<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">We use Arctos which has 3 collecting event date fields: verbatim date, begin date, end date.<div><br></div><div>Verbatim is the original text string.</div><div><br></div><div>Begin and end dates are ISO-formatted. In MVZ, we use the following convention for vague dates:</div><div><a href="http://mvz.berkeley.edu/Locality_Guidelines_CollEvents.html">http://mvz.berkeley.edu/Locality_Guidelines_CollEvents.html</a><br></div><div><br></div><div>I hope this helps.</div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div>Carla</div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">On Mon, Sep 17, 2018 at 6:21 PM Schultz, Eric <<a href="mailto:eric.schultz@uconn.edu">eric.schultz@uconn.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72">
<div class="m_4392445481630504866WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal">We are cleaning up entries in a legacy database so that our data can be imported into a properly configured collections database. Exact dates will be imported in a text string mm/dd/yyyy. But how to render a vague date referring only
to season, such as ‘Spring 1984’, or if only the year was recorded? Is it better to record as missing data, record as an erroneous but exact date such as 01/01/1984, or place at the midpoint of the season? Whatever we do we will have a ‘verbatim’ field that
preserves the original entry, but we want to have a version of collection date that is useful and searchable. Thanks for any assistance!<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Eric T. Schultz<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Coordinator, Joint BS-MS Degree in Biodiversity and Conservation Biology<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Director, Vertebrate Biodiversity Collections<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Chair, General Education Oversight Committee<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">University of Connecticut<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Storrs, CT 06269-3043<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:eric.schultz@uconn.edu" target="_blank">eric.schultz@uconn.edu</a><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">860.486.4692<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
</div>
</div>
_______________________________________________<br>
Nhcoll-l mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Nhcoll-l@mailman.yale.edu" target="_blank">Nhcoll-l@mailman.yale.edu</a><br>
<a href="https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l</a><br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of<br>
Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose<br>
mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of<br>
natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to<br>
society. See <a href="http://www.spnhc.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.spnhc.org</a> for membership information.<br>
Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.<br>
</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">Carla Cicero, Ph.D<br>Staff Curator of Birds<br>Museum of Vertebrate Zoology<br>3101 Valley Life Sciences Building<br>University of California<br>Berkeley, CA 94720-3160<br><span>TEL: <span title="Call with Google Voice">(510) 642-7868</span></span><br><span>FAX: <span title="Call with Google Voice">(510) 643-8238</span></span><br><br><a href="http://mvz.berkeley.edu/" target="_blank">http://mvz.berkeley.edu</a><br><a href="https://carlacicero.net" target="_blank">https://carlacicero.net</a></div><div dir="ltr"><a href="http://vertnet.org/" target="_blank">http://vertnet.org</a></div><div dir="ltr"><a href="https://arctosdb.org" target="_blank">https://arctosdb.org</a><br><div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_collections" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_collections</a></div><div><a href="http://www.americanornithology.org/" target="_blank">http://americanornithology.org/</a><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>