C. Personal name subjects (tag 600)
When considering personal names as subjects of documents, indexers need to distinguish between the individual office holder (personal name subject) and the person's office or function (corporate subject).
A personal name may be the subject of a document in such cases as a document concerning appointment or designation of an individual for a specific post or assignment, or a document containing biographical data or a tribute to an individual.
In most other cases, the corporate subject for the office is indexed (tag 610) instead of the personal name (tag 600) of the office holder. For example, a document concerning activities of a Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council would be indexed with the corporate subject for the Special Rapporteur, not with his personal name. Unless works concern specific UN Secretary-Generals, High Commissioners, etc., as individuals, the corporate subject heading for the Secretary-General, High Commissioner, etc., would be used, but not the personal name.
When documents contain biographical data of candidates for nomination and election to UN bodies, or concern appointment of high-level officials, the individual's country of nationality is recorded between parentheses in subfield $g of tag 600.
Example 1:
A document concerning appointment of the UNCTAD Secretary-General would be indexed as follows:
600 1 7 $a Panitchpakdi, Supachai $g (Thailand)
610 2 7 $a UNCTAD. Secretary-General
650 1 7 $a APPOINTMENT OF OFFICIALS
Example 2:
A document concerning activities of a Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council would be indexed as
follows (without tag 600):
610 2 7 $a UN. Human Rights Council. Special Rapporteur on the
Situation of Human Rights in the Sudan
650 1 7 $a HUMAN RIGHTS
650 1 7 $a SUDAN
Example 3:
A document containing biographical data on candidates for election to a UN body would be indexed as follows:
600 1 7 $a Valencia Rodriguez, Luis $g (Ecuador)
600 1 7 $a Yutzis, Mario Jorge $g (Argentina)
610 2 7 $a UN. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination $g (Members)
650 1 7 $a ELECTION OF MEMBERS
Indexers should make sure that a complete name authority record exists for the personal name
subject recorded in tag 600 subfield $a (See the UNBIS Manual for guidelines on creating personal name authority records).
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 2005-2008. All rights reserved.
Last updated: 11 April 2008
