Major IGO holdings

This is a selective guide to the major IGO materials held.

Council of Europe

Not to be confused with the European Council or the Council of the European Communities - the Council of Europe is an older body concerned with "humane" matters ( eg: human rights) in Europe.

All items from this body are catalogued on the Library Catalogue| . No documents are received.

• European conventions, agreements and protocols are to be found in the European treaty series 1970- [Intergovernmental organisations CE (23/...)]. See the printed catalogue of CE publications [REF COLL Z1039.C8] for a list of these if the number of the series is not known - otherwise search the Catalogue under "European treaty series" using the Series Browse function. Also see the Council's Conventions website.  Explanatory reports to Conventions or to Protocols to the Conventions are catalogued individually on the Library Catalogue - use the keyword option to find them.
• Council of Europe recommendations and resolutions adopted by the Assembly are to be found in the Texts adopted [Intergovernmental organisations CE (R6)]. They are also to be found on the Assembly's website. However, usually it is the Recommendations to member states by the Committee of Ministers which are required – on the Council's website or at [Intergovernmental organisations CE (R46)]. This annual compilation also includes the resolutions of the Committee of Ministers but does not have explanatory memoranda. Any recommendation which has subsequently had an explanatory memorandum attached to it will be found separately catalogued on the Library Catalogue.
• The European Court of Human Rights (Series A) Judgements and decisions (1960-1997), and Reports of judgments and decisions (1997-) [MAIN COLL KJC5138 E81] are kept on the 1st floor of the Library. Judgments are also available via the Hudoc database.
• The European Court of Human Rights title Pleadings, oral arguments, documents (1964-88) (series discontinued) [MAIN COLL KJC5138 E81] are kept on the 1st floor of the Library.
• The European Commission on Human Rights title Decisions and reports (1967-) [MAIN COLL KJC5135 E81] are kept on the 1st floor of the Library.
• The Council of Europe website - has full texts of Parliamentary Assembly documents 1996- (but not of the Council of Ministers) and the main treaties. The European Court of Human Rights has HUDOC which has the full text of recent judgments.
• The Human Rights Documentation Depository (17, Russell Square) has case law under the European Convention on Human Rights (judgments, Commission decisions ,etc). 

Food and Agriculture Organization

The Library is a depository for FAO publications but no documents are received except for Council (CL), Committee on Commodity Problems (CCP) and Committee on World Food Security documents which are kept in Closed Access - apply to the Service Counter for these.

We have the catalogues of FAO publications (monographs) and documents at REF COLL Z1039.F6.  All publications are catalogued on the online Library Catalogue except for some fisheries technical reports and papers which are merely shelved at Intergovernmental organisations FAO (621 and 622).

• The FAO document repository contains the full-text of the FAO publications and documents since 1998. Includes selected non-FAO publications.
• Technical material is not kept by the Library but is passed on to other libraries.
• The state of food and agriculture [STATISTICS FAO (HA261 and also online] - sometimes called "SOFA" and Commodity review and outlook/ Commodity market review [STATISTICS FAO (HA201)] are two prominent titles.
• The FAO website has a searchable database called WAICENT which is very useful if you are unsure about recent conference reports or what information has become available in full text recently. WAICENT also has several FAO statistical databases available.

International Court of Justice

• All material from this IGO is catalogued on the Library Catalogue. However, very little is shelved at Intergovernmental organisations ICJ - the most-used material is in the Law section and/or online.
• Pleadings, oral arguments and documents , 1948- , are at Main Collection JX64. They are arranged alphabetically by title and offer the arguments made by states in representing their case. A list of these is online via the ICJ website.
• Reports of judgments, advisory opinions and orders, 1947- , are at  Main Collection JX64. These are the reports of cases which may be made by several judges over ensuing years. A list of the cases, indicating which year to look for at JX64, is on the ICJ website. Recent (1971- ) cases (both contentious cases and advisory opinions) are in full-text online. Westlaw UK  also has these in its INT-ICJ file.

International Labour Organization

We take a selective standing order for this body for most series. All items are catalogued on the Library Catalogue|.

• Labordoc is the ILO's finding tool or index of its books, journals and documentation (ie: what used to be the printed International labour documentation). It also includes much indexing of material from outside the ILO. Library users should refer to this rather than to International labour documentation which is an uncumulated monthly journal.
• Ilolex CD-Rom [SERVICE COUNTER CD-ROM (R3)] has all ILO labour standards on it. ILOLEX is also available online.
• Miscellaneous and general ILO publications are at Intergovernmental organisations ILO (I...) classmarks.
• International Labour Conference reports are at Intergovernmental organisations ILO (II...) classmarks, arranged by year.
• ILO committee/symposium/subsidiary conference publications are at Intergovernmental organisations ILO (III...) classmarks.

International Monetary Fund

All items that we take from this body are catalogued on the online Library Catalogue|.

