The Archive Group consists of publications produced or funded by the UNESCO Secretariat from the foundation of UNESCO in 1946 until now. The Archival Group is arranged into three collections:

• Works published directly by UNESCO under its own imprint (complete until December 1971, afterwards some publications might be missing);
• Works published through financial or other forms of assistance from UNESCO;
  -Works issued by National Commissions under agreement with the UNESCO Secretariat (for the most part these are translations of publications issued by UNESCO).

The Archive Group does not contain publications relating to UNESCO and its activities written independently of the Organization. This also applies to any publications of National Commissions which are not translations or adaptations of UNESCO publications and were not issued under contract.

Publications of the Natural Science Sector and its predecessors

Series consists of publications of the Communication and Information Sector and its predecessors.

The UNESCO Collection of Representative Works (or UNESCO Catalogue of Representative Works) was a UNESCO translation project that was active for about 57 years, from 1948 to about 2005. The purpose of the project was to translate masterpieces of world literature, primarily from a lesser known language into a more international language such as English and/or French. There were ~1,300 works in the catalog, consisting of over sixty-five different works of literature and representing around fifty Oriental languages, twenty European languages, and a number of African and Oceanian literatures and languages. The project also included translations from one less widely known language into another.

UNESCO financed the translations and publications, but UNESCO itself was not a publisher, instead working with other publishers who sold the books independently.

Series consists of works compiled and published by non-governmental organizations which were either in receipt of specific funding from UNESCO, as well as those publications from NGOs which had official relations with UNESCO and were exchanging information based on the conditions of this relationship.

Publications of the Education Sector and its predecessors

Publications of the Culture Sector and its predecessors.

Publications of the Social and Human Science Sector and its predecessors

Periodicals published directly by UNESCO

The original UNESCO Courier was a monthly printed magazine published between 1947 to 2001. It was published in more than thirty languages including braille. The magazine is written journalistically and each issue looks into a single subject from different angles. From 2002 to 2005 the UNESCO Courier was followed by the New Courier, published in three languages.

The fond includes all exemplars of

• The UNESCO Courier (published from 1948 - 2001) and
• The The New Courier (published from May 2002 - November 2005).

All works published directly by UNESCO Field Offices

Works compiled and published byUNESCO in cooperation with other institutions

Works issued by National Commissions under agreement with the UNESCO Secretariat. Some of these are translations of publications issued by UNESCO itself.

Works published by UNESCO itself under its own imprint (complete until December 1971, afterwards some publications might be missing or only be available in the UNESCO library)

Maps, posters and similar material produced and published by UNESCO

Works issued by other publishers under contract with UNESCO, with or without financial assistance, in the original version or in translation