General
information
The
United Nations Official Document System (ODS) is a system for storing and
retrieving United Nations documents that allows users to search for and
retrieve documents via high-speed networks and the Internet, and permits
high-speed transmission of documents through telecommunications links. The
system provides a more economical and secure means of distributing and storing
parliamentary documents worldwide and permits timely access to such documents
in electronic form by United Nations offices, Permanent Missions to the United
Nations and other government offices as appropriate, other organizations of the
United Nations system and other international organizations, the mass media,
and other interested institutions, such as libraries and universities, as well
as the general public.
The parliamentary documentation and official
records stored and available online on United Nations networks and on the
Internet are described and indexed using the structure of the United Nations Bibliographic Information System
(UNBIS). They include pre-session, in-session and post-session
documentation for meetings of the General Assembly and its subsidiary bodies,
the Security Council and its subsidiary bodies, the Economic and Social Council
and its subsidiary bodies and the Trusteeship Council, and for global
conferences convened by the United Nations as well as for other meetings included in the Calendar of
Conferences and Meetings authorized by the General Assembly. The documents and official records are stored in the official languages of the United Nations: Arabic, Chinese,
English, French, Russian and Spanish. Selected
documents are available in German.
Documents are stored in text format and/or in
portable document format (PDF). Input of documents is either local
or via communication links.
The ODS
comprises the full text of United Nations parliamentary documents (including
resolutions and decisions) issued at United Nations Headquarters in New York
and the United Nations Office in Geneva since 1993 as well as at the United
Nations Office in Vienna since 1997. The
number of duty stations covered by the ODS is expanding as the regional
commissions have started to load documents.
In addition to parliamentary documentation, United Nations
administrative issuances (ST/AI/-, ST/IC/- and ST/SGB/-), considered valid at
time of input, are included in the database.
General
Assembly resolution 52/214 of
Access
to the system
Hardware and software requirements
Internet users are able to access the ODS
using a standard personal computer as a workstation and a UNICODE-compliant Web
browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer. Documents are stored in portable
document format (PDF). In order to view, print and download documents, users
must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on their personal computer or
server. The Acrobat Reader can be downloaded free of charge from Adobe’s web
site at http://www.adobe.com/.
UN
Documents
Scope
The ODS
comprises the full text of United Nations parliamentary documents (including
resolutions and decisions) issued at United Nations Headquarters in New York
and the United Nations Office in Geneva since 1993 as well as at the United
Nations Office in Vienna since 1997. The number of duty stations covered by the
ODS is expanding as the regional commissions have started to load documents. In
addition to parliamentary documentation, United Nations administrative
issuances (ST/AI/-, ST/IC/- and ST/SGB/-), considered valid at time of input,
are included in the database.
General
Assembly resolution 52/214 of
The
official record version of older United Nations resolutions and decisions
adopted by the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social
Council and the Trusteeship Council from 1946 onwards are stored separately on
ODS in the “Resolutions” database, accessible only from the advanced search
screen.
Formats
The documents are stored in text format from
word-processing programs such as MS Word or WordPerfect and/or portable
document format (PDF) converted from text or scanned images.
Language versions
Documents are available in the
official languages of the organs or bodies for which they have been issued. Selected documents are available in German.
Search options
The following types of searches and combinations
thereof can be performed on this database:
• by document
symbol
• by publication
or release date
• by words from
the title
• by subject
• by agenda item
number
• by session
• by job number
• full-text
Resolutions,
1946-
Scope
The resolutions database contains the final
official records version of all resolutions and decisions adopted by the
General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and the
Trusteeship Council from 1946 up to and including 1993 (for General
Assembly up to the 51st session of 1996).
Before the official record version is available, individual resolutions and
decision compilations from 1993 onwards can be found in the “UN
documents” database.
Format
The resolutions are stored in portable document
format (PDF) converted
from scanned images.
Language versions
Resolutions are available in the six official
languages of the United Nations: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and
Spanish.
