United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library

For the third year in a row, the Dag Hammarskjöld Library took on a half dozen SI students for an interesting and productive week of ASB.

Alejandro C De Baca, Sarah McNitt and Ayca Obekci all worked on database projects within the Library system. Alejandro built a cataloging database for the Statistics Division, Sarah worked on the Library’s electronic resources database, and Ayca compared printed catalog records from one database to entries in another and recorded inconsistencies, duplications and other special information relevant to the records.

In addition to doing some database work for the Statistics Division, Ursula Arnold researched population census data from countries without such information. She also wrote a plan and a report related to the content of this population data collection.

Within the Department of Public Information – NGO Research Center , Rasika Ramesh cataloged video and audio tapes from NGOs around the world. She also assisted in a variety of administrative tasks within the department.  

Jing Guo printed entries listed on the UN Pathfinder (the public database of UN publications) and checked them in the UN Bibliographic Information System in order mark outdated entries on the public site and ensure that each entry contained the proper codes used to integrate the two databases. She also researched related organizations for their online publications to include in Pathfinder.

Finally, the students also got to sit in on a presentation by IBM Intranet about a system the Library is considering adopting. Following the presentation, the students participated in a focus group discussion about the UN’s intranet and got to offer insights and advice about the course of action the Library should take. The students also visited exhibitions, attended a talk by Secretary General Kofi Annan's wife, Mrs. Nan Annan and got an official tour of the UN facilities.

What the students had to say:

“I enjoyed getting to apply my computer skills in a library setting and meeting people.”  

“The UN was a great place to work. It was a whole experience to be there, and I think to experience the atmosphere was more important than the actual assignment…there was one of the most important conferences in UN history about women’s rights and we had the opportunity to see and even meet delegates from all over the world.”

“The DHL library staff were very helpful and enthusiastic about our work.”

“I enjoyed learning about various organizations within the UN system and working with people from all over the world.”

“[ASB] gave me the valuable opportunity to experience what it is like to work in such a culturally rich environment.”

“Working for an international organization has become one of my career options.”

Click to see what past ASB students have done at UNDHL in 2003 and 2004.

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