OFFICIAL DOCUMENT SYSTEM (ODS)

The UN Official Document System (ODS) was first launched in 1993 and updated in 2016. It has full-text digital documents published from 1993 onward, including documents of the Security Council, General Assembly, Economic and Social Council and their subsidiaries. Other documents, such as administrative issuances, are also available.

This service also includes scanned documents published between 1946 and 1993, including all resolutions of the principal organs, all documents of the Security Council and Official Records of the General Assembly.

HOW CAN I GET THESE FROM HOME?

United Nations Publications are of interest to anyone researching international affairs including: peacekeeping, human rights and environmental co-operation.

What does the Library hold?

There are three types of United Nations publications held by the National Library:

  • Official records of the major organs, primarily the General Assembly and Security Council but also some conferences
  • Sales publications including the major information titles of the UN, its subidiary organs and committees
  • Mimeographed documents, provisional uncorrected records of the major organs which were produced prior to official print records becoming available

Some categories of material not received by depository libraries are those designated limited or restricted to special interest groups. For indexes to many of these documents, see the Indexes to Publications page.

Official records

General Assembly 1946-2005, 2010-2011
Security Council 1946-1985
Economic and Social Council 1979-1990
UN Conference on Trade and Development 1956-1992

The library also holds publications of reprinted United Nations resolutions, including indexes, voting records and related material:

Series 1, Resolutions adopted by the General Assembly 1973-1988
Series 2, Resolutions and decisions adopted by the Security Council 1946-1979

Sales publications

Serial print publications held by the library include:

Yearbook of the United Nations 1946-2011
United Nations Chronicle 1976-2012
Statistical Yearbook 1948-1989
Demographic Yearbook 1948-2006 

The library also holds a number of single works, such as:

Mimeographed Documents

These individual documents are not recorded in the catalogue, but are held in off-site storage. They are filed as single documents (not bound), stapled together. The library stopped receiving these documents in 2005, after official documents were made available online.

They can be requested via the catalogue at United Nations Documents. When requesting these documents, you will need to provide the title, date and UN Document Symbol for each document. The UN Document Symbol can be found by using the Indexes to Publications.

FEATURED RESOURCE

Image
UNiLibrary logo

UNiLibrary provides digital access to United Nations sales publications from 2013 onward. Publications are available in all official languages of the United Nations and have been authored by United Nations funds, agencies, departments and programs.

UNiLibrary can be accessed by the National Library’s eResources page, either in the library, or at home using your Library login - simply visit our eResources portal and search for this resource under the Browse eResources tab. Resources are also available for document delivery to Australian libraries.

OTHER RESOURCES

There are also many other UN resources and documents available online – an overview is available on the UN Library’s website.

Not sure where to start?