Arabic coverage is as follows:
General Assembly – 1953 onwards
Security Council and Economic and Social Council
– 1983 onwards
Trusteeship Council – not available
Search options
The following types of searches and combinations
thereof can be performed on this database:
• by document
symbol
• by publication
date
• by words from
the title
• by subject
• by job number
Search options
General search information
Search pages
From ODS welcome page you
have access to three separate search forms:
• a simple search
page
• an advanced search
page
• a global search
page
The simple search page allows the user to search
the “UN Documents” database only by document
symbol with the option to truncate (right truncation only) and by publication
date and to perform a full-text search in Arabic, Chinese, English,
French, Russian or Spanish. However, in Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish
full-text search is possible only for documents published since
The advanced search page allows the user to
select among all available databases and to search by all available search
criteria, i.e. by document symbol with the ability to choose the type of
truncation, by publication date or release date, by job number, by words in the
title, by subject, by session and by agenda item number, as well as full-text
search in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian or Spanish. However,
in Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish full-text search is possible only for
documents published since
Users may switch between the two search pages by
clicking the appropriate buttons at the top of each search page.
When two or more fields or search boxes are used in a search, the search results will include documents that satisfy all search criteria. For a description of the search criteria, see the sections below.
The global search is an additional full-text search option. It uses a different search engine from the one used on simple and advanced search pages of ODS. The level of support for each of the six official languages is unknown because multilingual sensing is proprietary to this search engine. The indexing schedule of this engine is different from the one used internally by ODS. Therefore, the results obtained using the global search option may differ from those obtained when using the full-text option on the simple or advanced search pages.
Search results
A successful search will yield a list of
documents. Should a search yield the message “0 document(s) found”, it is
recommended that you verify the information entered on the search page. Please
consult the relevant sections of this help text and modify your search strategy
accordingly.
Revising an existing search
In order to revise your original search
criteria, click the browser’s “Back” button until you see the search form that
you used. After modifying the form, click the “Search” button to re-launch your
query.
Language
of screen
The user can change the language of the screens to any of
the six official languages of the United Nations by clicking on the red
language links at the top of both the simple and advanced search pages. Please
be aware that changing the screen language will automatically change the
language of search.
A document symbol serves as a unique identifier
for a document. United Nations documents are identified by symbols which
consist of a combination of letters and numbers with each element separated
from the next by a stroke (/). Searching by document symbol is the most precise
search option as it allows searching for one specific document, including any
revisions, addenda and corrigenda.
Examples
A/52/100 – General Assembly document from the
fifty-second session
S/1997/100 – Security Council document issued in
1997
E/1997/100 – Economic and Social Council
document from the 1997 sessions
ST/AI/405 – Administrative instruction issued by
the Secretariat
E/CN.4/1997/1 – document of the Commission on Human Rights, a
subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1997/1 –
document of the Sub Commission on
Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities of the
Commission on Human Rights
Note:
Punctuation characters are ignored in symbol searches, e.g. document
E/CN.4/1996/1/Add.1 will also be retrieved when entered without the punctuation
as ECN419961ADD1.
For more information about United Nations
document symbols, please consult the United Nations documentation:
research guide .
United
Nations Info Quest (UN-I-QUE) is a reference database created and maintained
by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library that lists thousands of document symbols
for frequently requested types of United Nations documents and may facilitate
the searching for specific documents on ODS.
Links to UNIQUE and the United Nations
documentation research guide are provided on the “Useful links” page, which can
be accessed from both search pages by clicking the “Useful links” button.
Certain types of United Nations documents do not
have complete document symbols; nevertheless, they can be retrieved following
the examples below:
S/SUPP/year/quarter (in Arabic numerals), e.g.
S/SUPP/1988/2
Resolutions and decisions
Individual resolutions in official records
format adopted by the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and
Social Council and the Trusteeship Council from 1946 until 1993 (General Assembly until
1996) are accessible
on the “Resolutions” database. Before the official record version is published,
individual resolutions adopted by the General Assembly or the Security
Council are accessible
on the “UN Documents” database.
