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

[Scott Yeadon]

Hi Richard,
> 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.
>   
It's likely that this is because the default metadata display is not 
able to render date ranges properly. In your DSpace config file put the 
following entry:
webui.itemdisplay.default = dc.title, dc.title.alternative, 
dc.contributor.*, dc.subject, dc.date.issued, dc.publisher, 
dc.identifier.citation, dc.relation.ispartofseries, 
dc.description.abstract, dc.description, dc.identifier.govdoc, 
dc.identifier.uri(link), dc.identifier.isbn, dc.identifier.issn, 
dc.identifier.ismn, dc.identifier

The date.issued field is by default formatted to a date (see 
ItemTag.java for the hardcoded list) using the "dc.date.issued(date)" 
field display text. Removing the "(date)" part of this will stop any 
special rendering taking place.

Also, setting:
webui.itemlist.columns = dc.date.issued, dc.title, dc.contributor.*
in the dspace.cfg file may also resolve your ranges not showing up in 
the browse page (the default specifies "dc.date.issued(date)"), so as 
above removing the rendering rules should fix this)

There should also be a section in the docs covering the above config 
items you could have a look at, since you may also want to customise 
your simple view and browse columns.

> 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.
>   
I imagine the reason validation is not included is that DSpace in 
general doesn't set down value format rules, since every institution is 
likely to have differing requirements. Having said that, there is no 
easy plugin to set your own rules, you would have to modify the import 
process to support this if you needed it, or pre-process your material 
prior to loading to apply any rules you need enforced.

Hope that helps.

Scott.
>
> 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
>>>
>>>
>>>   
>>>