[Dspace-general] DSpace `Dublin Core' | Date Issued | Date Range | How to represent

[Richard MAHONEY]

Hello Scott,

Thanks for your note.

On Tue, 2007-06-12 at 12:06, Scott Yeadon wrote:
> Hi Richard,
> 
> It's up to you how you represent your values, you could use the DCMI 
> Period or something simple such as "1930-1940". We tend to have the 
> latter since that's what our users typically enter. The batch import 
> process won't parse the values, as long as the document is valid XML the 
> values will be accepted.

Granted that using something such as:

<dcvalue element="date" qualifier="issued">1964-1970</dcvalue>

in one's `dublin_core.xml' file seems practical and expedient, on my
system at least -- DSpace-1.4.0 -- such an approach breaks DSpace's
`Browse by Title', `Browse by Date', and the offending item's `Brief
View'.

This is the reason I first asked the lists for details of how one
should _correctly_ represent a date range in the DSpace
`dublin_core.xml' file. Using `1964-1970' and so on simply does not
seem to work.

I have put together a series of screenshots to indicate the issues:

http://indica-et-buddhica.org/sections/repositorium-preview/known-issues/dspace-item-date-ranges

As you will see, I am - unhappily - coming to the conclusion that
DSpace does not support item date ranges at all. It is also becoming
clear that the lack of genuine validation by the item importer can
easily lead to the widespread corruption of ones metadata. I hope I am
wrong as these would be serious deficiencies.


Best regards,

 Richard Mahoney


> Scott.
> > Message: 3
> > Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 12:08:16 +1200
> > From: Richard MAHONEY <r.mahoney at iconz.co.nz>
> > Subject: [Dspace-general] DSpace `Dublin Core' | Date Issued | Date
> > 	Range |	How to represent
> > To: DSpace Tech <dspace-tech at lists.sourceforge.net>,	DSpace General
> > 	<dspace-general at mit.edu>
> > Message-ID: <1181261296.8680.21.camel at proliant>
> > Content-Type: text/plain
> >
> > Dear List Members,
> >
> > I am in the process or preparing material for bulk import and have
> > again encountered and issue that I was inclined to gloss over last time
> > it arose: the format of the DSpace Dublin Core Date Elements,
> > Qualifiers, and particularly, the Values.
> >
> > What exactly is the required Value format and is it configurable?
> > Simple date Values such as the following present no difficulty:
> >
> > <dcvalue element="date" qualifier="issued">1970</dcvalue>
> >
> > The trouble for me -- and this situation would arise often for many
> > projects -- is how to correctly represent date ranges, for e.g., date
> > issued, 1964 to 1970. Which Value format should should be used to
> > represent a date range in DSpace DC? Some DSpace version of the
> > W3C-DTF/ISO 8601 scheme?
> >
> >  http://dublincore.org/documents/2000/07/28/dcmi-period/
> >
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> >  Richard Mahoney
> >
> >
> >   
-- 
Richard MAHONEY | internet: http://indica-et-buddhica.org/
Littledene      | telephone/telefax (man.): +64 3 312 1699
Bay Road        | cellular: +64 27 482 9986
OXFORD, NZ      | email: r.mahoney at indica-et-buddhica.org
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