D. Letters and notes verbales
Subject entries
Name entries
Content Codes
Notes and annotations
Subject entries are made for:
1. Subjects under consideration by the UN
2.
In cases where a letter or note transmits resolutions, recommendations,
etc. of an intergovernmental body, entries are made for the main
subjects of the transmitted texts. Corporate or conference subject
headings are assigned (tags 610 or 611) with appropriate modifying terms in subfield $g
Examples:
610 2 7 $a UN. Office of Internal Oversight Services $g Recommendations
611 2 7 $a Inter-Parliamentary Conference (103rd : 2000 : Amman) $g Resolutions and decisions
3. Other significant subjects
Primary geographic subject terms (tag 650 first indicator 1) should be assigned in conformity with the geographic linkage of subjects. Indexers should ensure that only neutral terms are linked with primary geographic subject terms.
A
consistent approach is important in assigning subject terms to denote
specific incidents, events and situations. Letters or notes verbales
concerning the same situation or event may be submitted as different
documents, sometimes in different document series. Indexers should
ensure that specific events are indexed consistently by checking the
database and viewing records for other documents on the same topic.
For
example, similar letters from the Permanent Representative of the
Syrian Arab Republic were transmitted as a Security Council document on
6 January 2006 and as a Commission on Human Rights document on 11
January 2006. While there is variation in other subject terms assigned
for the two letters, the main subjects assigned to the two letters are
consistent.
191 $a S/2006/6
520 $a Transmits
letter from the Syrian Government concerning Israeli plan to divide the
Syrian occupied village of al-Ghajar, which allegedly constitutes a
violation of international humanitarian law, in particular the 4th
Geneva Convention.
650 1 7 $a SETTLEMENT POLICY
650 1 7 $a SEPARATION BARRIERS
650 1 7 $a GOLAN HEIGHTS
650 1 7 $a ISRAEL
650 1 7 $a SYRIANS
650 1 7 $a TERRITORIES OCCUPIED BY ISRAEL
191 $a E/CN.4/2006/G/4
520 $a Transmits
letter from the Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic
addressed to the High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding Israeli
practices aiming towards the partition of the Syrian village of
Al-Ghajar into two parts.
650 1 7 $a SETTLEMENT POLICY
650 1 7 $a SEPARATION BARRIERS
650 1 7 $a ISRAEL
650 1 7 $a GOLAN HEIGHTS
650 1 7 $a SYRIANS
650 1 7 $a TERRITORIES OCCUPIED BY ISRAEL
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Name entries are made for:
1.
The Government or Ãå±±½ûµØoffice-holder (e.g. President of the Security
Council, Ãå±±½ûµØSecretary-General) transmitting the letter/note verbale
2.
Governments, intergovernmental bodies, meetings, etc., responsible for
text of statements, declarations, resolutions, recommendations, etc.,
that are transmitted in letters/notes verbales
Example 1 (A/62/654):
245 1 0 $a Letter
dated 2008/01/11 from the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of Spain to the United
Nations addressed to the President of the General Assembly
520 $a Transmits
Declaration of Madrid, outcome of the Expert Group Meeting entitled
“Making it Work : Civil Society Participation in the Implementation of
the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” held in
Madrid, 27-29 Nov. 2007.
710 2 _ $a Spain
711 2 _ $a Expert
Group Meeting “Making it Work : Civil Society Participation in the
Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities” (2007 : Madrid)
Example 2 (S/2007/789):
245 1 0 $a Letter dated 2007/12/27 from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the Security Council
520 $a Transmits
letter dated 18 Dec. 2007 from Nepal requesting an extension of the
mandate of the Ãå±±½ûµØMission in Nepal for a period of 6 months from the
date of expiry of its current mandate.
710 2 _ $a UN. Secretary-General
710 2 _ $a Nepal
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Content Codes:
Assign Content Code B15 to letters and notes verbales of the Ãå±±½ûµØSecretary-General, and Content Code B18 to other letters and notes verbales.
In addition to Content Code B15 or B18, assign Code A08
when the text of laws, recommendations, non-Ãå±±½ûµØresolutions, etc., is
transmitted in letters or notes verbales. Assign Content Code A20 when text of a multilateral declaration is transmitted.
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Notes and annotations:
Titles
of letters and notes verbales often provide only the date of
transmittal (recorded in coded form: YYYY/MM/DD), the transmitting
official and the addressee.
Letters often require notes/annotations to furnish more detailed information than is provided by the title.
