340 Biographical Dates / Dates of Existence (O;R)

This field contains information about the time a person or printer has lived or was active or about the time a corporate body did exist.

Indicator 1: Specifies the type of data

• 0 Biographical Dates

• 1 Dates of Activity

Indicator 2: Specifies the type of input:

• 0 Field has been input or corrected by cataloguer and cannot be overwritten in automated updating processes

• 1 Field has been input by automated addition; review by cataloguer may be necessary

$8 Language Code (M;NR)
see the description of numerical subfields.

$a Unparsed dates (M;NR)
Dates given in plain text, including any textual additions or comments etc.

$x Dates in machine-readable form (O;NR)
Year of birth and year of decease / year of beginning of activity or existence and year of end of activity or existence. This subfields has 10 character positions which must all be filled.

$9 Temporary data (O;NR)
see the description of numerical subfields.

In case this field is input manually it should not be repeated, unless there are differing (or contradictory) statements that should be recorded, or statements in different languages. Automatic merger of records from different sources may also cause a repetition of this field. It is strongly recommended that in case this field is repeated that there is always one field giving just the (most likely) dates in subfields $a and $x, with the language of $a being indicated as und (undefined).

The data in subfield $x must be entered according to the following pattern:

 µBBBBµEEEE

µ indicates whether the following year belongs to the Christian era or not:

• a the following numeral indicates a year A.D.

• b the following numeral indicates a year B.C.

• u date is unknown (the following positions are left blank)

If only one date is given, the character positions of the other date should contain blanks. In this case, character position 0 or 5 will hold “u” (unknown)

BBBB indicates the year of birth or the year of beginning of activity or existence, using four digits, right justified and zerofilled.

EEEE indicates the year of decease or the year of ending activity or existence, using four digits, right justified and zerofilled

When creating an RDF description, the following mapping is applied

• rdaGr2 represents the namespace “http://rdvocab.info/ElementsGr2/”
• The RDA ontologies are registerd with the open metadata registry (http://metadataregistry.org/schemaprop/show/id/1141.html)

Mapping Example

<rdf:Description rdf:about="http://thesaurus.cerl.org/cnp00541566">
  <rdaGr2:nameOfThePerson>Lechler, Lorenz &lt;Künstler, 16. Jh.&gt;</rdaGr2:nameOfThePerson>
  <rdaGr2:biographicalInformation xml:lang="de">-1550. - Todesjahr ca.</rdaGr2:biographicalInformation>
  <rdaGr2:dateOfDeath>1550</rdaGr2:dateOfDeath>
  <rdaGr2:periodOfActivityOfThePerson>1525-1547</rdaGr2:periodOfActivityOfThePerson>
</rdf:Description>

1. 200 #1$aMerula$bPaullus$5NeHKB
   340 01$8und$a1558-1607$xa1558a1607
2. 212 #0$aUniversität$rGöttingen$5GYMG
   340 00$8ger$agegr. 1737$xa1737u####
3. 200 #1$aHyperides$5GyFmDB
   340 01$8ger$aca. 390 - 320 v. Chr$xb0390b0320
4. 200 #1$aCollins$rCaptain$5ESTC(AACR2)
   340 01$8eng$ad. ca. 1724$xu####a1724

for biographical data (first indicator holds 0):

{"data": {"bioDates": [{
    "lang": "language code ($8)",
    "text": "unparsed data ($a)",
    "start": year ($x),
    "end": year ($x),
    "tmp": "temporary data ($9)",
    "prc": 1|0
}]}}

for activity data (first indicator holds '1'):

{"data": {"actDates": [{
    "lang": "language code ($8)",
    "text": "unparsed data ($a)",
    "start": year ($x),
    "end": year ($x),
    "tmp": "temporary data ($9)",
    "prc": 1|0
}]}}

• 14.07.2017: Indicator value 'x' in subfield $x will no longer be supported once the CT migrates into its new enviroment. Any value 'x' will be changed to 'u' during data ingest.
• 14.07.2017: Subfield $6 will no longer be supported, once the CT migrates into its new environment.
• 14.07.2017: Subfield $9 added to the format description