When we were investigating authority processing a long time ago (can't
remember what vendor, what job), the specs for authority processing
allowed for omission of a death date in matching. That is, the death
date would be "normalized" away for matching purposes.
While our principal goal is establishing a distinctive heading for
names, it seems that removing the month and day does not accomplish
much even though the 1929-2006 in John's example might represent no
conflict. It also helps confirm that you're dealing with the right
David Smith when doing catalog maintenance.
Sherman Clarke
NYU Libraries
[log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: "John C. DeSantis" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sunday, October 29, 2006 9:51 am
Subject: Re: [PCCLIST] Birth and death dates
> As long as we are on the subject of adding death dates, could
> someone clarify whether we should remove the month and day from an
> open birth date when adding a death date?
>
> For instance:
> Smith, David, 1929 Feb. 4-
> presumably would become
> Smith, David, 1929-2006
>
> as long as one can ascertain that all the other individuals with
> the heading Smith, David and an open birth date of 1929 are still
> alive or died in a different year?
> I have seen death dates added to headings in which the month
> and date remained in the birth date, so it would be good to get
> some clarity.
> Thanks very much in advance--
>
> John DeSantis
>
> ********************************************************************
> John DeSantis
> Cataloging & Metadata Services Librarian
> Bibliographer for Film Studies, Theater and Russian
> Dartmouth College Library
> HB 6025
> Hanover, NH 03755
> (603) 646-0413 [voice]
> (603) 646-8767 [fax]
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> *******************************************************************
>
|