The library collection comprises materials on subjects related to such UNU themes as peace, security and human rights; development governance; population and health; global change and sustainable development; science, technology and society; as well as the UN system.
UNU Publications are the output of UNU research and study issued to the public in the form of documents or books. They include UNU Press publications; programme, project and periodic reports produced by the UNU Research and Training Institutes and Programmes; public information materials.
Items relating to UNU projects, issued or sponsored by the UNU and published by external publishers are also included. There are approximately 3,500 titles as of 1 August 2012.
The Library holds UN Official Documents dating from 1946. Official records, including General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Secretarial and Trusteeship Council documents are maintained. The catalogue of UN documents and publications is indexed by the UN Dag Hammarskjöld Library and the Library of the UN Office at Geneva.
Also included are commercial publications and other non-UN sources held in the collection of the Dag Hammarskjöld Library.
The coverage of UNBISnet is from 1979 onward, though older documents are being added to the catalogue on a regular basis following retrospective conversion. UNBISnet also provides instant access to a growing number of full text resources in the six official languages of the United Nations (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish).
The UN Treaty Series in print since 1967 is located in our electric compact shelf units. The Treaty Collection Online is freely accessible and the Library staff can assist you when searching the Treaty Collection.
Documents from the conference held in San Francisco in 1945 are held by the Library. The 22 volume set published in cooperation with the Library of Congress is available.
UNU Library holds a collection of League of Nations documents formerly owned by the late Mr. C. Wilfred Jenks, the sixth Director-General of ILO (1970-1973). They were maintained by the UNITAR Library until 1992 and donated to the UNU Library in 1993 when reorganization of the Library was undertaken at the new premises. These valuable documents are available in the Library for consultation and research purposes. Please contact the Library prior to your visit. The League of Nations Archives Catalogue maintained by the UN Office of the Geneva Library is a useful reference tool.
Books, reports and other materials are arranged by the UNU Classification Scheme and are shelved chronologically by registered number under each classification category in the electric compact shelf units. Books are indexed with terminology used in the multilingual UNBIS Thesaurus created by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library.
Reference books including bibliographies, biographies, dictionaries, directories, encyclopaedias, statistics and yearbooks are arranged on the reference shelf units and can be consulted freely. Many of the core reference books have been replaced by online versions.
Journals are arranged alphabetically by title at the journal display rack units with the latest issue on display. Many of the print subscriptions have been replaced by online versions. Please refer to the UNU Library e-Journals A-to-Z.