Dates in UNR CONTENTdm collections

Draft version, March 2009
Prepared by Molly Beisler

Dates are very important for photographs and other images. If you do not know the exact date for an image, always make an educated guess whenever you can.

Image Date field [displayed in web view]

Enter a date as specifically as possible.

If you do not know the date, make an educated guess, recording the date as a "circa" date. If you can only get as close as a specific decade or date range, you may use those ranges.

  • ca. 1952
  • ca. 1920s
  • ca. 1915-1918

Do not use question marks; the "ca." indicates that the date is approximate.

If you cannot even guess at a date range, at a minimum enter a portion of a century.

  • Early 20th century
  • Late 19th century

Searchable Date field [suppressed from display in web view]

Enter dates in the form "YYYY-MM-DD"

  1. Year: YYYY ("1897" for the year 1897)
  2. Year and month: YYYY-MM ("1897-07" for July 1897)
  3. Complete date: YYYY-MM-DD ("1897-07-16" for July 16, 1897)

Based on what dates are entered in the "Image Date" field, enter "Searchable Date" dates as follows:

Note: CONTENTdm will translate that range into "1929; 1930; 1931 ... etc." so a user will find the image if they search for any of the included dates.
**This ONLY WORKS in the Acquisition Station.**
 

Image Date Searchable Date
Single year YYYY
  • 1952
Date range YYYY-YYYY
  • 1915-1918
ca. single year Enter a 10-year range (5 years earlier and 5 years later) around the guessed date.
  • For "ca. 1934" (in the Image Date field), enter "1929-1939" (no spaces between the dates and the dash).
ca. date range Enter the range listed
  • For "ca. 1925-1935", enter "1925-1935"
ca. decade Enter the beginning and ending years of the decade
  • For "ca. 1880s", enter "1880-1889"
ca. range of decades (up to 2) Enter the beginning and ending years of those decades
  • For "ca. 1950s-1960s", enter "1950-1969"
Only century date available Enter date ranges:
  • "Late 19th century", enter "1875-1900"
  • "Early 20th century", enter "1900-1930"
  • "Mid-20th century", enter "1930-1970"
  • "Late 20th century", enter "1970-2000"
  • Etc.

Leave blank if all that's present is a complete century range:

  • "20th century", leave blank