The International Labour Organization is a knowledge-based organization: collecting and disseminating information is one of its key functions. The Treaty of Versailles (Article 396) stipulated that one of ILO’s functions would be to centralize and distribute information on the conditions of workers and the development of labour laws. This role was reaffirmed in the ILO Constitution (Article 10), which states that one of the functions of the International Labour Office is the “collection and distribution of information on all subjects relating to the international adjustment of conditions of industrial life and labour”.

The ILO Library is the institutional repository of all ILO publications, both print and electronic, produced in Geneva and in ILO’s offices worldwide. It seeks out, collects, organizes and preserves information materials on all subjects related to the world of work, from sustainable livelihoods and the work-related aspects of economic and social development to technological change and human rights.