General Assembly and Economic and Social Council
decisions from 1946 onwards as well as Economic and Social Council resolutions
from 1993 onwards can be accessed through the sessional or annual compilation.
Resolutions and decisions of other United Nations bodies, e.g. the Executive
Board of the United Nations Development Programme or the Commission on Human
Rights, can only be accessed through their annual or sessional reports and/or
compilation of resolutions/decisions. Please consult the United Nations Info Quest
(UN-I-QUE) for listings of document symbols for those compilations and
reports. For more information about United Nations resolutions and decisions,
and how they are issued, please consult the United Nations documentation:
research guide.
When searching for individual resolutions
by symbol in the “United Nations resolutions” database, please follow the
examples below:
General Assembly
A/RES/#### (session in
Roman numerals for regular sessions I-XXX, special sessions S-I to S-VII and
emergency sessions ES-I to ES-V), e.g.
A/RES/3450 (XXX)
A/RES/3362 (S-VII)
A/RES/2256 (ES-V)
A/RES/session, from 31st to the 51st regular session, from the 8th to
the 18th special
session and from the
6th to the 9th emergency special session/###, e.g.
A/RES/47/120
A/RES/S-18/3
A/RES/ES-9/1
Security Council
S/RES/### (year, from 1946 to 1993), e.g.
S/RES/598 (1987)
Economic and Social Council
E/RES/#### (session in
Roman numerals for sessions I-LXIII), e.g.
E/RES/1296 (XLIV)
E/RES/year, from 1978 to 1993/###, e.g.
E/RES/1991/50
Trusteeship Council
T/RES/### (session in
Roman numerals for regular sessions I-LIV, special sessions S-I to S-XVIII),
e.g.
T/RES/2158 (LIV)
T/RES/2187 (S-XVIII)
As the system is set to right symbol truncation
by default, it is not always necessary to know the complete resolution symbol:
searching for S/RES/598 will find S/RES/598 (1987); E/RES/1296 will find
E/RES/1296 (XLIV).
It may be necessary to set truncation to “None”
in order to retrieve specific resolutions, e.g. in order to retrieve only
A/RES/48/1 and not A/RES/48/10-19 and 100-199, change truncation setting to
“None”.
When searching for decision compilations
in the “United Nations resolutions” database, please follow the examples below:
General Assembly
A/DEC/(session in Roman
numerals for regular sessions X-XXX and special sessions S-V to S-VII), e.g.
A/DEC/(XXX)
A/DEC/(S-VII)
A/DEC/(session in Arabic numerals for regular
sessions 31 to 48, special sessions S-8 to S-18, and emergency special sessions ES-6 to ES-9), e.g.
A/DEC/47
A/DEC/S-18
A/DEC/ES-9
Security Council
Not available.
Economic and Social Council
E/DEC/(session
in Roman numerals for sessions VI-LXIII), e.g.
E/DEC/(LXII)
E/DEC/year
(from 1978 to 1993), e.g.
E/DEC/1991
Trusteeship Council
Comprehensive coverage is not available.
Symbol lexicon
The “Lexicon” feature offers a list of documents
in document symbol order from which one document can be selected for searching.
Start by typing the beginning of a document
symbol, including correct punctuation, in the document symbol search box on the
search page.
Example: E/CN.17/2001
Click the “Lexicon” button next to the search
box. This will open a new window listing document symbols in alphabetical order
beginning with document E/CN.17/2001/1.
Scroll down the list until you see the document
symbol that you would like to use in your search. You can click on the “prev”
button to see the preceding symbols or the “next” button to see the next
symbols. Choose the document symbol by clicking on it and then click on the
“Select” button at the bottom of the window. The full document symbol will be
entered in the document symbol search box on the search page. Finally, click
the “Search” button to launch the search.
To return to the search page without selecting a
document symbol from the list presented in the “Lexicon” window, click the
“Close” button.
