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United Nations Collection in the Princeton University Library: Arrangement

United Nations documents and publications in both paper and electronic format can be accessed through indexes and links on this page. Includes those of the External or Specilized Agencies of the UN and also the League of Nations

Arrangement

HOW THE  UNITED NATIONS COLLECTION IS ARRANGED

Electronic components of the United Nations Collection are listed here, and are also found on the Library Home Page under the Articles and Databases link.  UN materials in microformat is in several locations; ask in the Microform Services on Firestone A Floor. The UN Collection in paper is found  on the 2nd Floor of Firestone Library in the Documents Collections and is arranged as follows: General Assembly materials are divided into Plenary documents, meeting as a whole, and in Committee Documents. In addition to other functional and temporary committees, the Main Committees of the General Assembly are:

  • First Committee: Disarmament and International Security
    Until about 1980, Political and Security Committee.
  • Second Committee: Economic and Financial
  • Third Committee: Social, Humanitarian and Cultural
  • Fourth Committee: Special Political and Decolonization .
    Formerly Trusteeship and Decolonization.
  • Fifth Committee: Administrative and Budgetary
  • Sixth Committee: Legal.
  • Special Political Committee - Active until after 1990, became part of 4th Committee
    Main committee are made up of all members of the General Assembly. A Chair, Vice Chairs, and a Rapporteur are selected for the committee for each regular GA session.
  • Princeton Maintains paper copies of Meeting records - what was said - for the General Assembly and for Main Committees, going back to the beginning of the U.N. in the mid 1940s These are also found in the ODS online system from 1992 to the present.

Indexes are largely electronic; links are found at the top of this page.  Note especially  AccessUN for 1945 to date and UNBISNet for 1985 to date. Paper index are sometimes useful, too, and can be located through the Main Catalog. Reference Books are cataloged with regular call numbers and the symbol (UN).  
Working or "Masthead" Documents are identified by Document Symbol, and are  in the ODS full text online system from 1992 to date, and from 1945-1981 in the Readex microcards in the Microforms Library on C Level of Firestone, and for 1982 until about three months ago in Microfiche in SSRC.
Sales Publications are identified by Sales Number such as E.99.II.E.3 or 00.XVII.Series N.3. These publications are cataloged and can be found by searching the Main Catalog.
UN Official Records are records of speeches and discussion in parliamentary sessions along with documents used in those sessions. They cover the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council. Princeton keeps all Official Records from 1946 to the present in bound paper format. Another copy will be found in the Readex microformat sets, and electronic text for 1992 to the present will be found in the ODS full text online system.
Current issues of journals from United Nations sections and agencies are found in the general periodicals collections on the 3rd floor of Firestone. Back files are found in cataloged locations. These titles can be identified by searching the web site of the UN section or agency, and then checking Princeton's Main Catalog.