United Nations Research: Documents & Publications

It is important to note the difference between documents & publications. Whether an item is one or the other will determine where it is and how you locate it.

• Documents:
  • Include records of meetings & other materials issued by IGOs as a result of their work 
  • May be one page or several hundred pages in length
  • All documents are assigned a special United Nations Document number consisting of letters and numbers separated by a solidus (” /“)
  • York acquires UN documents in microfiche & has a collection of older material in microprint but does not catalogue them.
  • They are found using document indexes and other tools.

• Publications:
  • Usually destined to inform the general public about an organization or its activities
  • Generally substantial in size
  • York collects many UN publications & these publications can be searched by title in the library catalogue

by Mike McCaffrey & Amanda Wakaruk

• Issued each session for the General Assembly, Economic & Social Council, Trusteeship Council & annually for the Security Council
• Includes:
  • an index for all documents issued by the body, organized by subject & agenda item
  • an index to speeches for the session organized by speaker (individual or corporate name), subject, & country
• Useful for documents prior to the mid 1980s
  • post 1983 use UN Digital Library

• Resolutions are formal expressions of the opinion or will of UN organs. 
• Decisions are another type of formal action taken by UN bodies.
• They often concern procedural matters such as elections, appointments, time and place of future sessions. 
• They are sometimes also used to record the adoption of a text representing the consensus of the members of a given organ.

U.N. Documentation Research Guide - Dag Hammarskjöld Library

Find voting records for resolutions & decisions adopted by the General Assembly & Security Council:

Each of the 5 permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (China, France, Russia, U.S. & U.K) have the power to unilaterally block (veto) any decision or resolution put forward by the Security Council.

• Search for print publications by title in the library catalogue
• Use the tools below to search for U.N. publications online

Two types of meeting records:

• Verbatim records: full, first person accounts of the meetings
• uses PV in document symbol, e.g. A/67/PV.81

• Summary records: 3rd person, condensed summary of meeting
• uses SR in document symbol, e.g. A/C.3/67/SR.34

Use the resources below to study Canada's involvement & actions within the U.N.

Each UN document is issued a unique identifier composed of letters & numbers. The document symbols are comprised of components relating to the UN organ where to document was submitted or where it was created,  the nature of the document, as well as the session & year identifiers. 

• Document symbols are necessary for searching UN material in microfiche & microprint at York
• Use some of the resources below for more information about document symbols & how to use them to search for documents