We are producing products that make use of the Dublin Core.
Our preference is to use ISO 8601
(ftp://ds.internic.net/internet-drafts/draft-newman-datetime-01.txt) for
storing dates in the DC.date tag as well as other date-related fields.
However, since ISO 8601 is limited to the years from 0000 to 9999, we must
make some sort of exception.
Our recommendation is to not limit the year to four digits, but rather use
as many digits necessary. Since there are already delimiters separating the
various date/time elements in ISO 8601, we don't believe this poses an
issue.
As Rebecca pointed out, the MARC format does have the capability for
indicating dates with era notation. MARC happens to use "c" for B.C., "d"
for A.D., so 221 B.C. is c0221 and 960 A.D. is d0960. A description can be
found at: http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/ecbdnumb.html#mrcb045
Additionally, the Z39.50 Implementors Group have proposed their own method
which may be viewed at: http://lcweb.loc.gov/z3950/agency/copen/date.html.
In summary, if we augment ISO 8601 by supporting unlimited digits for the
year along with MARC's era notation, I think we have a solution that should
work for everyone. Thoughts?
Regards,
John Dasher
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John Dasher [log in to unmask]
V E R A N O tel 415/237-0202
411 Clyde Avenue fax 415/237-0212
Mountain View, CA 94043
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