Finding UN Materials

1
Finding UN Materials

• Elizabeth Wells
• Bodleian Law
  Library
• November 2009

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This session

• UN Publication or UN Document
• Numbers Symbols
• 5 databases
• Press release
• Un-i-que
• UN documentation centre
• UNs ODS
• UNBisnet
• Some useful URLS for
• Research guides
• UN news current awareness

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UN paperwork
Annual reports
Treaties
Resolutions and decisions
Reports from UN organs and their subsidiary
bodies, missions
Draft documents
Press releases
Minutes of meetings
Voting records
Statistics
Speeches
Country reports
ICJ decisions and opinions
Publications aimed at the public
ICJ statutes other docs
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Sorting UN Publications from UN Documents
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UN Publications

• Sales publications
• intended for public consumption
• e.g. UN Yearbooks
• Press releases

Dolly the Sheep facing her public
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Numbers Sales Publications

• Unique combination of letters and numbers
  E.07.III.A.9
• Letter - language of the publication
• Two Arabic numerals - year of publication
• Roman numeral (letter) - subject of the
  publication or the issuing body
  www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/symbol1.htm
• Arabic number - sequential number

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Finding UN publications in print

• Bodleian official UN depository since 1950
• Official Papers Reading Room
• Check the library catalogue for the shelf mark
  most post 1990 sales publications are on the OLIS
• Ask in Official Papers

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Law Bod
Official Papers, Radcliffe Camera
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UN publications online

• Online unlikely to find the full text
  especially with older material
• UNBisNet primarily 1979 on (a catalogue with
  links to full texts when available)
• HeinOnline UN Law Collection v.g. for yearbooks,
  has other things too
• Web site of the UN organisation which produced it

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HeinOnline United Nations Law Collection Library
A/C.6/38/SR.73?? Hein has Summary Records of the
General Assembly, Sixth Committee from 1st(1946)
to 38th(1983) all published ie not 19(1964)
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Press Releases

• Advanced search option on press release homepage
  http//www.un.org/apps/pressreleases/
• allows you to search an archive of press releases
  back to October 1995
• Index to Press Release Symbols via Help
  http//www.un.org/en/unpress/English_Symbols.html

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UN Press Release website advanced search
Select Choice of GA, SC, ESC, Sec-Gen, Press
Conferences
Options vary to suit Select choice eg GA options
Plenary or each of 6 Committees
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UN Documents may require more chasing!
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UN Documents

• Created by a UN body as part of its own
  processes, primarily for internal use
• Includes Official Records
• Eg proceedings, resolutions, working papers,
  decisions, reports
• some are offered for sale, but this was not
  primary purpose

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Basic Searching
http//www.un.org/en/
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ODS UNBISNET UN-I-QUE More about these soon
Documentation Centre OK for more obvious, top
level documents
Browse SimpleDrillDown
http//www.un.org/en/documents/
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Example 2005 World Summit Documents available
just by drilling down
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www.un.org/en/additions/index.shtml
Also possible shortcut if you are looking for a
recent document
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http//www.un.org/en/documents/
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UN Document Symbols

• Unique identifier for precise searching
• First Letter parent organ
• After / either Letter (plus number) subsidiary
  organ
• Or Letters indicating type of document (e.g
  resolution, report)
• Sequential number (sometimes year indicated)
• May also be suffixes indicating
  revisions/additions to a document

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UN Document examples

• A/52/100 General Assembly document from 52
  session
• S/1997/100 Security Council document issued in
  1997
• E/CN.4/Sub.2/1997/1 document of the Sub
  Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and
  Protection of Minorities of the Commission on
  Human Rights

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www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/symbol.htm
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Un-i-que

• Reference tool developed by the UN Dag
  Hammarskjöld Library
• Searches for titles only
• Results are brief but include UN document symbol
• Useful for searching for series / recurrent
  publications (e.g. annual reports, irregular
  reports etc) listed chronologically

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http//lib-unique.un.org/lib/unique.nsf Convert a
title to a document symbol or a sales publication
number
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It really does pay to read the Search Tips first!
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Search Tip finding periodic report of country
under HR obligation type Country name
periodic keyword for variants Select Match
ALL these words (Boolean AND)
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Click on link
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UN Documents in print

• Official Papers Reading Room
• UN documents are NOT catalogued on OLIS
• To find them you need the document number
• Official records of the 4 main bodies (GA,SC,ESC,
  TC) Index to Proceedings
• http//www.un.org/depts/dhl/resguide/itp.htmitp

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UN Documents online

• Full text often available
• Resolutions from 1945 on
• Other types from 1993 on
• Databases to try
• ODS of the UN
• UNBisnet
• Web site of parent organisation

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Official Document System http//documents.un.org
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ODS

• UN NY Geneva parliamentary dox 1993 (inc.
  resolutions decisions)
• UN Vienna dox 1997-
• Selected earlier inc.
• Resolutions 1946- of GA, SC, ESC Trusteeship C

• Sales publications
• Press releases
• Treaties
• Information Bulletins from D of Public Information

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ODS

• Searching by document symbol is easy
• Searching by subject is more difficult
• Older documents are being added all the time
• Introduction to ODS (powerpoint)
• http//www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/train.htm

