East, includes Egypt) (http://www.escwa.org.lb/)
VI. Useful Resources for UN Reseach From Outside
the UN System. The web is a wonderous place for sources
on the United Nations. Source and attitude must always be considered.
The following are especially useful.
Academic Council of the UN System -
Scholars working on UN issues (http://www.acuns.org)
AccessUN - Subscription index for UN documents 1945 to present, unique in electronic form for for 1945-1985, from Readex. Full text documents on fiche 1945 to present also available.
ASIL Electronic Resources
for International Law Index and Web Map (http://www.asil.org/resource/home.htm)
Avalon
Project at Yale Law School, Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm)
Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/)
Country Reportd- International Monetary Fund ( http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/CAT/scr.cfm)
Country
Reports on Human Rights US State Department (http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/)
Hague Conventions
(http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/hague.html) deposited
with the Dutch Ministry of Forein AFfairse Dutch
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (http://www.minbuza.nl/en/home)
Non-Goivernmental Organizations (NGOs) from UC Berkeley (http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/doemoff/govinfo/intl/gov_ngos.html)
United
Nations Association/ USA This is Model UN central - Organization of both adults and kids
interested in the UN (http://www.unausa.org/).
United Nations Scholars
Workstation at Yale (http://www.library.yale.edu/un/index.html)
United Nations System, Index
and Web Map (http://www.unsystem.org/)
University
of Minnesota Human Rights Library, (http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/)
VII. A Few Good Books. Especially in the age of the Internet, there are still a few key print titles – books – which are a great help for anyone – librarian or client – serious about understanding and accessing United Nations documents, publications, statistics, or treaties.
Directory of Government Document Collections and Librarians, 8 th ed . Government Documents Round Table, American Library Association. Ed. Susan Tulis and Daniel C. Barkley, Bethesda MD. LexisNexis, 2003. 719 p, ISBN 0-88692-606-8 An essential reference to know where the documents collections in the U.S. – of all types – are located, and not just depositories. Libraries move and change over time, and contact information may be a little stale – but even without an update, this is still a vital source to help track down where documents are located and who can help untangle a problem with them. Especially useful for librarians looking for help with Internet access to modern documents, or trying to find heritage – pre-Internet - documents. Worth the price or a trip or call to a research library.
International Information : Documents, Publications, And Electronic Information Of International Governmental Organizations. Ed. Peter J. Hajnal. 2nd ed. -- Englewood , Colo. : Libraries Unlimited, 1997 – Vol. 1; 2001, vol. 2. xxxvi, 528 p. / 402 p ; 24 cm. ISBN 1563081474 Encyclopedia coverage of modern international documents, especially useful in putting them into an overall context. These volumes with their Internet presence as an update for each agency, explain and make rational the world of international government documents.
International Legal Materials. Vol. 1, no. 1 (Aug. 1962) to present. Washington , D.C. : American Society of International Law, Bimonthly. Available electronically in Lexis Academic Provides full text of treaties and other international agreements which are difficult or impossible to find in other sources. Especially useful for an English text where such was not issued with the original document. An excellent court of last resort.
United Nations Handbook 2006-2007 . ISBN-10: 0477037968 ISBN-13: 9780477037969 372 p. Paperback. Available from the UN Sales Office or Bookstore. The UN Handbook is prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the government of New Zealand , and is now in its 4 4th year of publications. It is the only comprehensive printed guide to the United Nations system and how it works. It lista and describes all UN bodies, and gives essential information about their “aims, structures and membership.” Inexpensive – current edition is $20, and worth having on hand in any library trying to work with UN Documents.
United Nations Yearbook , 1946-present. Annual publication from the UN summing up its work. Often provides answers to questions of what the UN did at a point in time, or how it responded to a crisis. Numerous references to documents providing details of work or action. Usually two or three years for publication of a year – worth the wait. Available from Sales Office at the UN.
World Treaty Index by Peter H. Rohn. -- 2nd ed. -- Santa Barbara , Calif. : ABC-Clio Information Services, c1983-1984. 5 v. ; 29 cm. Long out of print, and no update in sight, this title is worth knowing about and using in a research library where it is held. Remarkably comprehensive index to the world's treaties from 1900-1980, giving the citation to find the text of the treaty in standard treaty publication series. Unique source for treaty information in many cases.
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