Index to this page:
UNITED NATIONS  ELECTRONIC AND FULL TEXT SOURCES
MISSION AND SCOPE OF THE UNITED NATIONS COLLECTION AT PRINCETON
A QUICK GUIDE TO FINDING UNITED NATIONS MATERIALS AT PRINCETON
HOW THE  UNITED NATIONS COLLECTION IS ARRANGED
KEY REFERENCE GUIDES FOR UNITED NATIONS DOCUMENTS
USEFUL UNITED NATIONS AND RELATED WEB SITES

Overall Guides:
E World of UN Documents
12 Portals to the E World of UN Documents
A Sampler of Brief Sources on U N Function and Structure
In a Nut Shell:  UN Research on the Web:  A Highly Selective Guide
Finding Early UN Documents
How Much Is Electronic?
Roll Call Votes in the United Nations
UN Treaties

Historic Documents:
UN Convention  on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
Historical Maps
Voting Patterns in the United Nations

MISSION AND SCOPE OF THE UNITED NATIONS COLLECTION AT PRINCETON

Princeton's United Nations Collection  holds and otherwise provides access to meeting records and other publications of the United Nations, its External or Specialized Agencies, and the League of Nations. Also included are reference materials to support the study of those bodies. It is located in the Social Science Reference Center on A floor of Firestone Library near the SSRC Reference Desk. Princeton's United Nation's Librarian, the United Nation's Collection Manager provide reference assistance with United Nations materials. The Collection services the Princeton University academic community and research visitors from outside the University Community, and provides advanced support for college and high school students preparing for Model UN work..

The United Nations Collection at Princeton is the oldest United Nations Depository Library in the state of New Jersey, and is comprehensive for the main bodies of the U.N. and selective for the Specialized (External) Agencies. Materials are of three principal types:Meeting Records,Sales Publications, and Specialized Agency materials. Reports are also held. In all categories indexes and publications in electronic format are an important part of Princeton's United Nations Collection. Both the United Nations and many Specialized Agencies and other U.N. Bodies maintain their own web sites which are important additional sources of information and documentation. The Economic Commissions are especially strong in this regard.  There are five:   Africa (includes Egypt), Asia and the Pacific (includes many states of former Soviet Union),  Western Asia (the Arab countries of the Middle East, includes Egypt), Europe (also includes many states of former Soviet Union), and Latin America and the Caribbean are especially strong.

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A QUICK GUIDE TO FINDING UNITED NATIONS MATERIALS AT PRINCETON

United Nations and its External Agencies maintain a position at the leading edge of providing electronic delivery of many publications. First, by building indexes on the web going back over many years. And secondly, from the mid 1990's forward, the full text of many documents from various part of the United Nations is also found on the web, either free or by paid subscription available transparently on this Princeton UN Collection webpage. However, many important United Nations documents can still be found only in paper or microformat, especially those from before the mid-1990's. Excellent electronic indexes to identify many of these documents are found at the top of this web page.

When a document is identified in these indexes, unless there is a full text source listed at the top of this page, it will be necessary to come to the Social Science Reference Center and locate the document in paper or in microformat. Main Body documents usually won't be found in the Online Catalog of the library as individual pieces. However, some documents from the External or Specialized Agencies will be found in the Online and Electronic Card Catalogs. Therefore it is helpful to distinguish between the Main Body and Specialized Agencies in order more easily to locate United Nations publications held at Princeton. Be sure to note that Specialized Agencies often have excellent documentation on their web sites, which are hot linked below.

All else in the UN is "Main Body" except for the Specialized Agencies, which are:

• FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency
• IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank)
• ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization
• IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development
• IFC International Finance Corporation
• ILO International Labour Organization
• IMO International Maritime Organization
• IMF International Monetary Fund
• ITU International Telecommunications Union
• MIGA Multilaterial Investment Guarantee Agency
• UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
• UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization
• UNESCO United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization
• UPU Universal Postal Union
• World Bank
• WHO World Health Organization
• WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization
• WMO World Meteorological Organization
• WTO World Tourism Organization
• WTO World Trade Organization (Began 1995, formerly GATT)

Electronic components of the United Nations Collection are listed here, and are also found on the Library Home Page under the Articles and Databases link.  UN materials in microformat is in several locations; ask in the Microforms Library on Firestone C Floor. .The UN Collection In paper is found in the A Floor stacks in the Reference Services Collections, at Coordinatoes A-14-H, and is arranged as follows: General Assembly materials are divided into Plenary documents,meeting as a whole, and in Committee Documents. In addition to other functional and temporary committees, the Main Committees of the General Assembly are:

