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Finding UN Materials. Elizabeth Wells Bodleian Law Library November 2009. UN Publication or UN Document Numbers & Symbols 5 databases Press release Un-i-que UN documentation centre UN’s ODS
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Finding UN Materials Elizabeth Wells Bodleian Law Library November 2009
UN Publication or UN Document Numbers & Symbols 5 databases Press release Un-i-que UN documentation centre UN’s ODS UNBisnet Some useful URLS for Research guides UN news & current awareness This session
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
UN Publications “Sales publications” • intended for public consumption • e.g. UN Yearbooks • Press releases Dolly the Sheep facing her public
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
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
Law Bod Official Papers, Radcliffe Camera
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
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)
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
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
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
Basic Searching http://www.un.org/en/
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/
Example 2005 World Summit Documents available just by drilling down
www.un.org/en/additions/index.shtml Also possible shortcut if you are looking for a recent document
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
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 Minoritiesof the Commission on Human Rights
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
http://lib-unique.un.org/lib/unique.nsf Convert a title to a document symbol or a sales publication number
Search Tip : finding periodic report of country under HR obligation type [Country name] – periodic – [keyword] * for variants Select Match ALL these words (Boolean AND)
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.htm#itp
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
Official Document System http://documents.un.org
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 ODS
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
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
Search via Symbol A/RES/55/2 & Change Truncation To None Navigating (huge) Lexicon – scroll down + click Next to drill down length of list
Punctuation ie / / Not essential Impact of “Search Results By” If you Right Truncate
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
Clicking underlined symbol links to screen with indexing information about the document & where you have choice oflanguages/formats for viewing the text
Advantage of Pdf Document will be exactly as printed, with original formatting, reproducing all graphics, maps and annexes.
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
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
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 don’t know exactly
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.
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
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.
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-
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
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
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