• IMF working papers (1987-) [Intergovernmental organisations IMF (103/...)]. Arranged by year and number. From 1997, these are also available in full text via the IMF's website.
• IMF staff country reports (1994-) [Intergovernmental organisations IMF (179/...)]. Arranged by year/number. A list is available via the IMF's website. We take the "Recent economic developments" series which give descriptions and statistics of each country. Use these for recent descriptions of economic conditions in a particular country along with the OECD surveys [Intergovernmental organisations OEEC (R8)], the Asian Development Bank's economic reviews [Intergovernmental organisations ADB (95)] and the Economist Intelligence Unit Country Reports in the Main Collection or online.
• IMF staff papers [Intergovernmental organisations IMF (R5) and Course Collection Periodicals] and also online.
• For Article IV consultations, Poverty reduction strategy papers, Policy discussion papers, see the IMF's website.
• The JOLIS catalogue has bibliographical details of World Bank/IMF publications.  

League of Nations

All items held by the Library are catalogued either in the Library Catalogue| . Not all documents were taken. All items taken (except for those in Historical Statistics) are in Closed Access and have to be fetched for you - ask at the Service Counter.

 

The work of the League (and hence its documents) concerned three bodies - the Secretariat (or a section of it), committees, and conferences. All three could produce documents which would go forward to the Council or to the Assembly.

 

The League produced three types of documents: 1) documents put on sale 2) documents not put on sale 3) classified documents. However, the distinction was blurred between these types: some not -for -sale documents are available in the Official Journal, some classified ones were declassified and made available and some important documents were not for sale!

 

Documents usually bore the "Official number" which indicated the section of the Secretariat it came from and the number it attained in the sequence of documents given to the Council and the Member states. Eg: AC.351.M.112.1925.XII means that the document originated from section XII of the Secretariat and was the three hundred and fifty-first to go to the Council in the year 1925.

 

In 1926 the League adopted a numbering system for sales publications which aids in classification of the documents by subject (called "Series of League of Nations publications" or Sales Numbers). On the document this consisted of a Roman numeral for the section, the name of the section, year of publication, the Roman numeral again and an Arabic numeral denoting the number of the document for that year, e.g. II. Economic and Financial 1929. II. 47

 

The Catalogue follows these numbering schemes so that items have classmarks according firstly to the section number (Roman numeral) followed by the year followed by an Arabic number which may or may not correspond to the document number. The section divisions are as follows:

IA Administrative Commissions (Saar, Danzig)
IB Protection of minorities
II Economic and Finance Section
III Health
IV Social questions (Traffic in women, child welfare, etc.)
V Legal section
VIA Mandates
VIB Slavery
VII Political Section
VIII Communications and transit
IX Disarmament
X Financial administration of the League
XI Traffic in opium and other drugs
XIIA Intellectual cooperation
XIIB International bureaus
XIII Refugees

In addition, there is a "General" series devoted to reports on the work of the League (bound at Intergovernmental organisations L.N.Gen... numbers).

 

In practice, it is probably best to ascertain the title of the document and which section of the Secretariat issued the document you are looking for (and in which year) and go through the online Library Catalogue. Use the following guides to find out these details:

• Carroll, M.J. 1930 - 38. Key to League of Nations documents placed on public sale. Boston, Mass : World Peace Foundation [REF COLL Z1039.L4 K41].
• Aufricht, H. 1951. Guide to League of Nations publications : a bibliographical survey of the work of the League, 1920-1947. New York : Columbia University Press. [REF COLL Z1039.L4 A91]

Key materials:

• The League of Nations Treaty series (1920-46) (2 copies) [JX170 L43 and Intergovernmental organisations L.N.(R1) (a forerunner of the United Nations Treaty Series).
• Official journal (with supplements on special topics) (1920-40) [Intergovernmental organisations L.N.Gen (R7)].
• Records of the ...Session of the Assembly (1920-46) [Intergovernmental organisations L.N.Gen (R8).
• Statistical yearbook of the League of Nations (1926-1942/44) [Intergovernmental organisations LN II (R21)] also via the League of Nations statistical and disarmament documents website from Northwestern University.
• Monthly bulletin of statistics (1919-46) [Historical Statistics LN (HA155) and Microforms M(STATISTICS) 237-247].
• International trade statistics (1913-34) [Historical Statistics LN (HA201)]
• Balances of payments (1910-38) [Historical Statistics LN (HA401) and Microforms M(STATISTICS) 250-254]
• Also: League of Nations photo archive (from Indiana University). The actual League archives are in Geneva at the UNOG.
• The LSE Library has the archives of the League of Nations Union.  

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

All items are catalogued on the Library Catalogue|.

