Abstract
This chapter guides readers in their exploration of the “virtual” United Nations (UN) and invites them to follow intuitive navigation and explore undiscovered resources. After putting things in context to grasp the difficulty of finding one’s bearings within the labyrinth of the UN digital galaxy, it provides some useful keys for conducting more methodical research by identifying a small portion of the resources available and by indicating where to find them. Lastly, it questions them by considering the portal not just as a mere tool but as a subject of research.
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Notes
- 1.
The authors would like to thank Benoît Martin for his insightful comments.
- 2.
This analysis focuses on the UN internet portal. It is important to note, however, the increasing impact of social networks in the organization’s information and communications policy.
- 3.
Assistant Secretary-General for Public Information, Guidelines for Publishing in an Electronic Format, August 14, 1996, ST/AI/189/Add.28.
- 4.
In early 2016, the internet portal had nearly 60,000 url links according to www.who.is/.
- 5.
Nikolay Chulkov and Yishan Zhang, Joint Inspection Unit, Review of Management of Internet Websites in the United Nations System Organizations, 2008, p. 22, JIU/REP/2008/6.
- 6.
According to the UN organization chart (http://www.un.org/en/aboutun/structure/pdfs/UN_System_Chart_30June2015.pdf). For a different presentation of the organization, see the Directory of UN system organizations (www.unsceb.org/directory/).
- 7.
In 2010, 66% of internet users visiting the site were at least 35 years old. Secretary General, Activities of the Department of Public Information: News services, January 25, 2011, p. 15, A.AC.198/2011/3, p. 13.
- 8.
Secretary General, Activities of the Department of Public Information: News services, February 18, 2015, p. 18, A/AC.198/2015/3.
- 9.
Including the creation of the Information Technology Section in 1997 (now the Web Services Section attached to the Office of the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information), of an interdepartmental task force on internet issues, coordination initiatives with the Information Technology and Communications Office and with the promotion and distribution unit for new media platforms, etc.
- 10.
Secretary General, Activities of the Department of Public Information: News services, February 16, 2010, p. 16, A/AC.198/2010/3.
- 11.
Every UN agency and program has its own autonomous website.
- 12.
Chulkov and Zhang, Joint Inspection Unit, Review of Management of Internet Websites in the United Nations System Organizations.
- 13.
The General Assembly frequently refers to the importance of multilingualism and the goal of parity. See for example resolution 69/96 of December 16, 2014.
- 14.
Secretary General, Activities of the Department of Public Information: news services, 2015.
- 15.
Multimedia resources portal: http://www.unmultimedia.org; UNWebTV: http://webtv.un.org/.
- 16.
UN access portal for social networks: http://www.un.org/en/sections/about-website/un-social-media/index.html. In early 2016, the UN had a presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram and LinkedIn.
- 17.
The UN distinguishes different types of documentation (not always very clearly): UN documents, official documents, publications and so on. See Under-Secretary-General for Conference Services and Special Assignments, Administrative Instruction. Regulations for the Control and Limitation of Documentation, Addendum. Distribution of documents, meeting records, official records and publications 17 December 1985, ST/AI/189/Add.3/Rev.2.
- 18.
Verbatim records are available for the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Trusteeship Council, as well as summary records for Ecosoc. There are however no records provided for sessions and other informal Security Council dialogues.
- 19.
The United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) is now used as a cross-referencing platform toward sites for the different UN bodies. The reports are accessible at www.unsceb.org/flagship-publications/.
- 20.
These publications are accessible at https://shop.un.org/. Among these, see for example: Statistical Yearbook and Monthly Bulletin of Statistics (https://unstats.un.org/unsd/publications/); UN Chronicles (https://unchronicle.un.org/); Yearbook of the United Nations Commission on International Law Trade (UNCITRAL) (www.uncitral.org/); UN Disarmament Yearbook (www.un.org/disarmament/publications/yearbook/); United Nations Juridical Yearbook and Yearbook of the International Law Commission (http://legal.un.org/); Basic Facts About the United Nations and Yearbook of the United Nations (http://unyearbook.un.org/en/peacekeeping-community/).
- 21.
See Chap. 12.
- 22.
United Nations Yearbook (http://unyearbook.un.org/).
- 23.
Repertoire of the Practice of the Security Council (www.un.org/en/sc/repertoire/); Provisional Rules of Procedure for the Security Council (www.un.org/en/sc/about/rules/).
- 24.
Security Council Working Methods Handbook (www.un.org/en/sc/about/methods/).
- 25.
Journal of the United Nations (www.un.org/en/documents/journal.asp/).
- 26.
United Nations Information Centres (UNIC) (https://unic.un.org/).
- 27.
UN Member States On The Record (www.un.org/depts/dhl/unms/).
