Locating United Nations Documents

at the University of Wisconsin's Memorial Library

Documents in the Official Records:

What are Official Records? | How do I figure out which one(s) I need? | Where are they on the shelves?
How do I get my hands on the one(s) I need? | How can I get more help with UN documents?


What are Official Records?

Official Records of UN organs record what is said and done by the major organs of the UN. They include:

  • verbatim minutes or summary records of the meetings
  • verbatim minutes or summary records of committee meetings
  • additional documents used in discussions during each session (letters, agendas, etc.)
  • annual reports
  • resolutions
  • budget and financial reports

If your citation includes the following abbreviations, the document you are looking for is in the Official Records:

	GAOR - General Assembly Official Records
	ESCOR - Economic and Social Council Official Records
	SCOR - Security Council Official Records
	TCOR - Trusteeship Council Official Records
	TDBOR - Trade and Development Board Official Records

If your citation does not include these abbreviations, your document may still be in the Official Records, depending on the kind of document it is.


Official records are published for each session, and are made up of up to four kinds of volumes (every organ does not necessarily have official records of every kind of volume):

  • Plenary/Meetings: Verbatim minutes or summary records of plenary meetings (meetings of the entire organ). A number of agenda items, or issues, can be covered in a single plenary meeting.
  • Committee: Verbatim minutes or summary records of committee meetings.
  • Annexes include the important documents used in the discussion of agenda items of each session.
  • Supplements include the annual reports of UN subsidiary organs, and the resolutions, budget, and financial reports of each session.

(Some mimeographed documents are reprinted in the Annex and Supplement volumes of the Official Records.)

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How do I figure out which one(s) I need?

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Where are they on the shelves?

The UN Offical Documents are in Memorial Library's Government Documents section, on stack level 2M South.

The bound volumes (or unbound documents tied together) are arranged on the shelves:

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How do I get my hands on the one(s) I need?

Economic and Social Council Official Records

Citation includes: references to "ESCOR" or document symbols beginning with "E/"
Locations: Memorial Government Documents Collection, Stack Level 2M South, Aisle 3
Records from 1997-2001: Memorial Microforms/Media Center, Room 443, Micro Fiche 6246
Specialized index: Index to Proceedings of the Economic and Social Council (location: Memorial Reference Stacks, HC59 A1957)
Miscellaneous tips:

  • Document symbols usually appear on the first page of a document at the top right hand corner.
  • Documents with "-/SR." (stands for "Summary Record;" example: E/1991/SR.26) in the document symbol are usually in the Plenary/Meetings volumes.
  • Table of contents for Plenary/Meetings volumes list meeting dates, agenda items discussed, and speakers.
  • Documents with "-/CN." (stands for "Commission;" example: E/CN.9/1991/11) are usually in the Supplement volumes.
  • Supplement No. 1 for each session contains resolutions and decisions of that session.
  • For most sessions, there are no Committee or Annex volumes; occasionally, the Annexes are bound with the Plenary/Meeting volumes.

General Assembly Official Records

Citation includes: references to "GAOR" or document symbols beginning with "A/"
Locations: Memorial Government Documents Collection, Stack Level 2M South, Aisles 3-4
Records from 1997-2001: Memorial Microforms/Media Center, Room 443, Micro Fiche 6246
Specialized index: Index to Proceedings of the General Assembly (location: Memorial Reference Stacks, JX1977 A44; holdings: 1947-present)
Miscellaneous tips:

  • Table of contents for Plenary volumes list meeting dates, agenda items discussed, and speakers.
  • Documents with "-/PV." (stands for "Verbatim Record") in the document symbol are in the Plenary volumes.
  • Document symbols for documents in the Annex volumes appear at the top of the document text, centered over the text.
  • Documents with "-/C." (stands for "Committee") are in the Committee volumes.
  • Document symbols for documents in the Committee volumes appear at the bottom right corner of the first page and the top right corner of subsequent pages.
  • Supplement No. 1 for each session is the annual report of the Secretary General.

Security Council Official Records

Citation includes: references to "SCOR" or document symbols beginning with "S/"
Locations: Memorial Government Documents Collection, Stack Level 2M South, Aisles 4-5
Records from 1997-2001: Memorial Microforms/Media Center, Room 443, Micro Fiche 6246
Specialized index: Index to Proceedings of the Security Council (location: Memorial Reference Stacks, JX1977 A512; holdings: 1964-1996)
Miscellaneous tips:

  • Official Records consist mostly of Meetings and Supplements volumes.
  • Documents with "-/PV." (stands for "Verbatim Record;" example: S/PV.2509) in the document symbol are in the Meetings volumes.
  • Meetings of the Security Council are numbered consecutively beginning with the first meeting of the Security Council in 1946. The number of the meeting is the same number in the document symbol.
  • Document symbols for documents in the Meetings volumes appear at the bottom right corner of the first page of the document.
  • Early Meetings volumes contain both English and French text: English on the left column of the page, and French on the right column.
  • In the Supplements volumes, the "Table of Contents" or "Checklist of Documents" at the beginning of each set of documents (there may be several sets in a single bound volume) has a list of Security Council documents by number. If there is no page number listed for a particular document, it is not in the Supplements.

Trusteeship Council Official Records

Note: The Trusteeship Council suspended operations in 1994, and has not met since then. See http://www.un.org/documents/tc.htm for more information.

Citation includes: references to "TCOR" or document symbols beginning with "T/"
Location: Memorial Government Documents Collection, Stack Level 2M South, Aisle 5
Specialized index: Index to Proceedings of the Trusteeship Council (location: Memorial Reference Stacks, JX4021 U3853; holdings 1952-1994)
Miscellaneous tips:

Trade & Development Board Official Records

Citation includes: references to "TDBOR" or document symbols beginning with "TD/" or "TD/B"
Locations: Memorial Government Documents Collection, Stack Level 2M South, Aisle 5
Records from 1997-2001: Memorial Microforms/Media Center, Room 443, Micro Fiche 6246
Miscellaneous tips:

  • Official name of organ is "United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Trade and Development Board."
  • Meetings, Annexes, and Supplements for a given session often bound into a single volume.
  • Documents with "-/SR." (stands for "Summary Record;" example: TD/B/SR.243) in the document symbol are usually in the Meetings volumes.
  • Document symbols for documents in all volumes appear at the bottom right corner of the first page of the document.

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How can I get more help with UN documents?

To arrange an appointment for in-depth reference assistance, or to arrange for course-related instruction in government documents at Memorial Library, please contact:
Beth Harper
Government Publications Reference Librarian
(608) 262-9852
or Email Beth

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