United Nations Program at Drew - Research Guide

• Finding delegates
• Finding speeches by delegates
• Finding UN voting records
• Finding information about countries
• Finding NGOs
• Researching UN issues
• Contact a librarian

Finding delegates:

• A list of United Nations ambassadors, delegates and supporting diplomatic staff by country can be found in the Permament Missions to the United Nations . A print copy of Permament Missions to the United Nations is shelved in the Reference collection: Ref 341.233 U58p (yr).
• Information about delegates is available online from 1993 onward on the ODS database. Go to ODS Advanced, type in the following document symbol number in the symbol search box: st/sg/ser.a/ and type in the phrase "permanent missions to the united nations" in the words of the title search box. Archived digital versions of the Permanent Missions to the United States can be found in this database; limit your search by year for best results.
• Refer to the ODS Advanced User Guide for help with this database.

Finding speeches by delegates:

• UNBISnet provides a database of speeches delivered at the various bodies of the United nations, including the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Countil and the Trusteeship Council.
• Scroll down to Index to Speeches and opt for New Keyword Search.
• From this page, you can search by a speaker's name, a country or organization of origin, topics, speech dates and more. Choose your options from the drop down menus in the search boxes.
• To find speeches given in the General Assembly, limit your search to General Assembly in the Limits box.
• See the UNBISnet User Guide for help with this database.

Finding United Nations voting records:

• Use the Voting Records option in UNBISnet - this option provides“the full text of voting records for all resolutions which were adopted - either without a vote or by roll-call or recorded vote - by the General Assembly beginning with its 38th session (1983-) and the Security Council beginning with its 1st year (1946-).” For help with this option, refer to the UNBISnet User Guide.
• Public Law 79-264 requires that the U.S. State Department report to Congress U.S. participation in the United Nations; the report includes a voting record for the U.S. The reports and voting record are availabe online from 2000 through 2005 from the State Department. A comparison of how the U.S. voted on key issues to votes by other countries is also available in these.
• Reports of more recent votes in the United Nations can be found at the UN's Press Release site. Select the organization for which you want to find voting records in the first drop down box at the bottom of the Press Release page (A). In the "keyword(s) in headline" box type in "recorded vote" as an exact phrase (B). Make sure to select dates in the date box - default date is for the current day only (C).

Finding information about countries:

• The CIA's World Factbook provides a lot of information about countries and international organizations.
• The UNPAN's (United Nations Online Network in Public Administration and Finance) virtual library legislative page provides links to the government, constitution and public laws for most countries. Scroll down this page until you hit the Legislative Weblinks by country list.
• Nations of the World from the Law Library of Congress, provides many useful links to official government sites, legal guides and general resources for countries worldwide.
• The Government Gazette, from the University of Michighan library, provides links to official government gazettes for most international countries.

Finding NGOs:

• The NGO Database "contains information about the organizations that have Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations ECOSOC ."
• Search this database by Field of Activity (general topic) or by a specific NGO name.
• Try the DPI/NGO (UN Department of Public Information, Non Governmental Organization) website.
• The Non-Governmental Organization Research Guide from Duke University provides an alphabetic list of NGOs, and helps you find NGO's by issues, geography and affiliation.
• Learn more about the relationship between NGOs and the NGLS, the United Nations at the UN-Non Governmental Liaison Service.
• The NGOs links page lists NGOs alpabetically and by topic.
• Once you have identified specific NGOs, search Academic Search Premier, ProQuest and LexisNexis Academic for scholarly articles and news stories on these organizations (databases available to Drew community from the Research Resource page).

Researching UN issues:

Suggested starting points to find key UN issues.

• The Yearbook of the United Nations (341.23 UN58y yr) provides coverage of UN issues by year. The latext edition for this valuable resource is 2003. The Drew Library archives the Yearbook back to 1945 in the United Nations section located in the Rose building (map). The most current edition of the Yearbook is shelved by the Reference Desk.
• Encyclopedia of the United Nations (Ref 341.2302 M822e)
• Encyclopedia of the United Nations and international agreements (Ref 341.2303 O832e)
• Key Resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly, 1946-1996 (Ref 341.2322 U581u)

For specific issues:

• Search the Drew Catalog.
• Since specific UN bodies/committees/conferences focus on particular topics, it is important to identify those entities which are most relevant to you topic. The Organization of the UN gives an overview of the organization of the United Nations and provides access to numerous bodies and organizations.
• Searching UN Documents Online provides description and links to various UN databases, both large general databases such as UNBISnet and smaller more focused databases which provide access to maps, letters, press releases, statistics and more.
• Document symbols explains the UN's unique classification system. Document symbols are useful for finding print documents in Drew's UN collection (map), for finding items in the Dag Hammarskjold Library, and for finding online documents in the ODS database.
• The following subscription databases are relevant for United Nations research: Columbia International Affairs Online (CAIO); LexisNexis - Guided News Search - World News (databases available to Drew community from the Research Resource page).

Useful United Nations research guides from University libraries and other sources:

• Bowling Green State University (BGSU) Library has a very nice guide for research on the United Nations, and international issues in general. The site has many useful links.
• United Nations Documents and Publications, from the Stanford University Library.
• The United Nations Scholars's Workstation, a research guide developed by the Yale University Library.
• The United Nations offers its own Research Guide.
• International Agencies and Information, from The University of Michighan Library.

Contact a librarian:

Elizabeth Patterson epatters@drew.edu ext. 3480. Reference Department, Drew Library.