Introduction
The online
is the authority file of subject and geographic name headings which
constitute the controlled vocabulary for subject indexing and
cataloguing of
material in UNBISnet, the online Library
catalogue. Cataloguers and indexers of agencies which use the
Thesaurus may propose new terms or changes to old terms by submitting a
request form, the Thesaurus
Term Worksheet, through their designated Focal Points.
The
principal fields are:
Heading, Subject Category Code (or Facet), See From Tracing (i.e.,
cross-reference), See Also Tracing, "Source Data Found" Note
and Public General Note (or Scope Note).
Because the Thesaurus is fully multilingual, a separate MARC
tag is provided for
each language version of each field. Consequently, there is a Heading
(English) field, a Heading (Arabic) field, a Heading (Chinese) field,
etc. The exceptions to this are the Subject Category Code and See
Also Tracing fields--the non-English displays of these fields
are generated automatically from English tags in the non-MARC format
database in which the Thesaurus is maintained. It should also be noted
that currently the non-roman scripts of Thesaurus terms are not
implemented in UNBISnet and that although French
and Spanish fields are included in UNBISnet
Thesaurus records, they are not indexed and thus not searchable. Searches may be conducted in all
United Nations official languages in the online version
of the .
Names
of countries and major geographic regions are treated as
Thesaurus terms and are incorporated into the hierarchical structure of
the Thesaurus. Although established headings for all other geographic
names are maintained in the Thesaurus database, they are not
incorporated into its hierarchical structure. See From cross-references
may be present, but there is no reciprocal cross-reference structure
between related terms, nor is any attempt made to represent the term in
the six languages of the Thesaurus. The English conventional form of
place-name is generally preferred, in line with AACR2, but sometimes
the spelling employed in UN maps prevails.
Note: In the instructions which
follow, field and subfield repeatability/non-repeatability is
indicated by (R) or (NR).
Maintained
by the Department of Public Information (DPI), Dag Hammarskjöld
Library. Comments as well as suggestions for further
additions/enhancements may be directed to the Dag Hammarskjöld
Library.
©
United Nations 2006-2009. All rights reserved.
Last
updated: 13 August 2009
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