Update Date guidelines

[metaweidner]

• https://uhlibraries-digital.github.io/bcdams-map/#date
• https://uhlibraries-digital.github.io/bcdams-map/guidelines/date

[amgaynor]

Will this be a single field from now on? vs. One field that's human readable and one field that's machine readable? What if the date cannot be expressed well in EDTF (e.g. College of Architecture posters - @christinz I think there was another collection - could you post here?)

[amgaynor]

If we choose to go with one date field formatted in EDTF, would we be able to display it in a human readable form a la UNT? https://digital.library.unt.edu/help/guide/dates/

[metaweidner]

@amgaynor Long term: yes, there are tools that will do that for us: http://blogs.library.duke.edu/bitstreams/2016/04/22/edtf-humanize/ Short term: remains to be seen what Hybox gives us out of the gate

[amgaynor]

We need to confirm the natural language expression of dates in EDTF:

EDTF	Natural language
1975-07-01	January 1, 1975
1945?	1945?
1981~	approximately 1981
1975-23	Autumn 1975 (or do we want Fall 1975?)
197x	1970s
19xx	1900s (in humanized EDTF, we will not have 20th century)
1981/1985	1981-1985 (other option would be 1981 to 1985. This form is not currently used in UHDL)
[1888, 1889, 1891]	1888, 1889 or 1891 (I've never/rarely seen this in our collection)

@dulekde @christinz Are there other types of dates you've see in UHDL that need to be addressed?

[seanlw]

There is also this available:

EDTF	Natural language
{1888, 1889, 1891}	1888, 1889 and 1891

[christinz]

1975-23, We have used "Fall" in a few collections in the past.

[dulekde]

"u" is being used http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/p15195coll34/item/108 July 28, 18??; 18uu-07-28 http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/1984_003/item/867 March 19 - March 21; 19uu-03-19/19uu-03-21

[amgaynor]

Approximate date ranges, e.g. "approximately 1970-1980". What's the correct way to enter this? 1970~/1980~? I think the more literal translation of this would be "approximately 1970-approximately 1980", but that's not in the UHDL.

[amgaynor]

In bibliographic (and archival?) practice, brackets meant that the value is supplied. Do we want to follow this practice?

Update: We won't use brackets to indicate supplied dates. This practice has been discontinued in archives. For MARC records that include date in brackets, we will remove the brackets.

Update: Brackets will be used per the EDTF standard to indicate a list of "or" dates when appropriate.

[amgaynor]

Old	New
circa	approximately
Autumn	Fall
1920 to 1925	1920-1925
19XX	1900s

[metaweidner]

@librarycard It looks like the Date field needs Preservation guidelines.