8.2 ENTRY PRINCIPLES 7. Index terms The index terms provide a point of access to the contents of a collection of documents, allowing the user to retrieve particular (sets of) records. The effectiveness and precision of the documentation system depends to a large extent on the quality of the indexing. The total number of index terms assigned to an event varies according to the complexity of the unit being analysed. Every effort must be made to select the most specific terms. To avoid pitfalls in selecting index terms: DO NOT select a broader term when a narrower term is more appropriate; e.g., do not use "civil and political rights" when an event deals only with "academic freedom". DO NOT use religion, ethnic background, language, citizenship or origins in general index fields. These and other characteristics of persons are covered in fields designed specifically for these areas. DO keep user needs in mind at all times. For each index term selected, ask the question: "If a user were doing a search on this particular topic, would s/he find this record pertinent?" If the answer is "No", the index term should not be selected. 8. Confidentiality Caution should be used in entering sensitive material into a database. Unless safeguards such as encryption are taken to protect victims, sensitive material should not be entered in the system at all. Confidential information should generally not be communicated. Decisions concerning the communication of confidential or sensitive information rest with the sending organisation. This issue should be thoroughly explored before organisations embark on database projects. 9. Information unknown If no data are available for recording information in a specific field, or when the data are not certain, the field should be left blank. A note on this can be made in the field Comments. Most Micro-thesauri have a code 99 for indicating that information is not (yet) known. 10. The format of dates The format of dates varies in different parts of the world. The date format in computerised databases provides flexibility for computation, search and output. Users can set up their systems to reflect the format that is in common use in their area. For electronic exchange, even when a date is entered using a certain format (e.g., January 10, 2001), it can be read and displayed in another format as used by the receiver (e.g., 10 January 2001). This is because computer operating systems all follow the same machine-based standard in the storage of date values. What is important in the case of WinEvsys and similar applications is to define fields for entering dates as date fields and not as text fields, for this internal machine-based standard to apply. 87