Government & Geographic Information collection
The Government & Geographic Information Collection is located in the University Library on the Lower Level, Room B190. There you will find publications and documents from the U.S. Federal government, Illinois, Chicago, and several intergovernmental organizations including the United Nations, World Bank, IMF, OECD, and World Health Organization. Materials are in print, microfiche, and CD/DVD formats.
This area is not staffed, and users are strongly encouraged to make arrangements in advance to work with any of these governments' materials, as well as maps and rare atlas materials.
Questions? Contact us at govinfo@northwestern.edu
Databases
- OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new windowWith some exceptions, access limited to content published between 2001 and August 2020.
OECD iLibrary contains publications and datasets released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), International Energy Agency (IEA), Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), OECD Development Centre, Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and International Transport Forum (ITF). Includes journal articles, chapters, working papers, multi-lingual summaries, e-book titles, and tables and graphs. - UN iLibrary This link opens in a new windowAccess to content through read view only.
The UN iLibrary provides access to books, magazines, and journals published by the UN Secretariat, agencies, funds, and programs dating back to 2013.
- United Nations Digital Librarythe official digital repository of the United Nations. Search official UN documents, speeches, voting records, open access materials, as well as some maps.
- UN Member States On The RecordProvides direct access to official documents reflecting the views of United Nations Member States
Annuals
Yearbook of the United Nations.
includes the texts of all major General Assembly, Security Council and Economic and Social Council resolutions and decisions, putting all of these in a narrative context of United Nations consideration, decision and action.
State of the World's Children.
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Statistics & Data
- IMF Data (via IMF eLibrary) This link opens in a new windowIMF eLibrary Data Includes domestic and international financial data from the International Financial Statistics as well as Government Finance Statistics, Direction of Trade Statistics, Balance of Payments, African Regional Economic Outlook, and more.
- OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new windowWith some exceptions, access limited to content published between 2001 and August 2020.
OECD iLibrary contains publications and datasets released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), International Energy Agency (IEA), Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), OECD Development Centre, Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and International Transport Forum (ITF). Includes journal articles, chapters, working papers, multi-lingual summaries, e-book titles, and tables and graphs. - UN Comtrade This link opens in a new windowInternational commodity trade statistics for over 130 countries, detailed by commodity and partner country. For many countries data coverage is 1962 to present.
- UNdata This link opens in a new windowStatistical time series for countries from around the world covering a wide range of topics including Agriculture, Crime, Education, Employment, Energy, Environment, Health, HIV/AIDS, Human Development, Industry, Information and Communication Technology, National Accounts, Population, Refugees, Tourism, Trade, as well as the Millennium Development Goals indicators.
- World Bank Open Data This link opens in a new windowThe World Bank Open Data site provides, "free and open access to data about development in countries around the globe." Among the datasets included are the World Development Indicators (WDI), Africa Development Indicators (ADI), Gender Statistics, Worldwide Governance Indicators, Global Economic Monitor (GEM), Education Statistics, etc. Most of the data is available in Arabic, French, Spanish and Chinese in addition to English.
- Environmental Data ExplorerThe authoritative source for data sets used by the United Nations Environment Program, contains more than 500 variables.
- FAOSTAT - Food and Agriculture OrganizationCore resource for providing time series and cross sectional data relating to food, agriculture and nutrition for over 200 countries.
- Global Health ObservatoryThe GHO provides access to over 50 datasets from the World Health Organization via an interactive database bringing together core health statistics for the 193 WHO Member States. It comprises more than 100 indicators, which can be accessed by way of a quick search, by major categories, or through user-defined tables.
- ILOSTATContains over 100 indicators about the cross-country labour market covering more than 230 countries and economies.
- United Nations Military Expenditures DatabaseBy making figures reported by countries on their military spending publicly available, the UN encourages their verification and analysis.