About the Collection

The United Nations and International Documents Collection at Bobst Library is a full depository library for UN documents since 1949. It is also an FAO and and World Tourism Organization depository library since 1965 and 2003, respectively. It houses historical documents from the League of Nations and the UN Conference on International Organizations as well as publications from the Council of Europe, IAEA, IADB, ILO, IMF, OAS, OECD, WHO and World Bank Group. [more...]

Research Assistance

Bobst Library Research Guides

• UN Documents
• International Labour Organization (ILO)
• Model UN Research
• RG D2: International Legal Research
• Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
• Organization of American States (OAS)
• NYU Virtual Business Library Research Guides:
  • Company and Financial Information
  • Industry Information
  • Economic and Statistical Information
  • Country Information
  • Marketing Information

Related Research Guides at NYU and Beyond

• Dag Hammarskjöld Library Research Guides
• NYU Law Library Documents Research and Depository Collections
  Includes World Trade Organization (WTO/GATT), European Union, and United Nations Documents Research Guides.
• NYU Law Library Guide to Foreign and International Legal Databases

Links to NYU Libraries

The following is a listing of frequently used reference tools. Please use research guides listed above for more subject-specific tools. An asterisk (*) indicates nyu.edu restricted domain.

Catalogs and Databases for UN Research

• UNBISnet
  "Catalog of UN publications and documentation indexed by the United Nations' Dag Hammarskjöld Library in New York and the Library of the United Nations Office at Geneva. Also included are non-UN publications held in the collection of the Dag Hammarsköld Library." 1979-present. Voting records and speeches dates vary; from 1946 and 1983 to present.
• Access UN*
  Index to United Nations documents including Official Records, masthead documents, draft resolutions, meeting records, UN Sales Publications, and the UN Treaty Series citations. Also included is the full-text of several thousand UN documents. 1948-present.
• UN-I-QUE: United Nations InfoQuest
  Povides quick access to document symbols/sales numbers for UN materials of a recuerrent nature: annual/sessional reports of committees/commissions; annual publications; reports periodically/irregularly issued; reports of major conferences; statements in the General Debate; etc. Information within each record is presented in reverse chronological order to facilitate identification of the most recent data.
• UN Treaty Collection*
  Includes online versions of the print publications: Multilateral treaties deposited with the Secretary-General, which incorporates the detailed status of over 485 multilateral treaties, and: (United Nations) Treaty series, which contains the texts of over 30,000 bilateral and multilateral treaties in their authentic language(s), along with a translation into English and French, as appropriate, for those treaties registered with the Secretariat.
• ODS: Official Documents of the United Nations
  Official repository for full text PDF files of UN documents dating back to 1992 in all official languages of the United Nations - Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. Documents are stored in two databases, UN Documentation, which includes documents back to 1992 and UN Resolutions, which includes resolutions of the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council and Trusteeship Council since 1946.
• UN News Centre

Catalogs

• UN/International Documents Collection Card Catalog
  Arranged by international agency, covers older monographs not in BobCat. Access: 6th Floor Reference Center (REF6), across from Reference Desk.
• BobCat -- the catalog for NYU Libraries
• RLIN/Eureka (RLG Union Catalog)*
  The RLG Union Catalog reflects the collections of major research libraries; academic, public, corporate and national libraries; archives and museums; historical societies and international book vendors.
• SourceOECD*
  The publications portal of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Includes access to OECD's monographs and annual reports arranged by theme; full text of all printed periodicals; OECD's statistical databases allowing users real-time access to the latest data.
  
• World Bank E-Library*
  Contains over 1,200 fulltext PDF World Bank titles, searchable by keywords, title, and author.
• WorldCat OCLC*

Indexes

• International Development Abstracts
  Bobst REF6 Index Table A HC59.7.I56 Non-circulating
  Bimonthly publication that indexes and provides abstracts for articles and reports on agriculture, natural resources, environment, health and food. Contents page arranged by subject, with more specific access via subject, regional, author, and journal indexes. Each year, the last issue contains cumulative contents page and indexes.
• EIU Country Reports
  Definitive source of business intelligence on political and economic trends, overing over 180 countries worldwide. Independent analysis and accurate medium-term forecasts are available every three months. Every Country Report provides authoritative commentary, detailed statistics and clear graphics within a globally consistent structure.
  
