United Nations Research

This lesson will show you the basic tools for finding United Nations materials. It first gives an overview of how the United Nations is organized. It includes descriptions of each of the principal organs of the U.N. and an overview of the United Nations document numbering system. It then shows online tools for United Nations research: the U.N.'s website; the Official Document System; and the U.N. Digital Library.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of the lesson, the student will be able to:

1. List the principal organs of the United Nations.

2. Describe the search tools provided by the United Nations and the differences between them.

3. Devise a research strategy for finding U.N. documents.