The symbol truncation field allows a user to
perform searches on the database using a truncated (incomplete) form of a United
Nations document symbol (right truncation is the default selection). These
options are as follows:
Right: The search is performed on the basis of right
truncation of the symbol entered, e.g. A/52/101 will retrieve A/52/101 and
A/52/101/Rev.1, A/52/101/Rev.1/Add.1 as well as A/52/1010-1019.
Please note that the
right truncation setting does not allow entering only a single letter, e.g. A
(for General Assembly) or S (for Security Council).
Left: The search is performed on the basis of left
truncation of the symbol entered, e.g. 52/33 will generate a list that will
include A/52/33, A/C.5/52/33, A/RES/52/33, DL/1995/233, S/1995/233, S/25233,
etc.
Right and Left: The search is performed
on the basis of full truncation of the symbol entered, i.e. it combines right
and left truncation, e.g. 52/101 will retrieve
A/52/101 and A/52/101/Rev.1, A/52/101/Rev.1/Add.1 as well as A/52/1010-1019.
None: The search will return one document matching
exactly the symbol entered.
Searching by publication date or release
date
The publication date is the date on which the
drafting of the document is completed and the manuscript is submitted for
processing, i.e. editing, translation, text processing and printing. This date
appears at the top (masthead) of the document, usually below the document
symbol. The release date is the date when the document officially issued.
Date From: Enter the beginning of the date range in
format DD/MM/YYYY
Date To: Enter the end of the date range in format
DD/MM/YYYY
Note: The year field requires four digits,
e.g. 1996. If two digits are entered, 46-99 will default to 1946-1999 and 00-45
will default to 2000-2045.
Documents and resolutions are indexed using the UNBIS Thesaurus. Only subject terms
included in the UNBIS Thesaurus may be used for
searching, i.e. topical and geographical subjects. You may enter multiple
subject terms, but you must place an ampersand (&) between each of them.
Documents will be retrieved that have been assigned all subject terms entered.
A subject term may consist of a phrase, e.g. environmental protection.
Example:
To search for documents concerning environmental
protection in
Subject lexicon
The “Lexicon” feature offers a list of subject
terms in alphabetical order from which one subject can be selected for
searching.
Start by typing the beginning of a subject term in
the subject search box on the search page.
Example: environment
Click the “Lexicon” button next to the subject
search box. This will open a new window listing 40 subject terms in
alphabetical order beginning with the term “environment”. The number in
parentheses next to each subject term indicates the number of documents in the
database with this subject.
Scroll down the list until you see the subject
term that you would like to use in your search. Click on the “prev” button to
see the preceding 40 subjects or the “next” button to see the next 40
subjects. Select the subject term by clicking on it. Next, click the “Select”
button at the bottom of the “Lexicon” window. The subject term will be entered
in the subject search box on the search page.
To return to the search page without selecting a
subject from the list presented in the “Lexicon” window, click the “Close”
button.
Searching for words from the title
One or more words may be entered; this function
selects documents with titles containing all the words entered. The words will
be matched exactly as they are entered, i.e. searching for the word “system”
will not return titles containing the word “systems”. Words can be entered in
upper or lower case. Please note that titles are taken from the first page of
the document only. Titles of documents that are transmitted through or annexed
to another document are not retrievable using this search option,
but need to be searched using the full-text search option. Also note that
recently issued documents are often given abbreviated titles.
Examples:
To search for letters submitted by the
To search for reports by the Secretary-General
on a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the
Searching by agenda item number
The basic background document for meetings held
by most United Nations organs and bodies is the agenda, which
consists of consecutively numbered topics (agenda items) to be
discussed during a specific session. Documents for a specific
session are submitted under one or more agenda items. The Security Council
only discusses one topic per meeting and therefore its documents are not issued
under agenda items. The same topic may be discussed under different agenda item
numbers at different sessions, e.g. United Nations reform was discussed at the
fifty-second session of the General Assembly under agenda item number 157, at
the fifty-third session, the same topic was assigned agenda item number 30.
