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Developing and using URIs. Institutional perspective Facilitator: Les Carr. Institutional perspective Typical department or institution context. Before introducing a scheme it is likely that some identifiers will already exist, such as for staff
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Developing and using URIs Institutional perspective Facilitator: Les Carr
Institutional perspectiveTypical department or institution context • Before introducing a scheme it is likely that some identifiers will already exist, such as for staff • The department or institution sets up a repository with URIs • A principle purpose is to ensure the full “inventory” of published works is available for research assessment • Links for staff will be to the existing identifiers • URIs will be assigned to new works as they are created • Additional URIs may be assigned for external entities such as co-authors and journals. • If we can reliably infer that the same journal is multiply referenced then the same identifier can be used • Identifiers for “externals” may typically duplicate identifiers issued elsewhere and would need to be “same-as”ed
Institutional perspectiveTypical department or institution context • The repository and the identifier scheme become embedded in the “business” operation • This introduces a common structure and process • Open access to the repository simplifies, speeds and makes more consistent the process of referencing other works • There is a need for a policy for managing URIs, such as • Without a URI an entity cannot be referenced • Management of records, subject trees, etc • Recognise that there may be multiple identifiers for the same entity
Institutional perspectiveObservations • Methods for creating URI’s: • Extract some information from the object and include it when creating the identifier • If an object originates externally then one may incorporate some of the information about it in forming the new identifier • The UK government has recently issued URI guidelines • Opportunity for a small number of like minded organisations to work together
Institutional perspectiveActions • Invite small number of like minded organisations to work together, but keep it small • Establish a “best practice” guide • Hugh Glaser @ Southampton invited URIs to be sent to him and he would maintain same-as relations
Developing and using URIs National library perspective Facilitator: Sean Martin
National library perspectiveTypical context • The library receives a significant volume of externally published items on a long term basis • It publishes its own works – often these are digitised images • There are issues of scale and long term, such as changing titles and other names • A proportion of the “work” is dealing with exceptions / errors • There is a notion of version management, as content and metadata can be updated and so change over time • The identifier tends to refer to the logical item of which there may be several versions/manifestations
National library perspectiveObservations • Do we want to have, or not have, semantics within the URI, as the way it is described may change over time? • A URI must be persistent and unique and its form is less important • Its not essential to have URIs for interoperability but it may help a lot • Difficult to resolve names, places, etc without standardised vocabulary • URIs can depend on an underlying content model, but content models tend to change over time • In linked data, some URLs will break, hence maybe a finite lifetime should be offered for a URI
National library perspectiveObservations • An individual organisation could proceed to define URIs and publish, but there is a risk of incompatibility with others • At least one library would like to proceed but hesitates to go it alone without some reassurance of compatability • This risk is mitigated by collaboration – see actions • URIs would refer to “objects” not files
National library perspectiveActions • Parties seeking interoperability can collaborate to establish: • Models for types of content • Best practice for URIs • Policies for URIs • Andreas Juffinger @ Europeana offered to host discussions / wiki space
Institutional perspective Emphasis on people Concerned with the “now” National library perspective Emphasis on objects Concerned with “long term” & scale Contrast between institution and national library perspectives