Most of the Year 2000 compliance problems are caused by special processing of date fields by software or hardware. Because MicroMARC's dates are text fields, the MicroMARC software does not have these problems.

The MicroMARC system uses the USMARC Integrated Format for its data entry structure. In the MARC Format the Date Entered fixed field, (008/00-05), only contains room for a two-digit year. (This is specified by the USMARC format). We do not expect the Date Entered field (008/00-05) to cause a problem in the use of MicroMARC.

At this time the only potential Y2K problem we foresee with MicroMARC is if a user does not enter the year as a four-digit date. In order to prevent Y2K problems we recommend that everyone use dates in the format YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY/MM/DD (example: 1996-01-13 or 1996/01/13).

If a user did enter year dates as two digit entries, MicroMARC has the tools to correct this problem. Through the use of the Global Change module, the user can convert YY-MM-DD dates to YYYY-MM-DD dates and YY/MM/DD dates to YYYY/MM/DD dates.

If you have questions about Year 2000 compliance, please contact Alice Kalush at kalush@pilot.msu.edu or (517) 355-4684.