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sul-dlss / mods_display

MODS Display is a gem to centralize the display logic of MODS medadata.
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Handle qualifiers for start and end dates of ranges separately #46

Closed arcadiafalcone closed 2 years ago

arcadiafalcone commented 6 years ago

MODS puts the start and end dates of a range in separate date elements, each of which may have its own qualifier. Applying qualifier decoration to the range as a whole rather than to the individual elements can reduce the precision of the information in display.

Example: a photo with no exact date that is known to be pre-1906-earthquake, in a collection that starts in 1880 MODS: <dateCreated point="start" qualifier="approximate">1880</dateCreated> <dateCreated point="end">1906</dateCreated>

Current display: [ca. 1880-1906] (implies both ends of range are approximate) Desired display: [ca. 1880]-1906 (specifies that only start date is approximate)

cbeer commented 6 years ago

Do you know if there's a definitive source for how we should display MODS dates in general?

arcadiafalcone commented 6 years ago

As a shared standard, you mean? Not for display, but several content standards have patterns for recording uncertain dates as strings (ex. RDA 1.9.2, DCRM(B) 4D5, DACS 2.4). None of them cover a situation where start and end dates are known with differing levels of certainty, though - the previous example would most likely be represented as "[not after 1906]".

cbeer commented 6 years ago

Thanks. I was mostly interested in display standards for dates. I'm a little scared of the amalgam of display rules we have now, and the lack of a shared standard probably explains why.