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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">We have our date fields set up as:</p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">Prefix ("before", "by" etc.)<br>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">Ending day-month-year</p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">Where a date is known not to be a range, we just don't use the interpolator or the ending fields.
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">We also use hyphens to indicate that we definitely don't know a field's contents (that is: on the basis of the data supplied with the specimen, it can't be known), rather than leaving it blank. Thus a label reading "August
1970" would be:</p>
<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">-- Aug 1970</p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">Or "1995" would be</p>
<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">-- --- 1995</p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">"Spring 1984" could be rendered:</p>
<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">01 Jan 1984 to 30 Apr 1984</p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">but you'd need to have conventions for when spring starts and finishes. You could also use "spring" as a prefix:</p>
<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">Spring -- --- 1984</p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">PC</p>
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<div style="font-family:Tahoma; font-size:13px"><b>Paul Callomon</b><br>
<i>Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates</i><br>
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<font face="Verdana"><b>Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia</b></font><br>
<i>callomon@ansp.org Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170</i><br>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font style="font-size:11pt" face="Calibri, sans-serif" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces@mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Schultz, Eric <eric.schultz@uconn.edu><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, September 17, 2018 9:21 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> nhcoll-l@mailman.yale.edu<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Nhcoll-l] how should we encode vague dates in specimen database?</font>
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<p class="x_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!</p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal">Eric T. Schultz</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">Coordinator, Joint BS-MS Degree in Biodiversity and Conservation Biology</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">Director, Vertebrate Biodiversity Collections</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">Chair, General Education Oversight Committee</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">University of Connecticut</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">Storrs, CT 06269-3043</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:eric.schultz@uconn.edu" id="LPlnk721376" class="OWAAutoLink" previewremoved="true">eric.schultz@uconn.edu</a></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">860.486.4692</p>
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