We would do it as follows: <unitdate label="Admission Dates" normal="1905-01-01/1906-06-30" type="inclusive">1 Jan 1905 - 30 Jun 1906</unitdate> We consistently format the normal attribute this way using ISO 8601 standards, but the format of the content of the unitdate element -- the user-visible date (in this case 1 Jan 1905 - 30 Jun 1906) -- does vary from one finding aid to another as we have elected not to take the time to reformat all the dates in all our finding aids. As we create new finding aids and encode them, for the user-visible date we are using the format shown above. As long as you provide an ISO8601 form of the date in the normal attribute, I don't think it matters too much what you put in the unitdate contents. Michele -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=- Michele Rothenberger Syracuse University Special Collections Research Center Syracuse, NY (315) 443-2697 -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=- >>> [log in to unmask] 04/06/06 9:33 AM >>> We're wondering how other folks are coping with entering data in the <unitdate> field at the file level. How are you structuring date ranges? For example, how are you listing the admission dates in the example below be structured if the desired date range is January 1, 1905 to June 30, 1906?: <c01 level="file"> <did> <unittitle label="County or Specific Institution">Montgomery</unittitle> <unitdate label="Admission Dates">????-????</unitdate> <container type="roll">85</container> </did> </c01> Listing it as 1905/1/1-1906/6/30 seems to non-user friendly. Your imput would be appreciated. Thanks Prudence K. Backman Archives and Records Management Specialist 3 Archival Services New York State Archives 9C71 Cultural Education Center Albany, NY 12230 518-474-6926 FAX: 518-402-5372 [log in to unmask]