Den Haag Persistent Object Identifier – Linked Open Data Manifesto

Knowledge Exchange commissioned three studies to investigate whether a URN:NBN based system could offer a feasible architecture to resolve Persistent Identifiers to materials on the web.

The studies have aimed to overcome the confusing variety of existing persistent identifier systems, by;

• analysing the current national URN:NBN and other identifier initiatives
• providing guidelines for an international harmonized persistent identifier framework that serves the long-term preservation needs of the research and cultural heritage communities
• advising these communities about a roadmap to gain the potential benefits. This roadmap also includes a blueprint for an organisation for the distribution and maintenance of the Persistent Identifier infrastructure.

These studies are connected to the broader PersId project with DEFF, SURF, DANS, the national libraries of Germany, Finland and Sweden and CNR and FDR from Italy. A number of organisations have been involved in the process: Europeana, the British library, the Dutch Royal Library, the National library of Norway and the Ministry of Education, Flanders, Belgium.

• PersID - III: Current State and State of the Art (IIIa) & User Requirements (IIIb)(Persistent Identifier: urn:nbn:nl:ui:13-9g4-i1s)
• PersID - IV: Prototype for a Meta Resolver System/ Work on Standards(Persistent Identifier: urn:nbn:nl:ui:13-wt1-6n9)
• PersID - V: Sustainability (Persistent Identifier: urn:nbn:nl:ui:13-o4p-8py)

Please note that there are also two broader reports on the project as a whole: PersID - I: Project report and II:Communication.

For further information please visit the website of the Persistent Identifier project: www.persid.org

Persistent Object Identifiers Seminar

The Hague, The Netherlands, 14 - 15 June 2011 

Knowledge Exchange organised a seminar inviting various Persistent Object Identifier solutions to compare services and explore future cooperation and convergence. This seminar took place on 14-15 June 2011 at the DANS offices in The Hague, the Netherlands and was hosted by PersID, SURFfoundation and DANS. It was attended by 40-50 experts, representatives of the participating PID systems, national libraries, data archives and other stakeholders.

Three major players in the persistent object identifier area: Datacite/DOI, EPIC/Handle and PersID/URN-NBN informed each other of recent developments, shared user experiences and discussed trends and policies.

The seminar paid attention to the usage of PIDs for publications, and increasingly for data, and for combinations of text, media and data. The relation with Author Identifiers was also discussed and standardisation and specifications for transparency between systems was addressed. In break out sessions participants discussed the benefits and challenges in operating multiple persistent identifier systems and the relation of persistent identifiers to Linked Data.

A report on the Persistent Object Identifier seminar is available for download.

Den Haag Manifesto

Five steps to bringing Persistent Identifiers and Linked Open Data together

During the seminar on Persistent Object Identifiers, held on 14-15 June 14 2011, one of the break out groups investigated where the Persistent Identifier and Linked Open Data communities could connect. This resulted in the Den Haag manifesto. 

This manifesto is intended as the basis for a coordinated approach to identifier issues across the persistent identifier (PID) and linked open data (LOD) communities. The intention was to try and state what the PID and the LOD approaches can each learn from the other, and what elements of each other's infrastructure they could adopt. After the workshop the manifesto text was made available as an editable Google Doc for any of the attendees to edit the text or add comments. The resulting text is available in the Den Haag manifesto. None of the principles were changed as a result of this process, but the comments that were made have been merged, de-identified, and shown after each principle.

The Den Haag Manifesto is available for download