Publishing vs Copyright Dates

Q. I’m not clear on publish date vs. copyright. The date seems to be preceded by the copyright symbol in all the titles, so do we always use c1999?

A. The pub date is a date without the word copyright, the letter c or the copyright symbol in front of it. It is the preferred date. If no publication date is found then look for a copyright date. Look very closely at all the fine print on the t.p. verso. There could be more than one date. When you do transcribe the copyright date it is exactly as you give it, for example c2009.  No space between the c and the 2009.  The c is lower case.

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