Agenda item numbers are often subdivided, e.g. agenda item 71 on the topic of
general and complete disarmament at the fifty-third session of the General
Assembly is further subdivided into sub-items 71(a)-(t). One or more agenda
item numbers separated by a space may be entered. This function selects the
documents having all of the indicated value(s) within the agenda item field.
To retrieve meaningful results, you should
combine an agenda item search with other search criteria, e.g. the series
symbol of a United Nations body and the session or year when the body met.
Example:
To search for documents submitted to the General
Assembly at its fifty-second session under agenda item 157 (United Nations
reform), enter 52 in the session field and 157 in the agenda item
field.
Most United Nations bodies meet regularly in
sessions. Sessions are identified on the documents either by a sequential
number or by the year and a sequential number or a designation of different
parts of the session, e.g. fifty-second session; 1998, first regular session;
1998, substantive session, etc. One or more session numbers separated by a
space may be entered; this function selects the documents having all of the
indicated values within the session field. Session numbers may be entered using
the truncation symbol (*), e.g. 1999*. This can be helpful when a United
Nations body holds several sessions per year.
To yield meaningful results, a session search
should be combined with other search criteria, such as the series symbol of the
United Nations body to which the document was submitted.
Examples:
To search for documents concerning rights of the
child submitted to the General Assembly at its fifty-first session, enter 51
in the session field and rights of the child in the subject field.
Following is a list of session designations used
in the database. Please note that the session designations may be applicable to
more than one United Nations body.
53
regular session; applies to General Assembly, Security Council,
and certain subsidiary bodies of the Economic and Social Council, e.g.
the Commission on Human Rights
19SP
special session; applies to General Assembly and certain subsidiary
bodies of the Economic and Social Council, e.g. the Commission on
Human Rights
10EMSP emergency special session;
applies only to the General Assembly
1999-O organizational session
(of 1999); applies to the Economic and Social Council and some of its
subsidiary bodies
1999-S substantive session (of
1999); applies only to the Economic and Social Council
1999-1 1st regular session (of
1999); applies e.g. to the Executive Board ofUNDP
1999-2 2nd regular
session (of 1999); applies e.g. to the Executive BoardofUNDP
1999-A annual session (of
1999); applies e.g. to the Executive Board ofUNDP
1999-3 3rd regular
session (of 1999); applies e.g. to the Executive BoardofUNDP
The system allows searching by job number. This
search should retrieve only one document because the job number is unique for
each document.
Example: N0102356. If N01023* is entered, a list of all
documents having job numbers starting with these digits will be selected.
Full-text searching is available on both the
simple and the advanced search pages. Full-text searches can be performed
in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian or Spanish using either
a pre-set search type or search expressions with (Boolean)
operators. However, in Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish full-text
search is possible only for documents published since
Full-text searches can be performed
in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian or Spanish. Specify the
language of your full-text search by selecting it from the drop-down menu.
ODS offers three convenient preset search types
that should meet most users’ needs for full-text searching: “Find this phrase”,
“Find all the words”, and “Find any of the words”. In addition, more complex
searches can be performed by constructing search expressions using (Boolean)
operators. The full-text search type can be selected from the corresponding
drop-down menu. Please read the following instructions and review the examples
carefully.
Find all the words
This search will retrieve documents containing
all the words specified in the full-text search box. Hyphenated words should be
entered with the hyphen(s) for accurate results. Commonly used words in a full
text search operation do not necessarily yield good hit lists. On the contrary,
users may get useless results. Search engines are more efficient if search
criteria do not contain common words. This application will therefore exclude a
number of common words such as “the”, “a”, “of” and warn the user before the
search operation begins. The wildcard (?) and truncation (*) symbols may also
be used (see below).
Examples:
To search for documents containing the words Chernobyl, health and Ukraine, enter
Chernobyl health Ukraine in the full-text search box and select “Find
all the words” from the “Type of full-text search” drop-down menu.
To search for documents containing the words troop-contributing and reimburse and/or variations, such as reimburses,
reimbursed, reimbursement, etc, enter reimburse*
troop-contributing in the full-text search box
and select “Find all the words” from the “Type of full-text search”
drop-down menu.
