World

Founded in 1919 as the Library of the League of Nations, the Library became the UN Library at Geneva when the League’s assets were transferred to the United Nations in 1946.

The Library serves as a central Library for: the United Nations Office at Geneva; the specialized agencies and other intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations headquartered in Geneva; the Permanent Missions in Geneva; interested external students and researchers.

UNOG Library specializes in two major areas:

• It is a complete depository for United Nations documents and publications and it maintains a comprehensive collection of materials of the specialized agencies and the United Nations affiliated bodies.
• It collects books, periodicals and electronic resources to support the programmes and activities of the Organization: international law, international relations, political science, humanitarian affairs, human rights, refugees, disarmament, economic and social development, etc.
• As the former library of the League of Nations, the collections also include some rare materials from the pre-League period.

Highlights of the UNOG Library Collections:

United Nations and Specialized Agencies - The Library houses all United Nations documents and it maintains a comprehensive collection of materials of the specialized agencies and the United Nations affiliated bodies.

Legal and Political Collections - The collections contain books and publications covering international relations and national and international law (dictionaries, encyclopedias, bibliographies, yearbooks, law digests, treaty series, law codes, and monographs).

Economic, Social and Statistical Collections - The collections holds books and publications on economic and social topics such as business, finance, trade, transnational corporations, transport, energy, environment, population, status of women, etc. The collections also contain the latest official statistical publications from most countries of the world and from many intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.

UNHCR/Refugee Studies Collection - In 2008 the UNHCR Library was closed and its entire collection was transferred to UNOG Library. UNOG now offers access to all of these materials and continues to build on this collection, regularly purchasing books and electronic subscriptions that support refugee studies research and the work of UNHCR staff.

The « Global Sport & Olympic Studies Center » (GS&OSC) is a university research observatory created in Summer 2015 as part of the Social and Political Science Faculty and the Sport Science Institute at Lausanne University (UNIL). The Center’s academic activities are so far concerned by play culture, sport and olympics, International Olympic Committee (IOC), at different scales from local to global. The « longue durée » historical approach which is the core aspect of this academic project is conceived as a dialogue with the different social sciences. Its monthly workshop is open to every student and scholar from UNIL, Swiss universities and from all over the world.

History

The Archives Service of UNESCO was established in 1947. The first holdings were inherited from the predecessors of UNESCO: the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC), the Preparatory Commission of UNESCO (Prep.Com.), the Conference of Allied Ministers of Education (CAME), and the Conference for the Establishment of UNESCO. UNESCO records start in 1946 with the first General Conference and Executive Board Documents. In 1995, records management was added to the responsibilities of the UNESCO Archives, from then on also in charge of the classification and codification of all programme sector files. In 2004, the UNESCO Archives launched an electronic records management initiative in order to preserve the growing number of e-mails and electronic documents.

Mission

UNESCO's archives are the institutional memory of the Organization. They are constituted by materials received or prepared by the Organization in the exercise of its functions. The mission of the Archives and Records Management Unit is therefore twofold: to document the history and activities of the Organization since 1945 (and its predecessors) to the present day and to help the Secretariat to manage its records today in order to ensure their preservation and accessibility.

Services

• There is no charge to researchers for use of records or for limited copying at UNESCO. The UNESCO Archives reserves the right to refuse copy services if the materials are likely to be damaged or if materials must be altered to make copying possible. This applies in particular to bound books and extremely fragile material.
• Researchers are encouraged to bring a digital camera to the reading room to make their own copies of accessible materials, subject to preservation and related considerations.

How to Access

Contact UNESCO Archives Staff:

M. Adama Aly Pam Archiviste en chef/Chef de service Tel: +33 (0)1 45 68 19 50 E-mail: a.pam@unesco.org

Mme Eng Sengsavang Archiviste de référence Tel: +33 (0)1 45 68 22 42 Email: archives@unesco.org

M. Zine El Abidine Larhfiri Assistant archiviste Tel: +33 (0)1 45 68 19 55 E-mail: archives@unesco.org

Fonds and Collections

• The Archives holds records documenting the activities of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
• Archive groups/series: Many of the archival records of the Federation have not yet been arranged and described.
• The principle topics are: governance of the Federation; disaster relief operations; refugee relief operations; health, especially nursing education, blood donation / transfusion, community health; Junior Red Cross (children); Centenary of the Red Cross; Red Cross, Red Crescent and peace.

How to Access:

The archival records are open to the public only by appointment with an archivist.

Fonds and Collections

Established in 1996, the archive includes material from more than half a century of field operations around the world as well as material from headquarters. It occupies about 10 kilometres of shelving space on two basement floors in Geneva's headquarters. Electronic archives, comprising some 7 million documents, are stored and managed in a handful of dedicated, secure servers.

The collections are globally and historically unique in scope and content. They contain a trove of detail about important historical events, including, for example, records from the 1956 Hungarian uprising, the first major emergency in which we became operational, as well as emergencies in Chile and Argentina in the 1970s, and in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. They contain originals, for instance, of the letter sent by the late Tunisian leader, Habib Bourguiba, seeking international help for refugees fleeing the conflict in neighbouring Algeria in 1957 – the first plea to UNHCR for help by a country outside Europe. UNHCR is working to bring more material back from the field and to implement state-of-the-art systems for the preservation of digital materials in order to make them more accessible.

How to Access

• The UNHCR Archives are located in our headquarters at 94 Rue de Montbrillant, CH-1202 Geneva, Switzerland.
• Consult the Research Room Regulations before your visit. For more information, write to us in Geneva or email archives@unhcr.org.

Opening Hours

Research facilities are open Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 13:00.

Fonds and Collections:

• Archives of the Secretaries-General
• Archives of Secretariat Department
• Archives of Field Missions

• Archives of Predecessor Organizations

The archives of other important organizations created by the United Nations are also included:

• International Penal and Penitentiary Commission 1893-1958
• United Nations Information Organisation (UNIO) 1940-1945     
• United Nations Temporary London Office  1941-1947     
• United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC)  1943-1948     
• United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA)   1943-1948     
• United Nations Conference on the International Organization (UNCIO)   1944-1945  
• United Nations United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF)1956-1967   
• Chinese National Relief and Rehabilitation Agency (CNRRA)   1945-1947            
• Preparatory Commission for United Nations  1945-1958
• International Refugee Organization (IRO)

How to Access

• The Archives are located near the United Nations Headquarters on the east side of Manhattan, New York City. The exact address will be provided to you once you have registered for an appointment.
• Before visiting, researchers must contact the Archives at arms@un.org
• Be advised that there is often a wait list for seats.
• More information here

Opening Hours

Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.