Examples:
245 10 $a Letter
dated 2006/01/05 from the Permanent Representative of Canada to the
United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council
520 $a Requests that the Security Council place the situation in northern Uganda on its agenda for immediate consideration.
245 1 0 $a Identical
notes verbales dated 2005/11/14 from the Permanent Representative of
the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations addressed to the
Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council
520 $a Concerns
the work of the Syrian Judicial Commission with regard to cooperation
with the International Independent Investigation Commission in Lebanon
investigating the assassination of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik
Hariri.
245 1 0 $a Letter dated 2007/03/19 from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the Security Council
520 $a Transmits monthly report on the international security presence in Kosovo (KFOR) covering the period 1-31 Jan. 2007.
When a title is sufficiently detailed no note is required.
Example:
245 1 0 $a Note
verbale dated 2006/09/15 from the Permanent Mission of the Syrian Arab
Republic addressed to the Secretariat of the Conference on Disarmament
transmitting a letter addressed to the President of the Conference
proposing for a discussion at the Conference’s session in 2007 the
subject of burial by Israel of nuclear waste in the occupied Syrian
Golan
Annotations composed by
indexers should be concise and specific, covering the main purpose of
submission of a letter or note; dates are required when describing an
event, incident, etc. Indexers should prefer neutral language and avoid
negative language in formulating notes referring to specific countries,
unless a direct quotation is indicated by the use of quotation marks or
qualifying words such as «alleged» are used.
Example:
520 $a Concerns
armed incident involving the Lebanese Army and Israeli Defense Forces
at the border fence near the Blue Line, 7 Feb. 2007.
Annexes included in the item should be recorded in a general note field (tag 500) in accordance with the UNBIS Reference Manual for Bibliographic Description. If the indexer judges the title of an annex to be insufficient or inflammatory in any way, a note should be composed instead.
When
a document chiefly consists of annexed information, the annexed text
should be described or summarized in a summary/annotation note (tag 520).
If the annex has a distinctive title, the annex title may either be
cited in the summary/annotation note, or recorded separately in a
general note field (tag 500):
Examples:
245 1 0 $a Letter
dated 2008/03/03 from the Permanent Representative of Eritrea to the
United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council
520 $a Transmits
press release of 29 Mar. 2008 entitled "Ethiopia’s occupation must end"
issued by the Permanent Mission of Eritrea to the UN.
245 1 0 $a Letter
dated 2007/04/05 from the Chairperson of the Committee for Development
Policy addressed to the President of the Economic and Social Council
500 $a "Annex: The least developed countries status of Samoa": p. 2-3.
520 $a Transmits
report including recommendations of the Committee for Development
Policy on the issues raised by Samoa on its status as least developed
countries submitted in response to Economic and Social Council decision
2007/212 of 15 Mar. 2007.
Indexers
should use standard AACR2 abbreviations for months and ordinal numerals
in annotations, unless they are transcribing annex titles or quoted
text as it appears on the document. Corporate and conference names in
indexers’ annotations should be recorded in the authorized form as
found in UNBIS name authority records.
When a text with a distinctive title is transmitted by a document, the title is recorded in the variant title field tag 740 (if it is an uncontrolled title) or in the uniform title field tag 730 (if it is a controlled title)
Examples:
520 $a Transmits
statement on the International Compact with Iraq, issued on 1 Aug. 2006
by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union.
740 0 _ $a Statement on the International Compact with Iraq issued on 1 August 2006 by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union
520 $a Transmits
concluding summary of the High-level Conference Interfaith Cooperation
for Peace, organized by the Tripartite Forum on Interfaith Cooperation
for Peace, UN, 21 Sept. 2006.
740 0 _ $a High level Conference on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace : moderator’s concluding summary
520 $a Transmits
“Joint statement on the question of the death penalty” placing on
record the disassociation of its 66 co-sponsoring delegations from
Commission on Human Rights resolution E/CN.4/2005/L.77.
740 0 _ $a Joint statement on the question of the death penalty
520 $a Transmits
Declaration of Santiago de Chile, adopted by the Governments of the
member States of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in
Latin America and the Caribbean and the States Parties to the Treaty of
Tlatelolco, during its 19th regular session, held in Santiago, Chile,
7-8 Nov. 2005.
630 0 7 $a Declaration of Santiago de Chile (2005)
730 0 _ $a Declaration of Santiago de Chile (2005)
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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 2008-2009. All rights reserved.
Last updated: 12 August 2009
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