Locating United Nations Documents

at the University of Wisconsin's Memorial Library

This Guide Helps You:
Find UN Documents | Find Documents in the Official Record
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? | Find Mimeographed Documents
What are Mimeographed Documents?
Which Mimeographed documents does Memorial Have?
Location of Documents, 1946-1974
Location of Documents, 1974-1996(and Current Year)
Location of Documents, 1997-Previous Year | Find UN Sales Publications
What is a Sales Publication?
How do I find sales publications in MadCat?
What if I can't find my sales publication in MadCat
Now that I have the Call Number, where is the publication on the shelf?

UN Documents:

What is a UN Document? | What do all the letters (document symbols) mean? | Even more letters!
Now that I understand the letters, where can I find the actual text? |
How can I get more help with UN documents?

What is a UN Document?

UN Documents...

Are the result of the legislative proceedings of the United Nations. They are records of what UN organs*, their committees & commissions said, considered, or did. Include agendas, letters, records of meetings, resolutions, and decisions. Can be found: in the Official Records of four of the UN's organs; in Memorial's collection of Mimeographed Documents; or on the Internet, hosted by UN web and gopher sites.

* Note: UN "organs" are the major deliberative bodies of the UN. The UN organs are: 1) General Assembly; 2) Economic and Social Council; 3) Security Council; 4) Trusteeship Council; 5) International Court of Justice; and 6) Secretariat, which is headed by the Secretary General.

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What do all the letters (document symbols) mean?

Document symbols...

• Function as "call numbers;" tell you where in a collection to find specific documents.
• Are made up of letters/abbreviations and numbers, which indicate:
  • the body and/or subsidiary organ the document was produced by or submitted to;
  • when the document was issued or considered;
  • the nature of the document.

• Are components of document symbols:
  • 1st component indicates the principal organ or subsidiary organ issuing/considering the document. For example...

A/	   General Assembly
CEDAW/   Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women
ST/	   Secretariat
  

• 2nd component indicates a subsidiary body (e.g. commission, committee) of the main issuing body. For example...

-/C/	   Standing, permanent or sessional committee
-/CN/	   Commission
-/WG/	   Working group

• A subsidiary body is assigned a number which usually indicates the order in which it was established. For example...

E/CN.4/    4th Commission established by the Economic & Social Council (Commission on
              Human Rights)
E/CN.17/   17th Commission established by the Economic & Social Council (Commission on
              Sustainable Development)
      

• Sometimes letters are added to indicate the nature of the document. For example...

-/L./	   Limited distribution document
-/NGO/	   Statement by non-governmental organization
-/PV.	   Verbatim record of a meeting
-/RES/	   Adopted Resolution
      

• Modifications to the text of the main documents are indicated. For example...

-/Add.	   Addendum
-/Corr.	   Corrigendum (corrects errors in the text of the main document)
-/Rev.	   Revision
      

• Document symbols also include numerals which indicate the year or session in which the document was issued, and an individual identifying number.

• Examples of full document symbols and what they mean:
  • E/RES/1990/5
    Issued by the Economic and Social Council \ Resolution \ issued in 1990 \ 5th resolution of the year
  • A/45/L.2
    Issued by the General Assembly / 45th session / 2nd limited distribution document issued during that session
  • A/C.4/45/2/Add.2
    Issued by the General Assembly's / 4th Committee / 45th session / 2nd document issued by the 4th Committee during that session / 2nd Addendum

• For more information on document symbols and what they mean, you can visit the UN's Dag Hammarskjöld Library's web site Document Symbols: United Nations Documentation at http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/symbol.htm

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Even more letters!

Certain abbreviations are not document symbols, but show up often in index entries or references from the UN Yearbook. These abbreviations are:

	GAOR - General Assembly Official Records
	ESCOR - Economic and Social Council Official Records
	SCOR - Security Council Official Records
	TCOR - Trusteeship Council Official Records

• These abbreviations mean the document you're looking for is in the Official Records of one of the UN organs.
• Even if your citation does not include one of the abbreviations, it may be in the Official Records.

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Now that I understand the letters, where can I find the actual text?

Two databases, UNBISnet (available for free on the Internet) and Access UN (which the UW Libraries subscribe to) contain the full text of selected UN documents, especially resolutions and recent documents. See http://www.library.wisc.edu/guides/govdocs/un/indexes.htm#unbis for a description of UNBISNet , or http://www.library.wisc.edu/guides/govdocs/un/indexes.htm#L for a description of Access UN.

