[Nhcoll-l] how should we encode vague dates in specimen database?

[Callomon,Paul]

We have our date fields set up as:


Prefix ("before", "by" etc.)

Starting day-month-year

Interpolator ("to" etc.)

Ending day-month-year


Where a date is known not to be a range, we just don't use the interpolator or the ending fields.


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:

-- Aug 1970


Or "1995" would be

-- --- 1995


"Spring 1984" could be rendered:

01 Jan 1984 to 30 Apr 1984


but you'd need to have conventions for when spring starts and finishes. You could also use "spring" as a prefix:

Spring -- --- 1984


PC



Paul Callomon
Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates
________________________________
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia
callomon at ansp.org Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170


________________________________
From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Schultz, Eric <eric.schultz at uconn.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2018 9:21 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] how should we encode vague dates in specimen database?


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!



Eric T. Schultz

Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Coordinator, Joint BS-MS Degree in Biodiversity and Conservation Biology

Director, Vertebrate Biodiversity Collections

Chair, General Education Oversight Committee

University of Connecticut

Storrs, CT 06269-3043

eric.schultz at uconn.edu<mailto:eric.schultz at uconn.edu>

860.486.4692




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