Worth noting:

• The location is Intergovernmental organisations OEEC which reflects the earlier name of the organisation. 
• Since January 1998, all OECD titles, in addition to the printed versions, are also available electronically via SourceOECD [Library Catalogue]. Major statistical data are included.
• OECD statistics are sometimes good to use instead of Eurostat ones for European statistics because they cover non-EU, as well as EU, European countries. As well as being available via SourceOECD, some of the major statistical series are also available via ESDS International.
• OECD Economic Surveys (1961-) [Intergovernmental organisations. OEEC (R8)] and SourceOECD (1998-). Annual surveys of each OECD member country's economic performance and outlook. Also includes OECD associate member countries (transitional economies). When the newspapers mention a "recent OECD report" on a particular country, this is usually what is meant.
• The OECD's website has some full text documents - particularly from the OECD Development Centre (technical papers) and the Economics Department (working papers from no.160, 1996 onwards).
• No documents are taken from the OECD. They can be requested on microfiche from Paris. 

World Bank

All items are catalogued on the Library Catalogue|. Note that the classmark is Intergovernmental organisations IBRD, reflecting the largest part of the World Bank Group which is the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Worth noting:

• World Bank country studies [Intergovernmental organisations IBRD (205)].
• Policy research working papers (formerly World Bank staff working papers) [Intergovernmental organisations IBRD (433/...)]. Arranged by number of the paper. When a "World Bank working paper" is mentioned, this is what is meant. See the World Bank documents and reports site for online full-text versions of these.
• The World Bank's Library (EMIC Kingsgate House, 66-74 Victoria Street, London SW1 6SW - Tel : 0207 215 5444/5). This has copies of some documents which we do not take in print at the  Library such as environmental assessments, sectoral policy papers, project information documents. We have bought some of the economic and sector reports. A catalogue of PIC material is in the Reference Collection [REF COLL Z1039.W6] and also on the World Bank's Website (searchable). The Centre only has reference copies of these items - personal copies need to be ordered from Washington at ,10 each for some items. But see next item:
• See the World Bank documents and reports site which is keyword searchable and has full text documents and reports on it. Includes country and sector reports, the Policy Research Working Papers, project documents, Poverty reduction strategy papers.
• World development report [STATISTICS IBRD (HA155)] and CD-ROM  and online - annual reports on world development 1978- . CD-ROM version has all reports on it. Not to be confused with the journal World development [HC59.7] or with the United Nations' Human development report [Statistics Collection UN (HA155)] or with the Bank's World development indicators [Statistics Collection IBRD (HA155) and online via ESDS International].
• The JOLIS catalogue has bibliographical details of World Bank / IMF publications. 

World Trade Organization and GATT

Publications are catalogued on the online Library catalogue. The older material (prior to 1995) is shelved at Intergovernmental organisations GATT.

Worth noting:

• The legal texts of the various WTO and GATT agreements are available online. They are also available via the BISD (see entry immediately below). Also in Final act embodying the results of the Uruguay round of multilateral trade negotiations, Marrakesh, 15 April 1994 [Intergovernmental organisations GATT (154)]; Results of the Uruguay round of multilateral trade negotiation : the legal texts at [Intergovernmental organisations GATT (142 and CD-ROM (3))].
• Basic instruments and selected documents (BISD) at [Intergovernmental organisations GATT (R10)] and [Intergovernmental organisations WTO (57)]. The official compilation of documents in printed form. The two other compilations that have official status are the microfiche and online versions given below.
• GATT / WTO documents are taken on microfiche [FICHE GATT (R1)] on the Ground floor (1952-1996) and online since 1996. Annual indexes are filed at REF. COLL. Z1039.G3 in paper and microfiche format. These indexes give the microfiche number by which the fiche are arranged. NOTE: the Library does not hold any "MTN" documents. These are the negotiating documents of the Uruguay Round and are often required. The WTO microfiche officer in Geneva will email those MTN documents which have been de-restricted only. Maria Bell has a list of which are de-restricted and which are still unavailable - please see him if you require an MTN documents.
• See the GATT digital library from Stanford University for access to some online versions of GATT documents.
• Since 1996, WTO documents are available from the WTO's  "documents online" website.
• Dispute settlement reports are available online, and also in the Basic instruments and selected documents [Intergovernmental organisations GATT (R10)] and [Intergovernmental organisations WTO (57)], on Lexis - Nexis and at [Intergovernmental organisations WTO (21)].
• WTO analytical index [Intergovernmental organisations WTO (44)] is the guide for the interpretation and application of the decisions of the WTO Panel and Appelate Body, It continues the Analytical index : guide to GATT law and practice [Intergovernmental organisations GATT (144)] and CD-ROM (92).
• Trade policy reviews [Intergovernmental organisations WTO (10)] - pre- 1995 at [Intergovernmental organisations GATT (126)]. Online versions are available via the WTO Website.
• There is a guide to doing WTO/GATT research from the New York University School of Law and an older version from LLRX.

  Back to top|