I suggest always using the hyphen which makes processing (and reading
by humans) much easer. The use of a range in a 'normal' attribute
strikes me as problematic, though there don't seem to be any
attributes to otherwise make the start and end points distinct. But
date ranges aside, one ought to expect only three possibilities in
date/@normal or unitdate/@normal :
YYYY
YYYY-MM
YYYY-MM-DD
The 'certainty' attribute is handy for qualifying a date's exactness.
On September 20, at 11:10 AM, HIGGINS R.I. wrote:
> Right. Which looks a whole lot more complex to process. The ISO is
> ambiguous, sometimes using "-" to separate YYYY and MM, hence the
> use of
> "/" to separate ranges. Are there standard software libraries to
> process
> and understand all these strings of different lengths? It still
> seems a
> far more complex system than the original to no great advantage (apart
> from the obvious one of conforming to a proper standard). Could an
> agreed list of these be annexed to the tag library or put on the
> official EAD site as models of correct behaviour?
>
>
> - - - - -
> # Richard Higgins
> # Durham University Library
> # Archives & Special Collections
> # Palace Green
> # Durham
> # DH1 3RN
> # E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Encoded Archival Description List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
> Of Michele R Rothenberger
> Sent: 20 September 2007 15:45
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: EAD schema and date normalisation
>
> I believe they would be as follows (note that / instead of - is
> used as
> separator).
>
> <unitdate normal="186005xx">May 1860</unitdate>
> <unitdate normal="186005">May 1860</unitdate>
>
> <unitdate normal="186005xx-186011xx">May-November 1860</unitdate>
> <unitdate normal="186005/186011">May-November 1860</unitdate>
>
> <unitdate normal="18600506-18651104">6 May 1860 - 4 November
> 1865</unitdate>
> <unitdate normal="18600506/18651104">6 May 1860 - 4 November
> 1865</unitdate>
>
> <unitdate normal="1860xxxx">1860</unitdate>
> <unitdate normal="1860">1860</unitdate>
>
> <unitdate normal="186xxxxx">[1860's]</unitdate>
> <unitdate normal="1860/1869">[1860's]</unitdate>
>
> <unitdate normal="18xxxxxx">[19th century]</unitdate>
> <unitdate normal="1800/1899">[19th century]</unitdate>
>
> <unitdate normal="1860111x">1[_] November 1860</unitdate>
> <unitdate normal="186011">1[_] November 1860</unitdate> OR
> <unitdate normal="186010/186019">1[_] November 1860</unitdate>
>
>
> +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
> Michele Combs
> Librarian for Manuscripts and Archives Processing Special Collections
> Research Center Syracuse University Library
> 222 Waverly Avenue
> Syracuse, NY 13244
> +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
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Brian Sheppard
University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center
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