From: Peter Graham, Rutgers University Libraries
Anddrew Daviel said,
> - on a more serious note, most date software is incapable of
dealing correctly with early dates due to calendar reform, etc.
It may be necessary to introduce a "calendar" scheme
and then said
>You can't just give a naked date before 1927 without specifying which
calendar it's in
We do the latter all the time. I think in his case he is confusing the label
use of the date field with its capability for manipulation. So far I
haven't seen in the DC element definition for date anything that says it has
to be a field capable of manipulation, i.e. added to or subtracted from. If
it is so to be we should specify; personally I think it should not be. This
is a discovery tool, remember. If we put up a document on the Russian
Revolution date November 1917 that speaks of the October revolution, that's
how it is. Or similarly if we put up documents issued on the same day in
the 18th century that have different dates on them, that's how it is.
There's not a DC requirement that we edit the date, is there? --pg
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