- 28.
Permanent Missions Portal (deleGATE) (www.un.int/). Among the intranet and extranet sites, iSeek (intranet), Umoja (integrated resource management), UN Careers (recruitment), UN Inspira and HR Portal (human resources), UN Global Marketplace (suppliers), UN System Staff College (training for international civil servants), etc.
- 29.
Delegate’s Handbook (www.un.int/pm/delegates-handbook/); United Nations Force Headquarters Handbook: on the DAG Repository digital library via http://research.un.org/en/peacekeeping-community/.
- 30.
Integrated Civil Society Organizations System (iCSO) (http://esango.un.org/). See also the liaison unit site for NGOs in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) (http://csonet.org/).
- 31.
Protocol and Liaison Service (www.un.int/protocol/). The United Nations Office at Geneva also publishes a Blue Book available online (www.unog.ch/bluebook/).
- 32.
For example: Report of the Peacebuilding Commission on its eighth session, December 17, 2014, A/69/818–S/2015/174.
- 33.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) uses separate symbols for its documents.
- 34.
Documents published before 1993 are partially digitalized and include in particular resolutions from the main bodies, documents from plenary sessions of the UNSC and official records from the UNGA. Old digitalized documents are usually available in pdf-image format rather than pdf-text, which does not allow you to explore their contents except if you use optical character recognition software (OCR). To follow the digitalization process for UN documents, see https://library.un.org/sites/library.un.org/files/dlp-digitization_program_status_report.pdf.
- 35.
Dag Hammarskjöld Library (New York) is an institution that contains the entire United Nations collection (www.un.org/depts/dhl/). It has a blog (UN Pulse) that records the release of UN documents and publications and other international publications (http://un-library.tumblr.com/). The libraries at the headquarters in Geneva (https://library.un.org), Vienna (http://www.unov.org/unov/en/library.html) and Nairobi (www.unlibrary-nairobi.org/) also have collections, as do the headquarters of the UN regional economic commissions and regional information centers. The list of other libraries with UN collections is available at https://library.un.org/content/un-libraries.
- 36.
Dag Hammarskjöld Digital Library (http://repository.un.org/).
- 37.
UN Documentation Research Guide (http://research.un.org/en/docs/). The UN Resources portal provides access in different ways: through an alphabetical glossary, by organization, by theme, through the catalogue of different UN libraries, through statistics and through terminological databases (http://research.un.org/en/un-ressources/). Go to the “Ask Dag!” Q and A column (http://ask.un.org/).
- 38.
Audiovisual Library (www.unmultimedia.org/avlibrary/).
- 39.
Sédoc or ODS Search, Official documents of the UN (http://documents.un.org/).
- 40.
Dag Hammarskjöld Library publishes manuals specifying current standards for indexation and cataloguing (UNBIS Reference Manuals) available at www.un.org/depts/dhl/unbisref_manual/index.htm/.
- 41.
Index to Proceedings: https://library.un.org/index-proceedings. Furthermore, they have been gradually integrated in reverse chronological order at the Dag Hammarskjöld digital library and can be downloaded at http://repository.un.org/handle/11176/89963/.
- 42.
UNBIS Thesaurus: http://lib-thesaurus.un.org/.
- 43.
UN-I-QUE: http://lib-unique.un.org/; UNTERM: http://untermportal.un.org/; recension of specialized glossaries: http://research.un.org/en/un-resources/terminology/.
- 44.
Security Council: www.un.org/en/sc/; General Assembly: www.un.org/en/ga/; Ecosoc: www.un.org/en/ecosoc/.
- 45.
Secretariat: http://www.un.org/en/sections/about-un/secretariat/index.html, Secretary-General: https://www.un.org/sg/en.
- 46.
Trusteeship Council: www.un.org/en/sections/about-un/trusteeship-council/index.html/.
- 47.
International Court of Justice: www.icj-cij.org/.
- 48.
Repertory of Practice of United Nations Organs: http://legal.un.org/repertory/. To better understand these issues, in its search guide relating to the ICJ (http://research.un.org/en/docs/icj), Dag Hammarskjöld library refers to those regarding international law at the Peace Palace Library, while highlighting that this is not a UN body (Peace Palace Library, www.peacepalacelibrary.nl/).
- 49.
Internet Archive: https://archive.org/web/.
- 50.
United Nations Celebrations: www.un.org/en/sections/observances/united-nations-observances/.
- 51.
No entries on external actors to the organization appeared on the portal in 1997 (see photograph 6.1).
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Albaret, M., Placidi-Frot, D. (2018). The UN Internet Portal, Institutional Multilateralism Caught in the Web. In: Devin, G. (eds) Resources and Applied Methods in International Relations. The Sciences Po Series in International Relations and Political Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61979-8_6
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