Report on persistent identifiers

CERL and ECPA publish report explaining persistent identifier
schemes

Traditionally, references to web content have been made by using URL
hyperlinks. However, as links are 'broken' when content is moved to
another location, a reference system based on URLs is inherently
unstable and poses risks for continued access to web resources. To
create a more reliable system for referring to published material on
the web, from the mid-1990s a number of schemes have been developed
that use name spaces to identify resources, enabling retrieval even
if the location on the web is unknown.

A recently published report explains the principle of persistent
identifiers and helps institutions decide which scheme would best
fit their needs. It discusses Handles, Digital Object Identifiers
(DOIs), Archival Resource Keys (ARKs), Persistent Uniform Resource
Locators (PURLs), Uniform Resource Names (URNs), National
Bibliography Numbers (NBNs), and the Open URL, providing examples
and extensive references for each.

The report was written by the Research and Development Department of
the Goettingen State and University Library (Niedersachsische
Staats- und Universitatsbibliothek Gottingen) at the request of the
Advisory Task Group (ATG) of the Consortium of European Research
Libraries. It is co-published by CERL and ECPA.

Ordering information:

Implementing Persistent Identifiers: Overview of concepts,
guidelines and recommendations

Hans-Werner Hilse and Jochen Kothe
ISBN 90-6984-508-3
<URL:http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:gbv:7-isbn-90-6984-508-3-8>

Copies can be ordered from the ECPA Secretariat at the address below
or through the ECPA website. The price is 40 euros, exclusive of
postage and handling. You will also find the report as a PDF file on
the website of each of the publishers: http://www.cerl.org and
http://www.knaw.nl/ecpa

Anne Muller
European Commission on Preservation and Access (ECPA)
c/o Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
PO Box 19121
NL-1000 GC Amsterdam, The Netherlands
+31 20 551 08 39
Fax: +31 20 620 49 41


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 20:34
                 Distributed: Saturday, January 6, 2007
                       Message Id: cdl-20-34-004
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