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# PERSISTENT IDENTIFIERS:
COMMERCIAL AND HERITAGE VIEWS

## About the Learning Object

Readings and training materials

Welcome to the series of case studies on persistent identification, presented by Linked Heritage partners led by EDItEUR. These studies show points of difference and similarity between the commercial media and cultural heritage sectors.

Intended audience:

- library and information professionals & masters students
- heritage (museum, archive, gallery) professionals & masters students

Learning outcomes – readers should aim to:

- understand what persistent identifiers are used for in the commercial sector (and a little of what they are not for!)
- know some of the “state of the art”, latest developments in identifier technologies in the heritage sector
- start thinking about how digital cultural heritage online may be enriched in future with wider use of Web identifiers like DOI

## Summary

The Linked Heritage project brought together information management standards and best practice from the cultural heritage sector with those of commercial media, such as

- book publishing
- recorded music
- film and tv
- photography

The aim was to investigate the potential for including commercial products in the Europeana Portal, adding the “gift shop” to the European Union’s online museum, galleries, libraries and archives Web site.

To make this happen a team led by EDItEUR researched commercial and heritage information sharing methods. Our full reports can be found at the EDItEUR Web site for Linked Heritage.

This learning object and the four case studies it contains aim to share some of the knowledge gained, especially on the topic of persistent identifier systems – such as the ISBN or DOI - to enable library and information professionals, as well as museum, archive and other heritage professionals to engage with the best practice in the commercial world and see where common ground exists, with a view to enabling future public-private partnerships.

We present a viewpoint from the commercial sector to enable library and information professionals, as well as museum, archive and other heritage professionals to engage with the best practice in the commercial world and see where common ground exists, with a view to enabling future public-private partnerships.

## Contents

There are seven parts in this set – they can be read independently but fit together best in the order below:

### Identifiers in the commercial world

Here we compare the objects of interest to the heritage sector, and to the commercial world, and discuss how and why they need to be identified from a commercial sector perspective.

### Mistaken identity: a fictional case study

This fictional “case study” introduces some practical techniques used to make identifier systems work in the commercial world, so that readers can recognise them in the real case studies.

### CASE STUDY 1: The ISBN, a core identifier for publishers, booksellers and libraries

EDItEUR manages the International ISBN Agency; Linked Heritage partners MVB, mEDRA and NSL are also involved in providing ISBN services in their countries.

### CASE STUDY 2: The ISBN-A – making ISBNs part of the Web

The overall ISBN-A service is managed by Linked Heritage partner mEDRA; another partner, MVB implements the service with mEDRA’s assistance.

### CASE STUDY 3: DataCite at TIB-UB

The international DataCite service is managed by TIB.

### CASE STUDY 4 – URNs and URIs

NSL provides a URN resolution service.

### Web identifiers for cultural heritage?

A short consideration of some possibilities for creating Web-scale registries of cultural objects and data about them, based on the case studies.

## Languages

- English