Foreign Government & International Organization Documents

Lamont Level D which contains the ​government documents and microfilm is now closed.  Anyone wanting material must fill out a paper form at the Lamont Circulation Desk.  Material will be delivered within 2 hours.  Faculty and their RAs can be admitted to Level D by a librarian and left there alone.  Anyone else who needs physical access can be there in the presence of a librarian by appointment.  In any case the request form needs to be filled out for anything leaving Level D.  More information.

Do an Author search (adjust from any field to author) on your country in HOLLIS Advanced Search and then refining to Location: Documents (Lamont) should put you in the proper call number range.  Most foreign government documents are in a series of Widener call numbers (this material was transferred from Widener).  Some recent documents have Library of Congress numbers (Doc-LC) and a few have been sent to storage without call numbers.

You can browse the foreign government document Widener call numbers. Example for Russia-

In HOLLIS, use the “Starts with/Browse…” link on the basic search screen and browse Other Call Number: Slav Doc 7.10.

The call numbers will sort strangely. After July 1, there will be a Widener Call Number browse, and the numbers should sort better.

Each country has its sequence of numbers. Russia is Slav Doc 7.10-Slav Doc 2500.85.  

You can do a search for everything in a Widener root call number, and then limit by language, format, date.  Go to Advanced Search, then Code: Local call number. For example Afrdoc*.  You must eliminate spaces and add the *.

Example: Material in Swahili in the African government documents collection in Lamont

Country names can be searched in HOLLIS and WorldCat as Author keyword, but this usually retrieves too many publications of NGOs, learned societies and other entities.  You can do a keyword search on country plus government department name, by searching likely department name terms and finding the proper name.

Or you can browse the country name as Author in Starts with/Browse...  A general and mixed group under just the country name will appear first, then the government departments. 

To find foreign government documents beyond Harvard Library:

LLMC Digital
Go to Online Services, then Browse Collections.  A rich source of legislative and judicial documents

WorldCat does not offer an Author browse.  The Library of Congress catalog can be browsed (AUTHORs/CREATORS beginning with)  to find material not held by Harvard.  The Department names can then be searched in WorldCat to obtain the OCLC number for an Interlibrary Loan request.

A British Library research guide offers useful overviews of the government publications of many countries. 

Other guides are available on national library websites. Also try an Advanced Google search:

all these words: ‘your country’ Library
this exact word or phrase: Government documents
any of these words: Guide research resources

In another search replace Government documents with Government publications

Books describing government documents can be useful. In HOLLIS/WorldCat Advanced Search, search as Subject:
"Government publications"  "Africa, French-speaking Equatorial"  Bibliography.

France

Guide to French legislative documents

Great Britain

Research Guide: Great Britain: Guide to the Documents

House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (1688- )

Parliamentary Debates: Historic Hansard

State Papers Online: The Government of Britain 1509-1782 includes State Papers Domestic and Foreign (-1714) with the Registers of the Privy Council and State Papers in the British Library

International Organizations

List of IGOs (Inter-Governmental Organizations)

Governments on the WWW: Multi-Governmental Organizations

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) (Berkeley)

NGOs (Benedictine University)

Custom Google Search for NGO sites

International organizations: a dictionary and directory, by Giuseppe Schiavone. 7th ed. Basingstoke; NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, 411 p.
Widener | WID-LC | JZ4838 .S344 2008
--Contents : Introduction -- Dictionary A-Z -- Glossary -- International organizations: membership tables -- Classification of countries and membership of major groups -- Foundation dates -- Classification of organizations -- Index of acronyms -- Index of names.
--3rd ed.: 1992. Check HOLLIS for other eds.

Annuaire des organisations internationales = Yearbook of international organizations, 1948-present. Brussels: Union of International Associations, 10 v.
Current edition
Countway Medicine | JX 1904 Y4
Widener | Harvard Depository | Int 17.7

Annuaire de la vie internationale : unions, associations, instituts, commissions, bureaux, offices, conférences, congrès, expositions, publications, 1905 -. Bruxelles: Office central des institutions internationales, Institut international de bibliographie; Monaco: Institut international de la paix. 5 v.
Law School | Harvard Depository | 131 3500
Widener | Int 112.7 (1908/09; 1910/11)
1906 in Google Books
--Have terminal chronological list of organizations, index of personal names, and subject index

Research guides: