Identifiers as links with locally managed persistence

Explanation

An organisation can commit to persisting the identifiers used to identify items and entities within its collections. By persisting an identifier, they must commit to continue to use it as the primary means of identifying a collection object or entity, including migrating it when systems are upgraded and using it across different systems.

  • Each object must resolve via a specific subdomain for identifiers, e.g. https://data.nhm.ac.uk
  • Metadata does not have to be available under an open license

Potential Benefits

  • Can be used internally across systems
  • Can be used to track contents and location of the entire collection
  • Can be used as labels or barcodes on physical objects with confidence in a stable link between it and its digital representation (either as digitised version or metadata)
  • Can be used in internal reporting across systems

Dependencies

Persistence of the identifier depends on your own organisation's ability to manage your local web pages, so if you change the web site all existing identifiers will still resolve.

Given the expectation that any identifiers will persist indefinitely, once you have minted identifiers it is difficult to reverse that step. The things you have chosen to identify, and the format of the identifier are decisions that your organisation will potentially have to live with for a long time.

If you want the identifiers to be used (e.g., cited) then you will need to make sure those identifiers are easily visible, and ideally provide a way for them to be cited.

Builds on

Identifiers as links with no commitment to persistence

    Examples

    The British Library has committed to maintaining its ARK identifiers for the long term; this will be officially described in a forthcoming persistent identifier policy. It has also committed to maintaining the namespaces which are used to access the resources associated with the ARK identifiers.

    Screenshot example from the British Library's online collections with citation highlighted.
    Screenshot example from the British Library's online collections with citation higlighted.

    The Natural History Museum's data portal uses URIs, compatible with the CETAF Stable Identifiers initiative which they have committed to persisting.

    Screenshot example from the Natural History Museum's Data Portal with citation highlighted.
    Screenshot example from the Natural History Museum's Data Portal with citation highlighted.