Dublin Core Collection Description Proposed Term : Recordkeeping Metadata Schema Extension to ISO8601 (RKMS-ISO8601)

Proposal

Name RKMS-ISO8601

Label Recordkeeping Metadata Schema Extension to ISO8601

Definition Instances of this class are periods of time represented as literals according to the rules specified in Recordkeeping Metadata Schema Extension to ISO8601.

Values

Example value strings include the following:

`1997-07-16T19:30+10:00/1997-07-17T15:30-05:00`	Represents a time-period starting at 09.30 UTC on July 16, 1997, and ending at 20.30 UTC on July 17, 1997.
`1997-07-16/1997-07-17`	Represents a time-period starting on July 16, 1997, and ending on July 17, 1997. It is not possible to say whether this is a period of a few seconds (from late on July 16 until early on July 17) or of 48 hours (from 0.00 on July 16 until 24.00 on July 17).
`1997-07/1997-08`	Represents a time-period starting during the month of July, 1997, and ending during the month of August, 1997. It is not possible to say whether this is a period of a few seconds (from late on July 31 until early on August 1) or of 62 days (from 0.00 on July 1 until 24.00 on August 31).
`1997/1998`	Represents a time-period starting during the year 1997, and ending during the year 1998. It is not possible to say whether this is a period of a few seconds (from late on Decemeber 31, 1997, until early on January 1, 1998) or of 730 days (from 0.00 UTC on January 1, 1997, until 24.00 on December 31, 1998).
`1997-07-16T19:30+10:00/`	Represents a time-period starting at 09.30 UTC on July 16, 1997.
`1997-07-16/`	Represents a time-period starting on July 16, 1997.
`1997-07/`	Represents a time-period starting during the month of July, 1997.
`1997/`	Represents a time-period starting during the year 1997.
`/1997-07-16T19:30+10:00`	Represents a time-period ending at 09.30 UTC on July 16, 1997.
`/1997-07-16`	Represents a time-period ending on July 16, 1997.
`/1997-07`	Represents a time-period ending during the month of July, 1997.
`/1997`	Represents a time-period ending during the year 1997.

Type of term Vocabulary (or Syntax?) Encoding Scheme

Term qualified

Property: (Dublin Core Metadata Element Set) date http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/date (and its subproperties)

Property: (Dublin Core Metadata Element Set) coverage http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/coverage

Property: (Dublin Core Terms) temporal http://purl.org/dc/terms/temporal

Why needed

This encoding scheme allows the representation of time-periods in which either the start date/time or the end date/time may be omitted. This is a requirement in many contexts where the start or end of a period is unknown or undefined. For example. in the Dublin Core Collection Description Application Profile, a property is provided to capture the range of dates over which the items in the collection have been gathered together, and for many collections that is an ongoing activity.

The W3CDTF format (for which DCMI provides a corresponding class/vocabulary encoding scheme) supports only the representation of single dates or date-time combinations. The ISO8601 standard supports the representation of time-periods using start dates (or date-times) and end dates (or date-times), but does not permit open-ended ranges.

Working Group support

Proposed status Registered

Related DCMI terms

Property: (Dublin Core Metadata Element Set) date http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/date (and its subproperties)

Property: (Dublin Core Metadata Element Set) coverage http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/coverage

Property: (Dublin Core Terms) temporal http://purl.org/dc/terms/temporal

Encoding Scheme: (Dublin Core Terms) W3CDTF http://purl.org/dc/terms/W3CDTF

Related non-DCMI terms

The Recordkeeping Metadata Schema Extension to ISO8601 format is defined as part of the Australian Record Keeping Metadata Schema (RKMS). However, it is not clear that RKMS provides a URI for a corresponding class or datatype that can be cited in Dublin Core metadata statements.

About the proposers

The term is proposed by the Dublin Core Collection Description Working Group. One of the primary aims of the WG is the development of a Dublin Core Application Profile (DCAP) for collection-level description, i.e. for the description of a collection as a resource, rather than the description of the individual items that make up that collection.

Records of the activity of the WG are available in the mailing list archives.

The current draft of the Collection Description Application Profile is available at http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/dcmi/collection-application-profile/

Changes made in this version

Initial version.

Title:	Dublin Core Collection Description Proposed Term : Recordkeeping Metadata Schema Extension to ISO8601 (RKMS-ISO8601)
Creator:	Dublin Core Collection Description Working Group
Date Issued:	2005-08-13
Identifier:	http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/dcmi/collection-RKMS-ISO8601/2005-08-13/
Replaces:	Not applicable
Is Replaced By:	Not applicable
Latest Version:	http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/dcmi/collection-RKMS-ISO8601/
Status of Document:	This is a DCMI Working Draft.
Description of Document:	This document presents a proposal from the Dublin Core Collection Description Working Group for a new encoding scheme, Recordkeeping Metadata Schema Extension to ISO8601 (RKMS-ISO8601).