Persistent access to electronic scholarly and cultural resources
Persistent access to digital publications and other electronic resources over time is an increasingly important aspect of the scientific and cultural heritage communities. "Persistent access" to scholarly and cultural information requires an unambiguous identification of information objects through a persistent identifier.
PersID combines expertise
Ten national organisations in eight European countries combine their expertise in the PersID initiative to establish an infrastructure for Persistent Identifiers. There are many ways to set up such an infrastructure. The partners have chosen to use "Uniform Resource Names for National Bibliography Numbers" URN:NBN as we regard this to be the most open and versatile system. It is able to accommodate existing national URN:NBN identifier schemes as well as other systems (DOI, Handle, ARK, etc.) within the overall URN scheme, using proven methods and technologies in an open and transparent way. The project will provide a shared Persistent Identifier resolver service which will be able to resolve requests to local URNs but also to other Persistent Identifiers.
Scholarly community in control
PersID will establish the technical infrastructure that meets the needs of the scholarly and cultural heritage community. Therefore all stakeholders in the Persistent Identifier life-cycle (naming, registration and preservation of digital objects) are involved: from the researcher who is dependent on adequate dissemination of research outcomes, to libraries and authorities who manage the identifiers, to preservation agencies who guarantee the integrity of digital objects. In PersID, higher education, research and cultural heritage work together to establish a trusted and well governed service infrastructure for common use.
Cooperation in technology and governance
The overall goal of PersID is to guarantee access to electronic scholarly and cultural resources. PersID therefore aims for a complete infrastructure which supports persistent identifiers. This requires technological alignment. National resolvers which provide persistent links to digital resources need to be in place; these national services in turn must be serviced by a common resolver service to enable final resolution.But, technical tools do not in themselves make up an infrastructure; the essential component is organisational cooperation. Only a common, trusted governance approach can ensure essential factors such as sustainability over time, continual development of resolution services and access to digital objects, and a sound business model. A trusted governance body is essential to ensure the viability of the services over time; this will attract new partners and give the service credibility and make it easier to achieve critical mass. The governance involvement of scholarly and cultural heritage stakeholders will brand the system with trust and quality.
Studies, infrastructure and governance roadmap
The technical and organisational components will be fully addressed in the PersID initiative. Knowledge Exchange, an initiative of the national funding bodies supporting ICT in research in Germany, UK, Denmark and the Netherlands has commissioned three studies. These will explore the persistent identifier landscape, identifying user requirements and feasible business models, policies and governance approaches. A study on the development of technical solutions has been commissioned by SURFfoundation and will result in a first instance of a common infrastructure supported by shared governance policies. By September 2010 a roadmap will be presented with recommendations for further growth towards guaranteed access.Knowledgeable, inspired and open to all
The PersID organisations combine a large amount of experience already acquired through existing national Persistent Identifier solutions. All see that the time has come to co-operate with other European efforts and stakeholders to ensure reliable access to information objects.
The potential of the URN:NBN system, which is truly open and able to adapt to other systems as well, the shared ambition is to provide a quality resolver service, and the support of organisations in and outside the PersID initiative will provide the global scholarly and cultural heritage communities with guaranteed access to digital publications.