Publication dates

The Title record in GOKb contains fields to track the dates that a title was published. To populate publication dates, enter the "published from" and "published to" dates in the fields provided. The following conventions apply to this information:

• The Published from date should be the date of the first published issue. If you don't know the specific month and day of the first publication, use January 1.
• The Published to date should be the date of the last published issue. If you don't know the specific month and day of the last publication, use December 31.
• If a title is currently published, leave the "published to" date blank.
• All dates should be formatted like YYYY-MM-DD. There is a date widget available that will automatically create dates in this format. Dates can also be entered manually.

Title history events

Title history events can be used to describe all types of changes that may occur during a title's lifespan. This includes simple title changes, as well as more complex events like splits and mergers. The goal is to create title history linkages that will bring together the entire title family.

Each title history event includes an event date, as well as "before" and "after" fields. The "before" field describes the title(s) that existed before the title history event and the "after" field describes the titles that existed after the title history event. Each field can contain multiple titles. See below for sample title history events.

To create a title history event:

• Go to the Add Title History tab on a Title record.
• Use the search tool to select the title(s) that existed before the title change event and add them to the "before" box.
• Use the search tool to select the title(s) that existed after the title change event and add them to the "after" box.
• You can use the arrows to move titles back and forth between the two boxes.
• Populate the "event date" field with the first date that the "after" scenario became active.
• The event date should be formatted like YYYY-MM-DD.
• Click "Add title history event."
• You will now see your event displayed in the Title History area in the record header.

Sample title history events

Simple change

Title A changes to Title B

Merger

Title A and Title B merge to form Title C

Split

Title A splits into Title B and Title C

Absorption

Title A is absorbed into Title B

Separation

Title B separates from Title A

Publisher history

Title records in GOKb also include fields that can track the publisher of a title and the years that publisher was active. Currently, new publishers must be added to a title through an OpenRefine ingest or using the title transfer action. We're hoping to include manual addition of publishers in an upcoming release.

You can manually set active publisher dates by editing the "Publisher from" and "Publisher to" fields on a title record.