United Nations Digital Library Now Free to All Users

The United Nations Digital Library which is a single access point for current and historical UN documents from a range of bodies and agencies is now available globally free of charge.

According to an explanation from a UN official provided on the beSpacific website:

"The new platform runs on innovative open source technology developed by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and is a result of the successful collaboration between the Dag Hammarskjöld Library at UN Headquarters and our sister library at the UN Office in Geneva. In very simple terms, phase 1 of the UNDL features the integration of the 3 UNBISnet databases into one; it incorporates digital content, mainly official UN documents and selected UN maps, with metadata from UNBISnet for UN-produced materials, as well as speech and voting records.   UNDL metadata records will link to open access UN content.   We plan to add and integrate additional collections of digital materials as they are created or are made available to us by UN departments, offices, and agencies."

UNBISnet is the UN Bibliographic Information System, the primary index to United Nations documentation published by the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold Library and the Library of the UN Office at Geneva. It also includes the catalogue of the collections of the Dag Hammarskjold Library and two specialized databases: the Index to Speeches and the Voting Records databases.