• First Committee: Disarmament and International Security
  Until about 1980, Political and Security Committee.
• Second Committee: Economic and Financial
• Third Committee: Social, Humanitarian and Cultural
• Fourth Committee: Special Political and Decolonization .
  Formerly Trusteeship and Decolonization.
• Fifth Committee: Administrative and Budgetary
• Sixth Committee: Legal.
• Special Political Committee - Active until after 1990, became part of 4th Committee
  Main committee are made up of all members of the General Assembly. A Chair, Vice Chairs, and a Rapporteur are selected for the committee for each regular GA session.
• Princeton Maintains paper copies of Meeting records - what was said - for the General Assembly and for Main Committees, going back to the beginning of the U.N. in the mid 1940s These are also found in the ODS online system from 1992 to the present.

Indexes are largely electronic; links are found at the top of this page.  Note especially  AccessUN for 1945 to date and UNBISNet for 1985 to date. Paper index are sometimes useful, too, and are found in the wooden bookcase in the center of the bookstacks. Reference Books are cataloged with regular call numbers and the symbol (UN). They are mixed in with materials from the other collections in SSRC and range across the middle section of the Social Science Reference Center. It is no longer possible to browse these materials; the Main Catalog on the library web page serves as a partial substitute by using a GUIDED search, restricting to the location SSRC, and using a keyword phrase such as United Nations or Food and Agirculture Organization.
Working or "Masthead" Documents are identified by Document Symbol, and are  in the ODS full text online system from 1992 to date, and from 1945-1981 in the Readex microcards in the Microforms Library on C Level of Firestone, and for 1982 until about three months ago in Microfiche in SSRC.
Sales Publications are identified by Sales Number such as E.99.II.E.3 or 00.XVII.Series N.3. More recent are listed in the Online Catalog Sales Publications are found in UN Collection closest to the SSRC entrance..
UN Official Records are records of speeches and discussion in parliamentary sessions along with documents used in those sessions. They cover the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council. Princeton keeps all Official Records from 1946 to the present in bound paper format. Stacks to the left of the wooden bookcase hold various Official Records. Another copy will be found in the Readex microformat sets, and electronic text for 1992 to the present will be found in the ODS full text online system.
Current issues of journals from United Nations sections and agencies are found mixed into those of all SSRC Collections to the left end of the long stacks in SSRC. Back files are found in cataloged locations. These titles can be identified by searching the web site of the UN section or agency, and then checking Princdeton's Main Catlaog..

KEY REFERENCE GUIDES FOR UNITED NATIONS DOCUMENTS

• Catagories of Sales Publications Used in the UN Collection
• Civil Society in the Information Age / edited by Peter I. Hajnal.(UN) JC337 .C564 2002, also Firestone.
• Europa World Year Book - See section on United Nations -Current edition online and in paper (DR) JN1.E85; annual 1959-present, Firestone JN1 .E85
• International Information : Documents, Publications, And Electronic Information Of International Governmental Organizations / Peter I. Hajnal, editor. (UN) JZ4850 .I58 1997
• Keywords in United Nations Statistical Titles
• United Nations Document Indexes in Paper - What They Are; When They Cover
• United Nations Documentation - Research Guide from the staff of UN Headquarters Library
• United Nations Handbook.  New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs, annual. (UN) JX1977 .U54
• Yearbook of International Organizations - See entry for United Nations - in paper JX1904 .A42 , annual 1948 to present at Firestone PITN JX1904 .A42 Current volume in (DR); Next to current in (SSRC)
• Yearbook of the United Nations, annual 1946 to present. UN and Stokes, Also electronic edition

USEFUL UNITED NATIONS AND RELATED WEB SITES

• United Nations HomePage
• ASIL Electronic Resources for International Law Index and Web Map
• Bank for International Settlements, includes Basel Committee on Banking Supervision
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
• Country Reports International Monetary Fund
• Country Reports on Human Rights US State Department
• Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)
• Hague Conventions deposited with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Human Rights Library full text documents from the University of Minnesota
• International Olympic Committee (IOC)
• International Standards Organization (ISO)
• Milestone Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy  Avalon Project at Yale Law School
• Major War Criminals Trial before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg Trial, Library of Congress
• Model UN Resources on the U.N. Cyberschool
• Non-Governmental Organizations - from UC Berkeley
• Peace Palace at the Hague Library - especially the Catalog - index of books and journal articles in international law
• United Nations Associaton of the U.S. - Provides its members with solid UN materials
• UN History Project - at Harvard, Comprehensive but new and in development.
• United Nations News - includes TV, Video & Radio
• United Nations System, Index and Web Map
• World Development Sources World Bank