dates in bibliographic records books. where do you start? where on a book do you usually find...

Dates in Bibliographic RecordsBooks

Where do you start?

Where on a book do you usually find publication and/or copyright date information?

Title page and/or t.p. verso

If it’s not there…

Use the part of the item giving the most complete information (cover, caption, title page substitute, colophon, etc.)

What are you looking for?

What is the first date to look for when matching?

Publication date

What else?

If there is no publication date, what do you look for next?

Copyright date

How can you tell?

How do you know the difference between a copyright date and a publication date?

Copyright symbol (©) or the word copyright in front of the date

Copyright dates

Your book has a copyright date of 2010 for the text and a copyright date of 2012 for the cover illustration. Which do you use for matching?

Copyright date of the text

Unless…

There is evidence this is a new edition

Illustration copyright date may be used as an implied publication date and will appear in the bibliographic record in brackets: [2012]

Multiple copyright dates

Your book has no publication date, but has: ©2005, 2007, 2009. Which copyright date do you use?

Copyright date 2009

Unless…copyright renewal dates

Your book has: ©1945, ©renewed 1992. Which date do you use?©1945. For works copyrighted before

1978, ignore the copyright renewal date and use the original date

Your book has: ©1985, ©renewed 1992. Which date do you use?©1992. For works copyrighted after

1977, use the copyright renewal date

Future dates

You’ve received a newly-published book by a best-selling author. The t. p. verso has ©2015. Is it okay to have a future date in a bibliographic record?

Yes

Printing dates

Your book has a publication date of 2012 and a printing date of 2013. Which date do you use for matching?

Publication date. Printing dates are usually ignored

Unless…

Your book has no publication or copyright date, but has a first printing date of 2013

2013 may be used as an implied publication date, and will appear in the bibliographic record in brackets: [2013]

Or…

A printing statement implies a new publication, even if there is no publication date. Often seen with Scholastic: First Scholastic printing, March 2005 (usually on the t.p. verso)

First printing date may be used as an implied publication date and will appear in the bibliographic record in brackets: [2005]

What if there’s no date?

Recorded differently in the record depending on cataloging rules usedPre-AACR: [n.d.]RDA: [Date of publication not identified]

AACR: Cataloger supplies a date, entered in brackets

Cataloger-supplied dates (AACR)Dates will be in brackets, and may be

followed by a question mark [2012] Implied publication date based on available information,

i.e, printing date [2012?] Estimated date—cataloger made their best guess [199-] Publication in the 1990s, not sure what year [19--?] Estimated publication sometime in the 1900s

MARC coding for dates -- AACR

MARC tag 260, subfield c If publication date and copyright date are the same, record

only the publication date 260 $aNew York :$bOxford University Press,$c2012.

If publication date and copyright date are different, will often see both 260 $aNew York :$bOxford University Press,$c2012,

c2010.Copyright date is preceded by lower case c

Implied or estimated dates are in brackets 260 $aZion, IL :$bZion Historical Society,$c[2005?]

MARC coding for dates -- RDA MARC tag 264, subfield c Publication and copyright dates are recorded in separate fields

264 1 $aChicago :$bLion Publishers,$c2012. 264 4 $c©2010

Copyright date is preceded by copyright symbol or the word copyright (transcribe from item)

No ending punctuation Publication date is a core element in RDA. If no publication date

is present, but there is a copyright date, the copyright date is recorded in brackets as an implied publication date 264 1 $aChicago :$bLion Publishers,$c[2012] 264 4 $c©2012

MARC coding for dates – Fixed fields Coded based on the dates in 260 or 264 subfield c Type of Date (Polaris) / DtSt (OCLC)

Code that categorizes type of date, i.e., s for single date, or t for publication and copyright date

Date 1 and Date 2 (Polaris) / Dates (OCLC)Enter publication date in first date boxEnter copyright date in second date box

Check these when editing records – dates in the fixed field affect searching!

Make sure the fixed field and the 260 or 264 match

Changing dates in records

Your new book has a publication date of 2014. There is a CIP record in OCLC with Encoding Level 8 that matches your book except that the publication date is 2013. Is it okay to change the date in the record to match your book?

Yes, you may upgrade a CIP record to match the item in hand. (Don’t forget the fixed field!)

Changing dates in records

Your new book has a publication date of 2014. There is a full-level record in OCLC with Encoding Level I that matches your book except that the publication date is 2013. Is it okay to change the date in the record to match your book?

No, no, a thousand times, no!

Unless…

It can be determined that there truly is an error in the bibliographic record

Questions?

Dates can be tricky – call us if you need help!