Alternatives to Handle

[Antonio RC]

Hello everybody,

I am currently collaborating on the implementation of a DSpace repository installed in server hosted by a cultural heritage institution (Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad de la Habana) in Cuba as part of Humboldt Digital Project.

We have encountered a big problem unfortunately: due to the Embargo situtation in Cuba, the Handle provider has declined our request to register the repository and obtain a prefix for the Cuban institution -- even though this is a German-Cuban cooperation project and the services would be paid by the German institutions.

I would like to ask you two questions:

• I would like to ask you if you know any alternatives to Handle that could be used instead. Is there any other provider of persistent identifier that is not based in the States?
• If there is no alternative, how would create good permanent links with a handle? At the moment, the links contain a default prefix (handle/123456789) plus a local identifier, e.g. handle/123456789/16.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Best,

[David Bigwood]

You might check out ARK, archival resource key. Not sure how it works with DSpace. It is possible to host a resolver locally, so you can avoid politics.

David Bigwood

dbig...@lpi.usra.edu

Planetary Image Facility, Library

Lunar and Planetary Institute

https://repository.hou.usra.edu/

[pascaln...@gmail.com]

You may want to look at URNs as this PID system relies on national agencies for the registration. In Germany the DNB serves as the central registry for the namespace  urn:nbn:de

More info at https://www.dnb.de/EN/Professionell/Services/URN-Service/urn-service_node.html

I find this overview on PID systems helpful: https://journal.code4lib.org/articles/14978

Cheers,
Phu