Find any of the words
This search will retrieve all documents that
contain either one or some or all of the words specified in the full-text
search box. Hyphenated words should be entered with the hyphen(s) for accurate
results. Commonly used words in a full text search operation do not necessarily
yield good hit lists. On the contrary, users may get useless results. Search
engines are more efficient if search criteria do not contain common words. This
application will therefore exclude a number of common words such as “the”, “a”,
“of” and warn the user before the search operation begins. The wildcard (?) and
truncation (*) symbols may also be used (see below).
Example:
To search for documents
containing either the word oil or the
word petroleum, enter oil
petroleum in the full-text search box and select “Find any of the words”
from the “Type of full-text search” drop-down menu.
Find this phrase
A phrase consists of two or more words adjacent
to each other. This search will retrieve all documents containing phrases that
exactly match the phrase entered in the full-text search box. Hyphenated words
should be entered with the hyphen(s) for accurate results.
Example:
To search for documents mentioning the reimbursement of troop-contributing States,
enter reimbursement of troop-contributing states in the full-text search
box and select “Find this phrase” from the “Type of full-text search”
drop-down menu.
Boolean operators
This search mode may become necessary for more
complex searches that combine some or all of the above preset search types.
Currently, the system allows users to construct
their own search strategies using the following Boolean operators: AND, OR, AND NOT and SENTENCE.
The AND operator works in the same way as the
“Find all the words” search type and the OR operator is the equivalent to the
“Find any of the words” search type.
The AND NOT operator allows users to exclude documents that
contain specific words or phrases in the text.
The SENTENCE operator works similar to the AND operator,
except that the words and phrases have to appear fairly close to each other in
the text of the document.
The system allows a search to be structured with
the help of parentheses ( ).
All words that need to be matched exactly and
all phrases have to be enclosed in quotation marks (“”).
Hyphenated words should be entered with the
hyphen(s) for accurate results.
The wildcard (?) and truncation (*) symbols may
also be used (see below).
Examples:
To search for documents containing either the
word oil or the word petroleum or both and that also mention
(oil OR petroleum) AND
Then select “Use Boolean operators” from
the “Type of full-text search” drop-down menu.
Using parentheses in this search will direct the
system to process the search in two steps and in a specific order: first, it
will retrieve all documents containing either the word oil or the word
petroleum or both words. In the second step, the system will identify those
documents in the set that was retrieved in the first search step that also
contain the word
To search for documents containing the name Office of Internal Oversight Services or
its acronym OIOS, enter the following
search expression in the full-text search box:
“office of internal
oversight services” OR oios
Then select “Use Boolean operators” from
the “Type of full-text search” drop-down menu.
A more complex search could look like this:
To search for documents
regarding the revenues earned by
(oil OR petroleum) AND
(revenue OR income) AND sale AND
To search for documents that mention women soldiers or female
soldiers, but not in the context of peacekeeping,
enter the following search expression in the full-text search box:
(wom?n
soldiers OR female soldiers) AND NOT peacekeeping
Then select “Use Boolean operators” from the “Type of
full-text search” drop-down menu.
To find documents that mention best practices in relation to the prevention of AIDS, enter the following search expression in the
full-text search box:
“best
practices” SENTENCE aids SENTENCE prevent*
Then select “Use Boolean operators” from the “Type of
full-text search” drop-down menu.
Using the SENTENCE
operator in this example will ensure that the words and phrases appear close to
each other in the text and will limit the search results.
Wildcard and truncation
The wildcard (?) and truncation (*) symbols may
be used anywhere in the search when spelling variations, irregular plural forms
or variations of words in general need to be retrieved. Both symbols work in
all search types.
The wildcard symbol (?) is used to replace a
single letter in a word.
The truncation symbol (*) is used to replace a
string of characters either at the beginning or at the end of a word.
Examples:
To search for documents mentioning the name
“Ruud Lubbers” when you are unsure about the exact spelling of the name:
Enter “ru?d lub?ers”
in the full-text search box and select “Find this phrase” from the
“Type of full-text search” drop-down menu.
