Reference Sources for Background Information

Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements. Clapp Ref JX 1977 O8213 1990.    

Europa World Year Book. Clapp Ref JN1 .E85 1959+. Latest 2 years in ref; earlier in stacks.
   Part 1 lists international organizations; part 2 contains country information. Entries on international organizations can include regional activites and, in the case of banks, include loan amounts to individual countries.

European Yearbook. Clapp Ref JN 3 A5
    Presents the work of European organisations and the OECD. Does not include the bodies of the UN.

International Governmental Organizations. Clapp Ref JX 1995 P4 2 vols.
   An alphabetical arrangement of the current (as of 1961) constitutional documents of international organizations in existance at that time.

Yearbook of International Organizations. Clapp Ref JX 1904 A42 2006-2007 edition, 3 vols.
   An alphabetical arrangement of current information on the structure, activities, and members of international organizations.

Yearbook of the United Nations. Clapp Docs UN Sales I. 1946/47 - 2004.
    A yearly review of the activities of the United Nations.

Finding Books

Wellesley College Catalog - Use the Library catalog to find books and other materials (journal titles, NOT journal articles) we have here at Wellesley. Remember to start with "keyword" if you are beginning to research a topic, then when you find something useful, see what the subject headings are. Then click on these subject headings to find more about your topic.
Try the following subject headings and their subheadings:

international agencies
international organization
[specific name of organization]
international cooperation

Also try title: International Organizations Series. This series includes historical dictionaries and bibliographies related to specific international organizations.

WorldCat - Use WorldCat to find books and other materials not at Wellesley. Use the suggestions listed above. If you find a book you want that Wellesley does not own, use the ILL link within WorldCat to request the book.

Finding Journal Articles

The following databases provide either full-text articles or citations (information about when and where the article was published). Once you have a citation for an article, use the Find It! @ Wellesleylink from each citation to search one or more electronic journal sources through the Wellesley College Library Catalog. Use the name of the journal as the title and make sure you look at the dates covered carefully! If Wellesley does not own the article, you can request it via Interlibrary Loan (ILL). See our A-Z list for additional databases; think of which database will have the information for the approach you want.

If Wellesley databases don't give you what you need, try Google Scholar. There will be links to the articles Wellesley has; request others through Interlibrary Loan.

Suggested databases for this class (listed in order of usefulness):

PAIS - articles about political, social & economic issues, public affairs from 1937+. Index and abstracts only.

Academic Search Premier and Expanded Academic ASAP - great starting points for scholarly & popular articles in every discipline from about 1980+. Selected full text.

Web of Science - scholarly articles in the social sciences (1956-present) physical & life sciences (1900 to present), and arts & humanities (1975 to present). Search for articles that cite known journal articles or books

CIAO ( Columbia International Affairs Online) - Working papers, policy briefs, books, journals dealing with international affairs, 1991 to present.

Periodicals Archive Online - full text scholarly and popular articles in every discipline from 1802 - 1995. Not good for current information, but useful for articles around the founding of your organization.

Humanities and Social Science Retrospective - index to scholary articles, 1907-1984.

Historical Abstracts - articles on world history since 1450, excluding US & Canada, 1954+.

LexisNexis Academic Legal Research - Law review articles may have useful information about how an organization developed and its role in the world.

ArticleFirst - an index to articles in all scholarly fields and popular culture from 1990+. Selected full text. This database is updated daily , so is useful for very current articles.

Alt-Press Watch - Full-text collection of newspapers, magazines and journals of the alternative and independent press from 1995-present. This isn't the most scholarly source, but it is full text and can give you some leads.

The following journal titles are specific to international organization. Look for them in the online catalog. Note availability online, coverage dates, and where they are indexed.

• Global Governance indexed in PAIS; abstracts online.
• International Organization indexed in PAIS; abstracts and full text online; available in JSTOR 1947-1998.

Finding News

LexisNexis Academic News - the best place to look for newspaper articles from all over the world. Coverage varies by newspaper. Use the "Source" button at the top for coverage dates for a specific newspaper.

You may be able to find information on an organization's projects in a particular country, and the effectiveness of those projects, by searching newspapers from that country or area of the world. Once in LexisNexis Academic News, choose "World News" and then the "Guided Search" tab. You can change the Source from the drop down box. Start by searching in the "Headline and Lead Paragraph".

New York Times  1851-2003 (PDF) and June 1980 to present (HTML)  

Washington Post 1877 - 1971 (pdf) and 1971 to present (html)

United Nations News Centre

U.N. Wire - an independent service covering the United Nations and the World. Latest news through email; must register.

Internet Links

NOTE: Use the following criteria to evaluate any websites:

• Who is the author of the information?
• Can you find information about the author? What are his/her credentials?
• How current is the information? Is there a "last updated" date?
• Who is the intended audience for the information?
• Is the content objective or is it coming from a certain viewpoint?
• Is the information advocating a cause?

