This document represents a summary of the outcomes from a workshop on persistent identifiers, hosted by JISC on 3 February 2010.
The overall background and context for the meeting is given in the Briefing Paper and in Chris Awres introductory presentation, with the primary objectives being:
- to identify common features of the landscape where JISC investment might yield benefits; and
- to identify what may be needed or required for the UK landscape
Taking an institutional perspective, Chris examined what we mean by the overall context of persistence in identification, and noted amongst other things that:
- Identifiers are not uppermost in the consciousness of users of digital content
- Content is becoming lost and hidden
- There is Increased awareness of identifier schemes, and that something can be done about the issues
- The range of options available can be bewildering, and there is a reliance on identifiers promoted through the technology used
- A focus on identifiers per se can be distracting: purpose, role and persistence itself is important
- Identifiers do not stand alone; their associated meaning and relationships are important.
Persistence itself was highlighted, particularly organisational persistence and the need to record changes, relationships and provenance. This is in the context of well-established practice in some domains, such as the use of DOIs, and considerable momentum elsewhere (e.g. from data.gov.uk) behind linked data and HTTP URIs.