May I please offer my view on this matter.
Date should remain (or become) just plain date, with no semantics, and it
must be qualified when used.
It should not be "creation date", with the idea that another element be
added for, say, "entry date". If you take that approach I guarantee there
will eventually be a dozen or so date related elements.
Nor should there be some default (eg "creation date") to be assumed when
date occurs unqualified.
i find the argument un-persuasive that there should not be an element that
cannot be used unqualified. There already is one: coverage. That has no
semantics without qualification.
Actually, I suggest that coverage be changed to "geographic coverage" and
that temporal coverage be covered by date. I have not seen any suggestions
for coverage qualifiers besides temporal and geographic. If I'm mistaken
on this point then I withdraw this suggestion.
So my suggestion is:
- change coverage to "geographic coverage". So this element would no
longer need to be qualified.
- put "temporal coverage" in the "date" bucket.
- Define "date" such that it has no specific semantics and when it
occurs must be qualified. If it remains the only DC element that
requires qualification, so be it.
- Develop a list of date qualifiers.
Ray Denenberg
Library of Congress
202-707-5795
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