• CIAO: Columbia International Affairs Online*
  Publishes a wide range of scholarship from 1991 on that includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from conferences.
• Historical Abstracts *
  Abstracts and citations indexing over 2,000 journals, books, and dissertations. Covers world history (except the U.S. and Canada) since 1450.
• International Political Science Abstracts *
  Bibliographic database that indexes and abstracts articles from periodicals published throughout the world. The abstracts summarize the source articles.
• Public Affairs Informations Service International (PAIS International) *
• Index to International Statistics: IIS
  Bobst REF6 Index Table A Z7552 .I532 Non-circulating
  Indexes international statistics from various intergovernmental agencies by subject, name, geographic area, category (age, commodity, country, company/enterprise, industry and sex), title, publication number and issuing source. IIS numbers provided correspond to IIS microfiche, available in the west wing of the 6th floor reference center at Bobst.

News Sources

• Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Electronic Index (1975-1996) *
  The FBIS Daily Reports is an index to the FBIS extracts of news from the world press (in English). Information from foreign radio, television, news agency transmissions, newspapers, books and periodicals. Foreign language items are translated, English language items are transcribed.
• Global Newsbank (1996-) *
  News articles covering politics, economics, culture, business and more around the world from translated broadcasts, new agency transmissions, wire services, newspapers, magazines and government documents.
• LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe
  Nearly 5,000 publications on the service span news, financial, medical, and legal information. The service covers newspapers, magazines and wire services, among others. Includes foreign language news sources. Begin by clicking on the "Guided News Search" tab.
  

Statistical Databases

• Statistical Universe *
  Indexes the publications of state and private agencies, and the statistical publications of such IGO's (Intergovernmental Organizations) as the IMF, UN, OECD, World Bank and more.
• World Development Indicators*
  500 time series indicators from the World Bank for 210 countries plus regional and income groups.
• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts*
  "CSA Worldwide Political Science Abstracts is building on the merged backfiles of Political Science Abstracts, published by IFI/Plenum, 1975-2000, and ABC POL SCI, published by ABC-CLIO, 1984-2000. The database provides citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration/policy"--Online factsheet.

Treaty Databases

• Council of Europe Treaty Series (CETS)
• UN Treaty Collection*

Other Materials of Interest

Key Online UN Documents

• Charter of the United Nations (signed at San Francisco on 26 June 1945)
• Statute of the International Court of Justice
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
  See also: International Human Rights Instruments (UNHCR)
• Millennium Report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations
• UN Documentation Centre
  Includes full text PDF files of General Assembly and Security Council resolutions.
• Documents Alert
  Annotated list of important documents recently released; citations remain for two months; includes links to full text PDF files.

Gateways

• International Education Internet Resources -- NYU Bobst Library
• United Nations Scholars' Workstation -- Yale University Library
• International Governmental Organizations -- Northwestern University International Documents Collection
• International Agencies and Information on the Web -- University of Michigan Documents Center
• Government Gazettes Online -- University of Michigan Documents Center

Librarian for The UN and International Documents Collection

Gretchen Gano
Librarian for Public Administration and Government Information
New York University
Bobst Library Business and Documents Center, 6th Floor, Office 617
70 Washington Square So.
New York, NY 10012
Office: 212-998-2662
Staff Office: (212) 998-2610
Travel Directions and Map
http://www.nyu.edu/maps.nyu
E-mail: gretchen.gano@nyu.edu

Hours

Please note: Visitors smust obtain a pass from the Access Privileges Office during their office hours in order to gain access to our Collection.

Collection is accessible:
Monday - Sunday 7am-Midnight

Collection Staff is available:
Monday - Friday 9am-5pm

Holiday and Intersession Hours
http://library.nyu.edu/about/access.html

League of Nations and United Nations Documents Coverage Table