8  Publication time

MARC field: 008/07-14

The publication years section offers a comprehensive summary of the dataset’s years of publication, providing an understanding of the temporal distribution of titles. The inclusion of links to uniquely accepted and discarded output tables adds a layer of transparency, allowing for detailed exploration of the refined and excluded data.

Data harmonization was performed using the polish_years_008 function. It processes and harmonizes temporal data, splitting it into columns such as publication_year, publication_from, publication_till (for serials), and publication_decade (for visualization). Links to the converted data are provided below.

The dataset includes information on missing values, represented as NA in the refined data. There are 523 empty rows in the field 008. Discarded values, such as invalid entries coded as characters (e.g., “uuuu”, “||||”) or inconsistent data (e.g., years beyond the current year or mismatched date ranges), are excluded. This does not imply that the discarded values are incorrect; rather, they are excluded because they cannot be utilized for statistical analysis.

The summary also accounts for publication statuses (field 008/06). For accurate temporal distribution, these statuses and their implications must be carefully considered to ensure only valid dates are selected that represent the publication year and not something else.

8.1 Complete Data Overview

Publication year conversions

Publication year discarded. 737 records are discarded where the publication date is not coded or unknown or contain ambiguous dates, such as non-numeric characters. Error list is for librarians’ use.

Download publication time harmonized dataset

Publication years is available for 1029818 documents (100%). The publication years span is 0-2026.

8.1.1 Title count per decade (log values)

8.1.2 Publication status summaries

Thу visualization of publication status field enhances understanding of how publication years are recorded. The harmonization process depended on the publication status field due to its nuanced information, which doesn’t always directly signify the start or end of publication.

Publication Status Entries (n) Fraction (%)
Single known date/probable date 924423 89.7
Continuing resource ceased publication 39484 3.8
Publication date and copyright date 37803 3.7
Continuing resource currently published 18549 1.8
Questionable date 6530 0.6
Multiple dates 2003 0.2
Reprint/reissue date and original date 1557 0.2
Continuing resource status unknown 444 0
Date of distribution etc 89 0
No attempt to code 59 0
Inclusive dates of collection 57 0
Dates unknown 25 0
No dates given; B.C. date involved 11 0

8.2 Subset Analysis: 1809-1917

In this segment we concentrate on the so called “long 19th century”: literary production during the years 1809-1917, when the Grand Duchy of Finland was an autonomous part of the Russian Empire.

Publication year conversions (1809-1917)

Publication year discarded (1809-1917)

Download publication time harmonized dataset (1809-1917)

8.2.1 Title count per decade

A plot depicting title counts per decade from 1809 to 1917 enriches the analysis by visually capturing the trends and fluctuations in literary output over this historical period.