Page Comparison

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1. An administrative service that manages the metadata necessary to perform naming services
2. An Admin UI to allow registered users to create and maintain URNs
3. An API that allows registered applications to interact with the administrative service without using the Admin UI
4. An HTTP-based resolution service that performs naming resolution using browser redirection
5. An API that returns information about URNs rather than resolving the URN

 
What is a persistent identifier?
What is name resolution?
Why use persistent identifiers?
What resources should be named?

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In this illustration, FHCL is Harvard College Library; RAD is Radcliffe Institute; and RAD.ARCH is Radcliffe Archives.

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In this case permanent means that once an identifier is associated with a particular resource it will never be associated with any other resource. Even if the resource itself is ephemeral and becomes inaccessible at some point in time, its persistent identifier will never be reassigned.

Location-independent means that the identifier itself does not specify the location of the resource. In order to access a resource its persistent identifier has to be resolved into a location-specific identifier such as a URL.

What is name resolution?
Name resolution is the process of mapping a persistent identifier (PID) URN to a URL that retrieves the named resource; the URL locates the resource identified by the persistent identifier:

If a resource moves or changes the way it is accessed, the mapping between the resource's persistent identifier and URL is can be updated; the persistent identifier remains unchanged and valid.

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