Add Date Information to an Object Record
User Story
User can manually add at least one date information group to an object record. Depending on the purpose of the field, this date information may, for example, represent the date that the object was "carved, commissioned, decorated, designed, manufactured, sold, used, inscribed, painted, produced, or collected." In general, it may reflect the date that any event associated with the object, in or out of the museum, may have occurred.
Once entered, it should be possible to further edit the date information, both before and after changes to the object record are saved.
"Date Information" describes a group of related fields (information units), as defined in Date Schema. The purpose of this group of fields is to accommodate most or all of the many variations, in entry of dates and date ranges, that may be needed by individual institutions. For a good introduction to these variations, please see the representative examples in Categories for the Description of Works of Art: Creation Date.
Note that the user interface and functionality (such as data validation) of two key fields in the Date Schema, "Date - earliest/single" and "Date - latest", isn't fully defined at present. Megan has noted that "a date picker is inappropriate for object dating," and is would not be sufficient to accommodate the needs of these two fields.
The initial scope of this user story may be restricted to adding a single date information group (e.g. one date information "line" in the UI) per object record. If that restriction applies, it should be prominently noted. In addition, a separate user story should be created, to facilitate adding date information via a multi-valued field, in which multiple date information entries can be applied to the Object record.
This story is not about:
- Adding a date to any type of record other than object records, such as procedural and organizational records.
See also:
Dates in Object and Procedural Records
Related User Stories:
Add a Calendar Date to a Procedural Record