Name Identifiers Webinar Q&A
Below are listed questions that were submitted during the NISO webinar, "Content Identification: What's New," held March 17, 2010. Answers from the presenters will be added shortly.
Speakers:
- Using Identifiers to Facilitate the E-book Supply Chain (Whatever That Turns Out to Be)
Brian Green, Executive Director, International ISBN Agency - ARK: Archival Resource Key
John A. Kunze, Preservation Technologies Architect, California Digital Library - New Applications of DOIs
Ed Pentz, Executive Director, CrossRef
- Can you speak to the status of chapter-level ISBNs?
- Must the 'ark:' follow the hostname, or can I put other branding information after the hostname and before the 'ark:'?
Answer (John Kunze): In all examples, the 'ark:/' immediately follows the 'http://host.example.com/', but in fact we have not completely shut the door on the possibility of inserting something in between, e.g., 'http://n2t.info/MyBrand/ark:/13030/54321'. While this is not recommended, ARKs are fairly robust when embedded in character strings. One of the reasons that the 'ark' label uses ':/' to separate the scheme name (most schemes use just ':') from the rest of the identifier, is that it makes it easier to discover an ARK embedded in texts, somewhat like the '://' makes it easier to find a URL.
- To John Kunze: Does ARK recommend any specific practice for representing composed objects (e.g., books with pages) in terms of identifiers. Thanks!
John Kunze: ARK does not. It's a bit of a scary blank canvas, and there's a feeling that this kind of recommendation would be helpful.
- Ed, thank you for using the NISO Journal Article Versions terminology for the version naming structures in your new service.
- How does the DOI relate to the SICI? Or doesn't it?