Loans can be made to:

• Secretariat staff with a permanent or a fixed-term contract of at least one year. Temporary staff can only use materials in the Library (unless they can get a colleague entitled to do so to sign out the materials for them);
• Diplomatic representatives of the Permanent Missions in Geneva;
• Journalists accredited to the UNOG community;
• Sister libraries of the United Nations system in Geneva, the Dag Hammarskjöld Library in New York, and the United Nations Office in Vienna;
• Swiss public, university, and special libraries and, exceptionally, to major libraries in neighbouring countries.
  
  

Loan process:

• All loan requests must bear the signature of the borrower;
• Users can borrow up to 20 volumes at a time;
• In case of urgent need, the library staff can recall a book or document at any time.
  
  

Categories of works that can be loaned and duration of loans:

• Monographs: one month.
• Periodicals: bound volumes: one month; loose issues of periodicals are not loaned (exceptions are made only for 10-day periods within the confines of the Palais des Nations).
• United Nations sales publications: only second copies can be borrowed (unique archival copies cannot be loaned).
  
  

Categories of works that cannot be loaned:

• Volumes that are classified in reading room collections (e.g., ES, LP, ST).
• United Nations masthead documents.
• Unbound newspapers, gazettes, official journals, oversize periodicals and those in provisionally bound formats.
• “Rare” books must be consulted in Room B 135 by the Loan Desk; only the Chief Librarian can authorise the use of some rare books.
  
  

Interlibrary loans:

• Interlibrary loans, which involve special costs to the Organization, are processed for Secretariat staff or delegates and must be directly related to their official research work. Books published prior to 1945 are excluded from interlibrary loan.