For more information on how to evaluate web pages or for specific search engines see our search the web page.

ACUNS - the Academic Council on the United Nations System.

Global Policy Forum monitors policy making at the United Nations.

International Organizations

The best information on international organizations may come from the organization's Web site. Explore it thoroughly! Remember, however, that the information is presented from the organization's viewpoint.

Briefing Book on International Organizations in Geneva prepared by the United States Mission to the United Nations in Geneva. Provides capsule descriptions of the principal international organizations in and around Geneva. You can browse by category or search for a specific organization. It also has a useful list of acronyms.

Bureau of International Organization Affairs [U.S. Dept. of State] - develops and implements U.S. policy in the UN and other international organizations.

International Agencies and Information on the Web from the University of Michigan Documents Center.

International Organizations - a list, by country, of the offices of international organizations in that country. The specific listing leads to the homepage for the country's participation in that organization. You can also search by country to get a listing of the activities of all organizations in that country.

International Organizations from the Library of Congress. Links to the organization's Web page.

Primary Sources

Check with your professor on what is and what is not a primary source!

• look for documents around meetings on your organization's/treaty's Web site

Speeches

• Vital Speeches of the Day (and Index) - Library has 1939-2003. Note whether the year you need is paper, microfilm, or online. Look at the record carefully.
• Representative American Speeches. Clapp Ref H 31 .R4. Library has 1937-2000.
• Newspapers - LexisNexis Academic, The New York Times Online, The Times (London). Dates and formats vary. Check the Library catalog.
• UN speeches
  • Index to speeches from the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, 1983+. Scroll down to the speeches index.
  • For UN speeches prior to 1983, use the United Nations Documents Index.
• On Web sites, look for terms like briefings, transcripts, and look within official documents.

United Nations documents may have statements from countries and individuals around a particular issue. Use Access UN 1945+ ) to find these documents. Current documents are also on the UN Web site.

Searching Strategies

When doing research for any class assignment, the process is the same. You have to think like a detective and pick up clues along the way. Searching hints:

• Start with the resources here at Wellesley! Search the library catalog and use the electronic databases on our e-resources A-Z list.
• Have you found a good book/article? Then look at the book's/article's bibliography to see what the author used for his/her research and track down any relevant sources. You can find earlier analyses this way.
• Have you found a particular author who has a special interest in your topic? Then see if he/she has a Web page with research info or articles.
• Have you found any controversy or important event around your topic? Then look for books/articles/newspaper articles published around that time period.
• If you want more information about an organization's/treaty's beginnings, look for a book written around that time; if you want to know recent events, look for a recent publication date.

Searching for information about an organization

• Find the organization's Web site.
  This should give you background, members, activities, mission, constitution, etc. Look for a link to the organizations activities in various parts of the world. Look also for an annual report or a link to documents or proceedings.
• Check to see if Wellesley has an organization's annual report in print.
  Look in the online catalog under keyword and search for [organization name] and annual report.

Searching for criticism of an organization

I found it very difficult to search on the web for this information. It is hard to separate criticism of an organization/treaty with criticism by the organization/treaty. Instead of searching the web:

• Try Alt-Press Watch - full text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the alternative and independent press. Not real scholarly, but can give you ideas.
• Use one of the scholarly databases mentioned above. Try the organization/treaty name and "criticism" as keywords.
• What is the organization's mission? If it is subject-based, try an article database from our databases a-z page that focuses on that subject. For example, if you are doing the OECD you might want to look in EconLit.
• Read the descriptive information in The Europa World Yearbook and and look for clues to possible areas of controversy.
• You can find criticism in a newspaper in the editorial section. If you have an organization that works in a specific area of the world it might be best to search newspapers from that area of the world. Use LexisNexis Academic News, World News. and change the source box to the area you would like to search. You might also want to change the dates you are searching. Put in the name of the organization. When you have your results, click on the Focus button at the top. In the box type "opinion or op-ed or commentary or editiorial".
• Also in LexisNexis Academic Legal Research, look in Law Reviews. Put the acronym for your organization in the title.
• Right or left wing groups are also a good source for criticism. Use the following sources:
  
  • The Right Guide. Clapp Ref HS 2321 R54
  • Alternative Press Index. Clapp Ref Z7164.S66 A4 1969-. Online from 1995+.
  • The Left Guide. Clapp Ref HS 2321 R54

For financial information try the:

• International Monetary Fund - look for "Country Information". The annual report is also available here.
• The World Bank - links to Joint BIS-IMF-OECD-World Bank statistics on external debt for individual countries.
• Regional banks for the area of the world your organization is in.
• Global Environment Facility - look under "Projects", then either "Projects" or "Pipelines".

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