The chart below gives a brief rundown of other places you are likely to find documents, according to the start of the document symbol and when the document was issued. There are a couple of things you should be aware of before you start, though.

• "Documents available electronically" Only documents from recent years, for selected bodies and subsidiary organs, are available on the Internet, and even then, only selected documents are available. If your document is recent, look on the Internet first; it is often the easiest way to get to a document. But do not be surprised if it is not there. Also, make sure that your document is coming from one of the sites maintained by the UN.

• "Mimeographed Documents"
  Memorial is not a UN depository library, so we do not receive all documents. Most of the documents Memorial Library owns are issued from New York or Geneva, Switzerland. Selected Mimeographed Documents issued before 1974 are available in microprint; selected Mimeographed Documents issued from 1974 on are available in print or microfiche.

If your document does not start with the abbreviations listed below, see a reference librarian for additional assistance.

If the document symbol begins with...	Selected documents available electronically at url:	Selected documents avail. in print form in...
A/ (General Assembly)	http://www.un.org/ga/58/ Documents from the 55th to the 58th sessions (2003-04), under "Documentation" and then either "Session Documents," "Verbatim Records," or "Resolutions."	General Assembly Official Records (GAOR) or Mimeographed Documents
CAT/ (Committee Against Torture)	http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/cat/cats.htm Some State [country] Reports and Concluding Observations from 1997 forward.	Mimeographed Documents
CEDAW/ (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women)	http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/sessions.htm Documents, including some country reports, from the 13th session (1995) to the present.	Mimeographed Documents
CERD/ (Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination)	http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/cerd/cerds.htm Some State [country] Reports and Concluding Observations from the 50th session (1997) forward.	Mimeographed Documents
CRC/ (Committee on the Rights of the Child)	http://193.194.138.190/html/menu2/6/crc/doc/past.htm Some State [country] Reports and Concluding Observations from 2000 forward.	Mimeographed Documents

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If the document symbol begins with...	Selected documents available electronically at url:	Selected documents avail. in print form in...
DP/ (UN Development Programme)	Not available on the Internet at this time.	Mimeographed Documents
E/ (Economic and Social Council)	http://www.un.org/esa/coordination/ecosoc/document.htm Selected documents from the current year. http://www.un.org/esa/coordination/ecosoc/archives.htm Selected documents going back to 1994; resolutions going back to 1982.	Economic and Social Council Official Records (ESCOR) or Mimeographed Documents
S/ (Security Council)	http://www.un.org/Docs/sc Includes links to: Resolutions (1946-present) Security Council Presidential Statements (1994-present), and exchanges of letters between the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council (1997-present) (under "Security Council President") Secretary-General's Reports to the Security Council (1994-present) Selected mission reports	Security Council Official Records (SCOR) or Mimeographed Documents
ST/ (Secretariat)	Reports of the Secretary-General are normally issued as documents of the organs to which they are submitted. A limited number of some older documents issued by the Secretary-General can be found at http://www.un.org/Docs/SG/ but none of them have "ST/" at the beginning of the document symbol	Mimeographed Documents
T/ (Trusteeship Council)	Has not met regularly since 1994; has not put its documents online.	Trusteeship Council Official Records (TCOR) or Mimeographed Documents

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If the document symbol begins with...	Selected documents available electronically at url:	Selected documents avail. in print form in...
TD/, TD/B or UNCTAD/ (UN Conference on trade and Development)	http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Page.asp?intItemID=1397&lang=1 Use the "Search" feature to find documents from 1994 to present by document symbol or keyword.	Conference on Trade and Development Official Records (TDBOR) or Mimeographed Documents
UNEP/ or EP/ (UN Environment Programme)	http://www.unep.org/GC/GC22/ Documents from the 22nd session of the Governing Council, held February 2003. http://www.unep.org/GC_21st/ Documents from the 21st session of the Governing Council; links to a limited number of documents from previous sessions.	Mimeographed Documents
UNESCO/ (UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization)	http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ulis/ Site allows you to search for and retrieve documents going back to late 1995. Most documents are in PDF format; Adobe Acrobat needed to display documents (Acrobat is available for downloading from the site). Documents include: Main documents of General Conference & Executive Board Working series Reports and documents of meetings and conferences organized by UNESCO Speeches of the Director-General	Mimeographed Documents

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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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Last Updated: December 2, 2004
Content by Beth Harper, Government Documents Librarian, Memorial Library (608) 262-9852;
Web Design by Nikki Busch, Reference and Instruction, Memorial Library