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Search by document number or for words in the
full text. May not pick up all resolutions.
UN documents and resolutions. Search by document
number, dates/sessions, using thesaurus or full
text
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Search via Symbol A/RES/55/2 Change
Truncation To None
Navigating (huge) Lexicon scroll down click
Next to drill down length of list
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Drill down for text
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Punctuation ie / / Not essential
Impact of Search Results By If
you Right Truncate
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ODS reads document symbols from L to R Right
Truncate search will return all beginning with
that character string Sort by Symbol means the
shortest string is top of results
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Clicking underlined symbol links to screen with
indexing information about the document where
you have choice oflanguages/formats for viewing
the text
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Advantage of Pdf Document will be exactly as
printed, with original formatting, reproducing
all graphics, maps and annexes.
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Navigating, downloading functions usually top
left of pdf
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ODS Advanced Search
First select a database NB post 1993 resolutions
are in UN Documents
Advanced Search Screen is essential if you want
to be sure of finding Resolutions eg A/RES/34/180
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Left Truncation allows you to omit the first
part of the Symbol useful if you know you are
looking for a resolution but not sure if its from
the General Assembly (A first) or Security
Council (S)
Subject thesaurus. To jump to the correct part of
the alphabet type a few letters in the search box
and then click Lexicon e.g. wom click to find
subject headings which start women
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In Symbol S/2007 Symbol Truncation - Right
Words of Title Iraq
Example you want to find letters addressed to
the Secretary General in 2007 relating to Iraq or
a letter but dont know exactly
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Full Text Searching

• If you have no idea about UN Symbols
• From both Simple and Advanced Search Screens
• Use Find any of the words if your search term
  has many synonyms
• Use the Boolean Operators option if you
  understand these
• NOTE Lots more information with examples
  available by clicking on the Help button in ODS.

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• Full text search
• Choose from Type of full text search
• Enter terms in Full text search box. Boolean
  connectors in ODS are
• AND, OR, AND NOT, SENTENCE
• to truncate (e.g. child)
• ? Wildcard (e.d. wom?n)
• Use brackets to group operators

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No results????

• A lot of search terms? try removing one
• Try truncating words by using the asterisk
  character
• Take care with spelling or use wild card ?
  ru?d lub?ers
• ODS requires that you use hyphens and accents in
  searches when they are used in a document.

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UNBisNet

• Primary online index 1979 -
• Bibliographic records for UN documents and sales
  publications
• Link to full text where available
• Older items being added gradually
• Links to full text resolutions 1946-
• Voting records for adopted resolutions
• Security council 1946-
• General assembly 1983-
• Citations to speeches 1983-

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Search by keyword or browse for UN Documents,
Resolutions, Sales Publications plus outside
publications about the UN
Search by keyword or browse voting records
Search by keyword or browse index to speeches
http//unbisnet.un.org
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Note If searching by document symbol/sales
number keep punctuation and slashes
eg E/CN.4/2000/42
Use AND, OR, NOT to combine search terms from
more than one field
UNBisNet Keyword Search Screen
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Use drop down to limit your search to particular
document types (e.g. UN Docs only, Resolutions
only etc)
Sort options
Click on title for full bibliographic details
Full text if available
Brief results screen
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Links to full text if available
Full results screen
Clickable list of Subject headings can be
useful for searching for similar documents. If
you click on the link you will be taken to
(nearly) the correct part of the alphabetical
list of subject headings. From here click on the
link to view documents for each subject
Finds all documents from the particular body/
committee for the session. Clicking on the link
will take you to the correct part of the
numerical list of document numbers
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Free e-Research guides

• Am Soc International Lawhttp//www.asil.org/un1.c
  fm
• Duke Law School UN guide _at_ http//www.law.duke.edu
  /lib/researchguides/un.html
• Guides from the Dag Hammarskjold Library

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http//www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/quick.htm
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Still no luck?
http//www.unsystem.org/ gives links to the web
sites of the main UN bodies. A document you have
failed to find anywhere else might be posted on a
subsidiarys website
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Just not available as e-resource?

• The Official Papers Reading Room (Radcliffe
  Camera), its staff and paper resources will do
  their best to meet your request
• official.papers_at_bodley.ox.ac.uk
  www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/official_papers
• Term time Mon-Fri 9.00-21.30, Sat 9.00-12.30
• Vacation Mon-Fri 9.00-18.30, Sat 9.00-12.30

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Useful websites News and current awareness

• UN news - http//www.un.org/News/
• The UN Chronicle (online edition)
  http//www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/
• UN Pulse blog on new and recent UN documents -
  http//unhq-appspub-1.un.org/lib/dhlrefweblog.nsf
• Daily Journal of the United Nations
  http//www.un.org/Docs/journal/En/lateste.pdf
  lists meetings, conferences, press conferences,
  new documents
• UNIC Newsletter  
• http//www.unicwash.org/newsl/newsl.html
  recent/forthcoming events, links to archived
  issues of special reports

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Key printed reference works indexes

• The UN Today (BOD Off Papers O.UN/I.2008.6)
  Abbreviated online version at http//www.un.org/ab
  outun/untoday/
• Yearbook of the United Nations (Internat 688
  U50) up to 2005 has a subject index
• Encyclopaedia of the United Nations (2003) 4
  vols Internat 687 E56a3