To search for documents mentioning the name
“Mary Robinson” when you are unsure about the exact ending of the first and
last names:
Enter “mar* robins*” in the full-text
search box and select “Find this phrase” from the “Type of full-text
search” drop-down menu.
To search for documents regarding the
implementation of or follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit, enter
the following search expression in the full-text search box:
“mil?en?ium summit” AND
outcome AND (follow-up or implement*)
Then select “Use Boolean operators” from
the “Type of full-text search” drop-down menu.
The ODS allows users to sort their search
results in three different ways:
• by publication
date listing the most recent documents first;
• by document
symbol in digital sort order;
• by relevance
ranking, listing the most relevant document first. This setting is recommended for full-text searches.
Simply select the sort type from the “Sort
results by” drop-down menu.
The default value for the number of documents
listed per page in the search results is set to 20. On the advanced search
page, users can change this setting to any number from 1 to 999. Please note
that the higher the number, the more time the system will need to process the
search.
It is possible to limit the number of document
results for a search. Thus, only the XXX first documents retrieved by the query
are displayed. If the default value is 0, then there is no maximum document
limit and all the documents retrieved are displayed.
Display, print and download
Whatever the search, the system always displays:
• the number of
documents found;
• a list of
documents on successive pages (depending on the number of documents found)
which can be accessed by clicking on the “previous” or “next” links;
• the range of
documents displayed;
• a link allowing
the user to perform a new search;
• a link to log
out of the web site.
When showing any document in the list, the
system provides the publication date; it also supplies the document symbol as a
hypertext link allowing the document to be displayed. In addition, the
languages available and the document title are displayed.
A click on the hypertext link leads to another
screen containing the following information:
• the title of
the document;
• the publication
date;
• the document
symbol;
• the
session/year;
• the agenda item
number;
• the subjects;
• the languages
in which the document is available;
• the job numbers
with the associated languages;
• the release
date.
Displaying and printing the document
Click on the language of your choice next to
“Display PDF File” to retrieve and display the document in the desired language
in PDF format. Each document will be displayed as one PDF file.
Downloading the document in its original word-processing format
This enables the user to download the document
in its original word-processing format. Click on a language version of the
document after “Download File”. To save the file on the hard disk of your
computer, click the right mouse button. If you are using Netscape, select the
“Save link as” option; if you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, select
“Save target as”. The operating system will present you with the appropriate
dialogue box where you can select the directory in which to save the document
and give it a name of your choice.
Useful links page
The ODS Useful links page shows the following
links:
·
·
· United
Nations documentation: research guide.
This online guide (http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/) to United Nations
documentation from the Dag Hammarskjöld Library provides an overview of documentation
and publications issued by the Organization (e.g. reports, resolutions, meeting
records, sales publications and press releases) and gives guidance on how to
work with them.
· UNBISnet
UNBISnet (http://unbisnet.un.org/)
is the Dag Hammarskjöld Library’s online catalogue. In addition to a
bibliographic database containing records for all United Nations documents,
selected materials from the specialized agencies, and books and journals held
by the library, users may search in special databases for voting records and
speech records.
The
UNBIS thesaurus (http://lib-thesaurus.un.org/)
contains subject terms used by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library to describe the
content of United Nations documents and publications. Consulting the
UNBIS Thesaurus for correct subject terms will ensure successful searches by
subject in the ODS. The UNBIS Thesaurus can be browsed and searched in
the six official languages of the United Nations.
· United Nations Info Quest
(UN-I-QUE)
The
UN-I-QUE database (http://lib-unique.un.org/)
of the Dag Hammarskjöld Library may be used as a research tool to identify
appropriate United Nations document symbols in order to search for specific
items in ODS.
· Links to
the following web sites in
1. Daily Bulletin of Meetings
2. Press releases
3. Calendar of events
4. List of Permanent Missions
5. NGO Database
· Adobe
Acrobat button to download the PDF Reader software.