Case Study

Making decades of United Nations disarmament records searchable

We modernized the United Nations disarmament meetings portal, organizing decades of documents and statements around the meetings they belong to and making historical records easier to search, navigate, and access.

Client United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs
System Meetings Place
Focus Document management · Search and discovery · Website modernization
Technology Drupal · Angular · MySQL

01 — The challenge

Make decades of institutional records easier to find

Large organizations accumulate vast collections of documents, making information difficult to find when records are spread across meetings, sessions, and document types.

The United Nations disarmament community needed a centralized way to access meeting records and associated documents, including historical materials dating back to 1946.

We modernized Meetings Place into a structured document portal connecting meetings, documents, and statements through organized navigation and search.

02 — The approach

Organize documents around the context people need

Rather than treating documents as isolated files, the system organizes them around the meetings and sessions in which they belong.

01

Structure the collection

Meeting records, sessions, documents, and supporting content are represented as connected elements, giving historical materials a consistent organizational structure.

02

Improve search and discovery

Search and filtering capabilities help users navigate a large document collection and narrow results to records relevant to their needs.

03

Modernize the platform

A content management backend and component-based frontend support a more structured, maintainable way to manage and present information.

03 — Implementation

Connect meetings, documents, and search in one portal

The platform brings together structured meeting pages, document records, and tools for finding relevant materials across the collection.

Meeting-centered navigation

Organize records around meetings and sessions

Records are organized around meetings and their associated sessions, helping users navigate the collection through its institutional structure rather than relying on individual document links alone.

Explore the Meetings Place portal →

Meetings Place homepage showing upcoming meetings and links to past meetings and document search
Meetings Place portal. Browse current and upcoming meetings, past meetings, and document search.
Past Meetings page with filters for session year, UN organ, location, and meeting type
Past meetings. Users can browse prior meetings and narrow the collection by session year, organ, location, and meeting category.

Document and statement search

Search across a complex collection

Search and filtering capabilities help users find relevant documents and statements within the broader library. Connecting records to meeting information provides additional context for navigating results.

Document search controls showing document type, author type, and sorting options above a filtered result
Document search. Search controls help users narrow records by document type, author, and other available fields.

Technology

  • Drupal
  • Angular
  • PHP
  • MySQL

Modernize content management and delivery

The platform combines Drupal content management with an Angular-based interface and a MySQL database. This architecture supports structured content types, relationships between records, and a dedicated user experience for browsing and searching the collection.

04 — Outcome

Turn a historical document collection into a navigable resource

Meetings Place provides a centralized way to explore United Nations disarmament meetings and their associated records, making a substantial historical collection more accessible to the people who rely on it.

  • Organizes meeting records and associated documents within a structured system.
  • Supports access to historical materials dating back to 1946.
  • Connects documents and statements to their meeting context.
  • Provides search and filtering to help users discover relevant records.
  • Modernizes the platform used to manage and present the collection.

Capabilities

  • Document management
  • Search and discovery
  • Legacy content migration
  • Database design
  • Website modernization
  • Component-based application development
  • Advanced filtering

What this project demonstrates

We modernize complex information systems by structuring legacy content around the context people need, then making it easier to search, navigate, and use.