Intergovernmental organisations: collection guide

Contact Maria Bell| for research assistance about any organisation.

Introduction|
Where is the intergovernmental organisations material kept?|
How is the intergovernmental organisations material organised?|
How to find intergovernmental organisations material in the Library catalogue|
Statistical data|
IGO websites|

Introduction

The Library is concerned with material from the following intergovernmental organisations (IGOs):

1. Universal political, social or economic organisations (eg: United Nations).
2. Regional political, social or economic organisations (eg: European Union, ASEAN).
3. Economic and social development organisations (eg: World Bank, International Monetary Fund, OECD).
4. Organisations concerned with human rights, peace and security (eg: Council of Europe, OSCE, United Nations Security Council).
5. Commodity organisations (eg: International Sugar Organization).
6. Single-issue organisations covering the following areas (often linked with the development sector): agriculture, climate, communications, cultural policy, education, energy, environment, health, intellectual property, labour, migration, productivity, tourism, trade, transport, (eg: World Trade Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, International Labour Organization, World Health Organization).

In general, material is collected intensively for the first four types of IGO outlined above, and more selectively for the last two types of organisations. See the Official publications' collection development policy| for more detail. Material in non-European languages and scientific, technical or medical material are not taken.

This guide introduces the Library's collection of inter-governmental organisations (IGO) material. It does not refer to international non-governmental organisations (INGOs - such as Amnesty International), nor to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), nor to transnational corporations. The organizations described are only a few of those for which we hold material.
For background information, membership details, organisational, structural and procedural details of intergovernmental organisations, see:

• Yearbook of international organizations, 1948 - 2004 [in print at REF COLL JX1904]. A multi -volume annual publication listing all known intergovernmental organisations by type, subject, etc. Also available online.
• Schiavone, G. 2005. International organizations: a dictionary and directory. 6th ed. Basingstoke: PalgraveMacmillan. [REF COLL JZ4838 S32].
• Jenkins, J.C. (ed.). Who's who in international organizations : a biographical encyclopedia of more than 12,000 leading personalities. München ; New York : K.G. Saur [REF. COLL. JX1995 W62]. Biographical details of personnel.

For other directories, abbreviations and inks to the websites of intergovernmental organisations, see the Library's guide to inter-governmental organisations on the web|.

Where is the intergovernmental organisations material kept?

There are five places where the intergovernmental organisations' items are located:

• In the Intergovernmental Organisations collection on the 1st floor. Sales publications and official records from intergovernmental organisations, including the European Union (EC), International Monetary Fund (IMF), United Nations (UN), and World Bank (IBRD), are shelved here. The Library's catalogue will give the location as "Intergovernmental Organisations" followed by the acronym of the organisation (eg: Intergovernmental Organisations IBRD (123)). A breakdown of the organisations allocated to particular shelves is given on the stack-ends.
• In the Statistics Collection on the 1st floor. This contains the current 10 years or the most recent editions of Intergovernmental organisations statistical publications. The organisations are arranged alphabetically by acronym as above and then by broad subject classification (HA numbers). The Library Catalogue will have "Statistics Collection" as the location (e.g. Statistics Collection IMF (HA201)). Organisations also issue statistics on CD-ROM or online - see under the appropriate organisation and Intergovernmental organisations Statistical data.
• In the Historical Statistics collection on the lower ground floor. Older statistical material is shelved here. The Library Catalogue will have "Historical Statistics" as the location (e.g. Historical Statistics OEEC (HA401).
• In the Closed Access area. Some intergovernmental organisations material is kept in the closed stacks and need to be fetched by the staff at the Service Counter. These are principally United Nations "masthead" documents and League of Nations sales publications.
• Some documents (eg: from the GATT/WTO prior to 1996) are in microfiche format. Ask at the Help Desk about these.

How is the intergovernmental organisations material organised?

• Unlike most material in the Library, the intergovernmental organisations material is not arranged by subject. The arrangement of the Intergovernmental organisations collection on the First Floor is by the acronym of the organisation filing alphabetically (ADB...CE...EP...FAO...IBRD...ILO...OEEC...etc.).
• Within each organisation, books (monographs) file before journals (serials) in a running number order. The journals sequence has an "R" before the running number - so IBRD (1)....IBRD (999) followed on the shelves by IBRD (R1)...IBRD (R999). Items will have these numbers on their spines and on the boxes in which they are kept. Filing is always from left to right on the shelves.
• Although there is no subject arrangement of the material, an attempt has been made to keep numbered series together at one number (eg: the IMF staff country reports are together at IMF (179/...)).  

How to find intergovernmental organisations material in the Library Catalogue

• All monographs (books) and serials (journals) are entered on the Library Catalogue. The name of the organisation is also entered as an author - use the author browse option to see everything we have by a particular organisation but bear in mind this may be a lot! Monographs include reports, studies, conference reports and working papers.
• If you know only the series title (eg: IMF staff country report, IMF working papers, OECD working papers), use the Series browsing option. This will list the titles of the series alphabetically (unless there are more than 200 items).
• Journal articles are not catalogued - only the titles of journals are listed. Many journals have indexes (shelved with the journals themselves) and with some organisations (such as the ILO, the World Bank, and the IMF) there are online catalogues or a CD-ROM available which indexes journal articles - see under the appropriate organisation below.
• A third category of material are documents - administrative, institutional, policy and legislative.  See the IGO What's available on the web. The Library rarely catalogues this material but uses available indexes instead - refer to the individual organisations to see what is available.

Use the organisations' own catalogues at REF COLL Z1039 or their websites for publications information if unsure as to titles, authors, etc.