All United Nations documents are currently shelved at Thomas Boulevard. Please contact Christopher Lemery for more information. 

Here is an example of a sales number: UN/ 98.III.A.27

Sales numbers consist of the following parts:

• a “UN/” which indicates this is an item within the United Nations collection;
• a two-digit number indicating the year the item was published (in the example, “98” for 1998);
• a 0, or a Roman numeral, or a Roman numeral with a letter, indicating a specific subject group or “category” ( “III.A.” in the example).  
• a number (“27” in the example).

To find a sales publication on the shelf, go to the sales publication section of the UN collection.  Then:

• Scan the sales numbers, looking first at the middle of the numbers for the Roman numeral/letter combination you want.  (In the example, sales numbers that contain “II.A.”)
• Within that group of publications, look at the beginning of the numbers for the two-digit year you want.  (In the example, look within the “II.A” publications for sales numbers beginning with “UN/96.”)
• Finally, look at the end of that group for the specific number you want. (Look within the group of “UN/96.II.A.” numbers for number “2”.)

Here are some sales numbers in the order in which they appear on the shelf:

For a complete list of Sales Numbers categories, see the UN Standing Orders webpage.

Each UN document has a unique symbol at the top right of the document or on the cover page. Document symbols consist of a combination of numbers and letters. Generally, the first component of a symbol after the “UN/” indicates the parent organ of the UN which has issued the document. For example, a call number beginning with "A/" denotes a General Assembly document, while "S/" denotes a Security Council document. Additional components may indicate secondary bodies and/or document types. Here is an example of a complete UN document symbol:

UN/A/AC.105/720

Items with document symbols are arranged strictly in alpha-numeric order with numbers preceding letters.  Here are some symbols in the order in which they appear on the shelf:

For more discussion of document symbols, see the UN research guide, UN Document Symbols.