Many international organisations also make their publications freely available on the web. If you know the name of a specific publication, you can search for it on Google. Use the advanced search option for more sophisticated searching.
Alternatively, you can go to the website of the organisation to search or browse for documents or data. Some have sophisticated search tools which will aid the research experience.
A selection of major international organisations with significant publication outputs are highlighted below.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is a political and military alliance whose purpose is to safeguard the freedom and security of its members through political and military means. You can use the NATO E-Library to official NATO documents and texts produced by the organisation. A useful NATO LibGuides section is also provided. NATO LibGuides are web-based research guides that contain publicly available information from the Internet that have been handpicked by the NATO Multimedia Library staff. The LibGuides have been created for topics that are of current interest to NATO's mission. They are by no means a comprehensive collection but provide a good starting point for your research.
The World Bank website provides access to a vast amount of statistics and publications relating to global development. Key areas of the website for researchers are:
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) brings together 34 member countries that share the principles of the market economy, democracy and respect for human rights. It is a unique forum to discuss, develop and perfect economic and social policy. You can browse or search the website to find information by country or topic, such as in the UK country example.
The OECD iLibrary is the online publications portal of the OECD. It gives full-text access to books, papers and statistics.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business.
Use the Documents and Reports section for access to the official documents of the WTO's councils and committees as well as to a range of other resources, such as trade statistics, economic research, WTO publications, videos, audio and photos. Here you can also find the “legal texts” — the body of WTO agreements that collectively form the legal framework of the WTO.
The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945. It is currently made up of 193 Member States. The mission and work of the United Nations are guided by the purposes and principles contained in its founding Charter. Use the Databases section to access: official documents, treaties, statistics, archival info.
The United Nations iLibrary is also a very useful source, acting as a global search, discovery and viewing tool for digital content created by the United Nations. The United Nations Audiovisual Library website is updated with audio and video recordings of daily meetings and events coverage including press conferences, press briefings, stakeouts and other events happening at the UN Headquarters in New York or other offices around the world. The AV Library also uploads curated historic audio, film or video recordings from a wide range of media from the UN audiovisual collection.