Section 5.4.7 Dates Convention
The Murdoch Dates Convention to be practiced in the
preparation of Content includes:
- display
of a date that reflects an event in the life cycle of an information
resource (eg. when Content was created, when Content was last modified,
when the information within Content shall no longer be valid).
Date Statements
The metadata that accompanies Content shall include date
statements. The metadata shall be displayed in a manner that enables an
end-user to make an informed decision about the currency of information within
Content.
META Tags Used to Record Dates
The metadata that accompanies Content shall include:
- The
META tag ‘DC.Date.Available’ to indicate when a resource was first made
available
- The
META tag ‘DC.Date.Created’ to indicate when a resource was created
- The
META tag ‘DC.Date.Modified’ to indicate when the HTML was last modified
- The
META tag ‘DC.Date.Valid’ to indicate when the information within Content
expires.
Document Information Footers
The metadata that accompanies Content shall include the use
of document information footers or metadata popups accessed by a link on a page
titled Page Information. The footer or popup display shall include one or more
date statements, depending on the Content Subcategory.
For example:
Document created: Sept 1st, 2001
HTML last modified: Sept 14th, 2002
Expiry date: August 31st, 2003
The format used for the display of dates should be readily
understood by the end-user. It may include use of the ISO 8601 format, eg.
2003-12-31.
The minimum date statement required shall be the date the
Content was last modified. In some cases this may be different to the date the
information in the Content was edited, and an additional date statement, or an
indicator within the body of the document may be required. An additional META
tag ‘DC.Date.Issued’ may be used to clarify the date situation for editing
information within Content as separate process from when the HTML was revised.
Use of other date statements such as creation date and
expiry date, shall be determined by the Content Subcategory to which the
Content has been assigned. For instance, official publications and public
relations material should include expiry dates, implying that after that date
the information within the Content may be presumed to be out of date and that
alternative sources should be used to seek up to date information.
In any index page that precedes Foreign Content that is
teaching and learning material, the index entry for an item should indicate the
date up to which the Content is valid, implying that after that date access to
the Content should be denied by the Server.
To determine what are the required date statements and their
associated META tags for Content Subcategories, Content Providers preparing
University Content should refer firstly to Section 5.4.12 Metadata Convention for an introduction, and then to the Guidelines for Metadata
to Accompany MurdochNet Content.
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