Individual Article:
UN-HABITAT documents international activities
The Library has just begun a comprehensive subscription to all United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) print and electronic titles. UN-HABITAT is the official UN agency for human settlements and contributes to the UN’s overall objective to reduce poverty and promote sustainable urban development. The agency is based in Nairobi, Kenya and its partners range from governments and local authorities to a cross-section of IGOs, NGOs, and civil society groups; these partnerships are reflected in the focus of the agency’s activities as well as their publications.
Topics covered in the publications range from urban management, land and housing, water and sanitation, and the environment, to women’s rights, slums, and human shelter issues. The geographical focus for most UN-HABITAT activities—as well as their publications—is the developing world with a particular emphasis on African communities. Because of this, many titles will be located in our Africana collection; GovInfo will house most serial titles as well as all non-Africa themed titles. Examples of UN-HABITAT titles on these subjects can be found in their publications catalog.
Besides monographs and serial publications, our annual subscription will also include DVDs containing thematic video footage on urban and shelter issues, CD-ROMs with detailed urban and human settlement statistics, as well as agency promotional materials—all of which have never before been widely available.
Many UN-HABITAT titles are already located in the Government and Geographic Information and Data Services department and all are searchable in NUcat; online access to most titles will also be provided in the NUcat record. For assistance with access to these titles, please stop by the department in person, call x1-3130, or email govinfo@northwestern.edu.
Louis Takacs
International Documents Librarian
l-takacs@northwestern.edu