Date

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

Definition: A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource.

Obligation: Strongly Recommended

Repeatable: True

Range: EDTF Date

---

Input Guidelines

DPLA MAP v4 Usage: Date value as supplied by Data Provider.

Access Guidelines

Enter the date of creation at the most specific level available.

Enter the date in Extended Date/Time Format. Only enter valid EDTF dates.

EXAMPLES

EDTF	Natural language
1975-01-07	January 7, 1975
1945?	1945?
1981~	approximately 1981
1981%	approximately 1981?
1940~/1950~	approximately 1940-approximately 1950 (see note below)
1975-23	Fall 1975
197X	1970s
19XX	1900s
1981/1985	1981-1985
[1888, 1889, 1891]	1888, 1889 or 1891
{1888, 1889, 1891}	1888, 1889 and 1891

Early, late, and mid dates

Where Y’s represent the century or decade:

Dates	EDTF	Natural language	Example
Early century	YY00~/YY30~	approximately YY00-approximately YY30	Early 18th century = 1700~/1730~ = approximately 1700-approximately 1730
Mid-century	YY30~/YY70~	approximately YY30-approximately YY70	Mid 19th century = 1830~/1870~ = approximately 1830-approximately 1870
Late century	YY70~/YY99~	approximately YY70-approximately YY99	Late 20th century = 1970~/1999~ = approximately 1970-approximately 1999
Early decade	YYY0~/YYY3~	approximately YYY0-approximately YYY3	Early 1940s = 1940~/1943~ = approximately 1940-approximately 1943
Mid-decade	YYY3~/YYY7~	approximately YYY3-approximately YYY7	Mid 1950s = 1953~/1957~ = approximately 1943-approximately 1947
Late decade	YYY7~/YYY9~	approximately YYY7-approximately YYY9	Late 1940s = 1947~/1949~ = approximately 1947-approximately 1949

Notes

• In legacy data, you may see the natural language date “approximately 1920-1930.” In EDTF, the “approximately” applies to the year directly following that word, so in this example, 1920 is considered approximate and 1930 is considered a known date. In EDTF, it would be expressed as 1920~/1930. To indicate that the entire range is approximate, you must indicate that each year is approximate, e.g. 1940~/1950~ which means “approximately 1940-approximately 1950.”
• Season ranges (e.g. Spring-Summer 1997) are not supported in EDTF. To describe an item whose date is a range of seasons, put the year (1997) into the Date field and capture the range in the title (“Gulf Coast, Vol. 10, No. 2, Spring-Summer 1997”).

Preservation Guidelines

A date associated with the original item, usually the date of creation of the original.

For archival projects, data in this field is automatically populated from the date field (specifically, the ISO-normalized begin/end date fields) of the associated ArchivesSpace item. For standard projects, there is no data in this field.

EXAMPLES

• 1966-12-06
• 1970/1979