The UN publications are split into several categories. The Official Papers section holds the Official Records, sales publications and documents, which are the three main categories of publications.
Useful guides from the UN on UN documentation : UN Documentation How to find UN documents and UN Documentation and Overview
Official Records
Official records constitute the primary documents issued by the major organs of the United Nations. This category of records includes records of meetings, resolutions and decisions, committees, commissions and supplements, which are issued by session.
The four primary bodies are:
Other bodies also issue official records.
The Index to Proceedings is a powerful tool which provides a window into the annual meetings of the main UN organs. The publication is comprised of a subject index to all the documents issued by the body in question during a particular session/year and an index to speeches delivered before the forum in question during a particular session/year.
United Nations Sales Publications
These are publications offered for sale to the general public. The sales numbers are split into broad subject categories/issuing bodies. Sales publications are on open shelf and are arranged by sales number category, to include both monographs and periodicals. Not all the sales categories are listed here as we do not receive them under depository status. Please use SOLO to search for sales publications
| Sales No. | Category |
|
I |
General information and reference |
|
II.A |
Business, Economics, Science and Technology |
|
II.B |
Economic Development |
|
II.C |
World Economy |
|
II.D |
Trade, Finance and Commerce |
|
II.E |
European Economy (ECE) |
|
II.F |
Asian Economy (ESCAP) |
|
II.G |
Latin American Economy (ECLAC) |
|
II.H |
Public Administration |
|
II.K |
African Economy (ECA) |
|
II.L |
Western Asian Economy (ESCWA) |
|
IV |
Social Questions |
|
V |
International Law |
|
VII |
Security Council and Peace-Keeping Operations |
|
VIII |
Transport and Communications |
|
IX |
Disarmament and Atomic Energy |
|
X |
International Administration |
|
XI |
Narcotic Drugs |
|
XIII |
Demography |
|
XIV |
Human Rights |
|
XVI |
Public Finance and Fiscal Questions |
|
XVII |
International Statistics |
.
An example of a UN sales publication is E.89.IIK.4. The E stands for the language it is published in, in this case English, 89 refers to the year of publication, IIK the sales category of African Economy and 4 is the 4th publication for that year.
The majority of monographs and periodicals under the sales no. categories are accessible via OLIS.
The United Nations documents are referenced by a combination of letters and numbers. They are the working documents of the United Nations and are not meant for formal publication. The first letters are usually the issuing body and they also contain a publication date or indication of the session. They are kept in alphabetical order in Official Papers in acid free boxes. To give an idea of scale, we have nearly 350 metres of UN loose leaf documents.
General examples:
| A/ | General Assembly |
| S/ | Security Council |
| E/ | Economic and Social Council |
| ST/ | Secretariat |
| CRC/ | Committee on the rights of the child |
| A/54/2 | General Assembly, 54th session, document no.2 |
| E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/NGO/32 | Economic and Social Commission, Sub-Commissionon Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, year: 1998, Statement by non-Government Organization, document no.32 |
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