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On the internet, an identifier is a URL, or part of a URL. For example, this basic core ARK identifier,
ark:/12148/btv1b8449691v/f29
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The average lifetime of a URL was once said to be 44 days. At the end of its life, a URL link breaks, meaning it gives you the dreaded "404 Not Found" error that most of us have seen. Irritating as that may be, it's politically awkward when looking for publicly funded research, and it's a cultural disaster for libraries, archives, museums, and other memory organizations.
A persistent identifier (sometimes abbreviated PID) is a link that in principle keeps working far into the future, even as things move between websites. Normally when things move, everyone who ever recorded the old links would need to be told what the new links are, which is next to impossible. That's where identifier resolvers come in.
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For anything and everything. Uses Current uses of ARKs include
- digital content, such as genealogical records (FamilySearch)
- publisher content (Portico)
- digitized manuscripts (Gallica)
- texts (Internet Archive)
- museum holdings (Smithsonian)
- vocabulary terms (yamz.net, perio.do)
- historical figures (snaccooperative.org)
- datasets, journals, living beings, and more.
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The only prerequisite is to fill out an online request for a NAAN on behalf of your organization. There is no charge to obtain a NAAN and all memory organizations are welcome. Within a day or two you should receive an email containing a NAAN for your organization's exclusive use. There is no charge to obtain a NAAN.Meanwhile, you might plan how to provide access to things you want to name, which generally should be things Meanwhile consider the following.
- What things do you want to name with ARKs? Generally you name objects that you own, control, or manage.
- Where do you want your ARKs to resolve to? Examples: formatted file, surrogate for a physical thing, landing page with choices, etc.
- Which web server will host your objects? You are asked this when you request a NAAN, even if it's not yet working.
- Which web server/resolver will you use as hostname in the ARK-based URLs that you advertise/publish?
To convert ordinary web server processes into ARK-aware processes, all you difference between providing access to ARK-identified objects vs URL-identified is like with providing access for ordinary URL-identified objects There are many possibilities. For example, you could run all your own custom infrastructure – including content management, web hosting, minting (generating unique identifier strings), and running your own server/resolver. That infrastructure could be very simple, such as server configured to convert incoming ARK-based URLs to server file pathnames. When you request your NAAN you will be asked to supply the base URL of your local server or resolver.
At the other end of the spectrum, you could work with a vendor that supplies all the infrastructure so that, for example, you could focus on creating content. Hybrid solutions are also common, such as just taking your current web server arrangement and just adding an identifier management piece (eg, the API/UI provided by ezid.cdlib.org, which partners with n2t.net).
If you run a resolver, you will also want to think about whether to advertise (publish) your ARKs based at your resolver or at n2t.net. Resolving through n2t.net is always possible as a cost-free side-effect of obtaining a NAAN.
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