UNHCR is a prolific publisher and very generously makes most of its publications freely available. And once upon a time, I felt like I actually had a good handle on keeping track of all the information it generated. But no more: After the 2016 revamp of UNHCR’s website eliminated the RSS feeds that helped me keep current on newly added content, I have found it much more challenging to stay informed about what the organization is producing and where it is being posted.* So I have relied increasingly on ReliefWeb to learn about new UNHCR publications (and they still offer RSS feeds!).
Yet even ReliefWeb does not manage to catch every UNHCR report -- particularly those that are published by UNHCR field offices.** Ideally, UNHCR would have one comprehensive institutional repository that collected the bulk of the organization’s research and publications, perhaps similar to the World Bank’s Open Knowledge Repository. This would enable researchers to quickly identify the latest additions, browse through topical collections, and have access to a more sophisticated search mechanism.
Providing a single, centralized point of access or gateway to UNHCR’s myriad collections and resources would also be helpful, as it would at least provide researchers with a starting point for getting a better sense of what UNHCR produces. As it happens, I realized this is something that I can actually implement myself - so I did! Please take a look at my new UNHCR’s Resources and Publications page when you have a chance, and let me know if there is anything else I should add to it.
If you want to learn specifically about new or recent UNHCR publications, here are some strategies to try:
1. Visit ReliefWeb's updates for UNHCR, which are automatically organized in reverse chronological order by the date an item was posted to the database. Use the filters on the left to limit the search results by country, content format, language, etc. You can also create RSS feeds for any search strategies you configure: Once you have generated a search results page, just scroll down to locate the RSS link at the bottom of the page, then copy the link and paste it into your news reader. Here is an example for you to try: an RSS feed for the search results for "UNHCR" AND "analysis" AND "protection and human rights".
2. Use my new page to help you identify the type of information you are interested in, then navigate to the relevant collection and use the specific browse/search features provided to locate items of interest.
3. Since a majority of UNHCR's country sites and portals now include the stem "unhcr.org" in their URLs, you can search across them on Google using the following search strategy:
>search term site:unhcr.org/< (don't include the >< in the actual search)
For example, searching on >statelessness 2021 site:unhcr.org/<, and then limiting results to the past month located items posted on the Central Asia, Northern Europe and Philippines country sites as well as on the Global Focus and Operational Data portals.
Hope this is useful for you and good luck!
__________
*My feedback on the 2016 revamp is available here.
**I conducted a search recently on UNHCR’s site using key words like “desk review,” “research report,” and “research study” and learned about the following items, none of which were in ReliefWeb at the time this was posted:
- “Border Shelter Toolkit: Best Practices in Sheltering Asylum-Seeking Families at the U.S. Southern Border” (on the US site)
- "Desk Review on Populations at Risk of Statelessness: Children of Philippine Descent in a Migratory Setting in Gulf Cooperation Council (GSS) Countries and Persons of Japanese Descent (on the Philippines site]
- “Family reunification practices in Finland” (on the Nordic and Baltic Countries site)
- “Perception of Refugees in Jordan Survey (Wave I): Final Report” (on the Jordan site)
- “Realising Family Reunification: Travel Assistance & Related Matters” (on the Ireland site)
- “Vulnerability Assessment for Refugees in Egypt: 2018” (on the Egypt site)
No comments:
Post a Comment