I cast my vote for deleting the birthday, if only for the aesthetic reason that having a birthday without the deathday makes the name appear cluttered and unbalanced. I think it will be less confusing for the public, too, if we don't include the birthdate, if only to avoid questions such as, "How come you've got the exact birthday here and but not the exact death date there?" After all, one of the big reasons why we started this whole closing off death dates business is because the awkward questions from the public got too awkward. Why invite even more awkward questions?
Jay Shorten
Cataloger, Monographs and Electronic Resources
Associate Professor of Bibliography
Catalog Department
University Libraries
University of Oklahoma
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