Dag Hammarskjöld Library at Uppsala University
UNESCO
- © United Nations
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
The Constitution of UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization was signed at a conference in London in 1945 and the organization became an agency of the United Nations in 1946.
UNESCO's purpose is to contribute to peace by promoting collaboration among nations through education, science, culture, communication and information. UNESCO has developed a wide range of programmes and activities, including literacy campaigns and educational projects, the protection of the world heritage, promotion of cultural policies and new information technologies, and support of sustainable human development.
UNESCO functions as an intellectual forum for a global exchange of ideas and knowledge. It organizes meetings and conferences, undertakes studies and research, and develops guidelines, standards and legal instruments.
The General Conference is the primary decision-making and supervisory body. Meeting every two years, it determines
the policies and approves the budget. The General Conference also elects the members of the Executive Board and
the Director-General.
The Executive Board supervises the implementation of the decisions taken by the General Conference and examines
the programme and budget.
The Secretariat is the administrative centre, headed by the Director-General, who is the executive head of the organization.
UNESCO is the only UN agency with a system of National Commissions in 190 Member and Associate States.
UNESCO is based in Paris with over 50 field offices and several institutes and offices around the world.
Documentation
The UNESCO official web site provides multilingual information about the structure of the Organization, programmes and activities, news, statistics and analysis, publications, full text documents and reports, conventions and recommendations.
UNESCO publishes a number of periodicals:
The Unesco Courier is published monthly with a timely theme of concern to the Orgnization. It can be accessed from 1998 onwards through the UNESCO official web site.
UNESCO's International Bureau of Education issues Prospects, a quarterly review of comparative education.
World Heritage Newsletter gives up-to-date accounts of issues facing World Heritage. It can be accessed through the UNESCO official web site.
The Memory of the World Register lists documentary heritage in archives and libraries of world significance and outstanding universal value.
World Heritage review provides articles on World Heritage. It is posted at the UNESCO official web site.
The UNESCO World Heritage List can be retrieved from the UNESCO official web site.
Museum International is a quarterly journal for the exchange of information on museums and cultural heritage.
Copyright Bulletin, issued quarterly and posted at the UNESCO official web site, provides information on legal developments
in the field of copyright.
Legal Instruments at the UNESCO official web site provides full text conventions, resolutions, declarations and other standard-settings instruments.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics compiles internationally comparable statistics on topics within the field of interest to UNESCO. Statistical tables and reports can be accessed from the UNESCO official web site, section Statistics.
A summary of the work of the United Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization for a given year with references
to essential documents can be accessed through the Yearbook of the United Nations, Part Six: Intergovernmental Organizations to the United Nations. A complete collection of yearbooks is held by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Uppsala, and the Libraries at UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva. Since October 2008 the complete full text collection of The United Nations Yearbooks is available online at http://unyearbook.un.org/.
Databases and Indexes
UNESCO has created a number of databases within its field of interest. They can be accessed through the UNESCO
official web site, section Databases.
UNESDOC/UNESBIB provides bibliographic records and full text of UNESCO documents, publications and periodicals.