How did UNHQ librarians answer 20,000 questions in one month? Ask DAG!
The Dag Hammarskjöld Library at UN Headquarters has been helping people find answers to their questions about the UN for 70 years. Questions used to come pouring in from all corners of the world by airmail and phone; now they arrive via e-mail.
Now the Dag Hammarskjöld Library has found a way to reach even more people who need answers quickly. It is fittingly called: Ask DAG.
Ask DAG is a FAQ database that lets one to ask a question directly or browse over 500 questions and answers about all things UN; topics like the General Assembly, UN documents, international law, etc.
Ask DAG includes commonly asked questions, but also specialized queries like:
How are the non-permanent members of the Security Council selected?
What is the difference between signing, ratification and accession of UN treaties?
Where can I find out what countries have co-sponsored Security Council or General Assembly resolutions?
Introduced in April 2013, the question and answer service has been increasingly popular among UN staff, permanent mission staff, and the public alike. Recently, the new platform allowed librarians to answer over 20,000 questions in just one month.
The most popular question overall is: “How should I cite a UN document?” (viewed 59,285 times, mostly by scholars and students). The most asked question by UN and Permanent Mission staff is: “What are the UN official holidays for 2015?” (asked 22,677 times).
Ask DAG is also available in Spanish (¡Pregunta a DAG!) and French (Demandez à DAG!).
Due to the popularity of Ask DAG in all three languages, the Dag Hammarskjöld Library plans to make the service more multilingual by adding a Chinese version later this year.