PILIN Project
This site describes the work done by Link Affiliates team members on persistent identifiers and persistent identifier infrastructure since 2006.
Background
With vast amounts of digital assets now being produced and stored by research and education institutions, there is an obvious need to manage, discover and access these resources over time. As repository projects have matured, persistent identifiers have become crucial for managing large numbers of digital assets over time. Identifiers help manage resource repositories by separating the identification of resources (their names) from the location of resources (their addresses). Identifier infrastructure enables management of the full lifecycle of a resource, from creation to archiving. Through identifier services, the infrastructure supports access to resources over time; resource discovery; and enhanced resource management.
A shared identifier infrastructure provides the redundancy that individual identifier users cannot achieve. This is essential for guaranteeing persistence of identifiers and identifier services over time. It is also easier to scale shared infrastructure to the large number of identifiers and resolution requests required by user communities. Shared infrastructure also assists movement of identifiers and resources between organisations throughout the lifecycle of a resource. Communities need common tools to simplify the generation and registration of identifiers, and simplify updating them as the resource changes and moves. At any point in this lifecycle, the resources, metadata and identifiers can be separately managed.
Persistence is not just a technology issue. It requires long-term governance and policy support at institution, sector and global levels. By developing a shared infrastructure, the Australian education and research sector can influence the future of identifier infrastructure at all these levels, moving towards a national identifier service.
Overview
Many organisations, including the National Library of Australia, had been experimenting with persistent identifiers for some time. However there was no consensus or consistency across the educational and cultural/collecting agencies sectors.
Given these considerations, the PILIN project (Persistent Identifier and Linking INfrastructure) was identified as an important national initiative in the third quarter of 2006. It was approved as a sub-project of the ARROW II (Australian Research Repositories on line to the world) suite of activities, and run by Link Affiliates.
The PILIN project was an opportunity to comprehensively test the needs and parameters of identifier infrastructure, as well as to establish the foundations of a future national service. It was decided to use the Handle System technology as core software for implementations, but to approach the project from a technology neutral stance. The PILIN project was set up to have diverse stakeholders across education, research, and cultural organisations.
The overarching objective of the PILIN Project was to:
- Strengthen Australia's ability to use global identifier infrastructure
Within that the more specific objectives were to:
- Support adoption and use of persistent identifiers and shared persistent identifier management services by the project stakeholders.
- Plan for a sustainable, shared identifier management infrastructure that enables persistence of identifiers and associated services over archival lengths of time.
The PILIN project (Stage 1) ran from September 2006 to December 2007: its work is captured in the PILIN Project (Stage 1) website.
PILIN ANDS Transition Project
The PILIN ANDS Transition Project was funded through the Australian National Data Service (ANDS) Establishment Project as a continuation of the original PILIN project, with an aim to enable a National Persistent Identifier Service, and to identify further the requirements for persistent identifier infrastructure particular to e-research. As part of this work, the project team continued to work on the modelling and policy framework for identifiers started in the original project, as well as solidifying its software outputs and developing new identifier services.
The PILIN ANDS Transition Project ran from January to June 2008: it is described in more detail separately.
Ongoing Identifier Work
The Link Affiliates team continues to be engaged with identifier issues, including collaboration with the Australian National Data Service (ANDS) and the OASIS Extensible Resource Identifier (XRI) Technical Committee
Project Outputs
The various outputs of the PILIN projects, and the ongoing Link Affiliates work on identifiers and identifier infrastructure, are assembled here as a whole.
