info URI Registry

The info URI scheme was developed within the library and publishing communities (specifically, in conjunction with the development of the NISO OpenURL standard; more below) because of the need for URIs as pure identifiers, that is, to identify (not retrieve, dereference, locate, name, or any of those other things that URIs do). The most pressing need was to find a way to use URIs to reference information assets that have identifiers in public namespaces but had no representation within the URI allocation – for example, LCCNs.

Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) provides a simple means for identifying a resource within the Web global information architecture. Each URI begins with a scheme name that refers to a specification for assigning identifiers within that scheme. The "info" URI scheme was developed by the library and publishing communities to expedite referencing URIs of information assets that have identifiers in public namespaces but have no representation within the URI allocation. This allows information assets held by legacy identification systems to be referenced by Web-based applications such as XLink, RDF or Topic Maps. The "info" URI scheme is a consistent and reliable way to represent such standard identifiers as Dewey Decimal Classifications, Library of Congress Control Numbers (LCCNs), OCLC control numbers, OpenURLS. This prototype registry was developed by OCLC on behalf of NISO and the web community. Agencies interested in designating "info" URIs can submit proposals for approval on this registry site.

• http://info-uri.info/registry/docs/misc/faq.html#why_uri
• http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4452.txt

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Additional information

• "info" URI registry page
• NISO's announcement
• "info" URI proposal (Internet Draft)
• URIs in general
• OAI and the OAI-PMH
• URI Resource Pages

• Thom Hickey (lead)

• Eamonn Neylon
• Herbert Van de Sompel
• Pat Stevens
• Tony Hammond
• Stu Weibel
• Jeff Young

ResearchWorks

This activity is part of ResearchWorks. Use of our prototypes is subject to OCLC's terms and conditions. By continuing past this point, you agree to abide by these terms.

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Project lead: Thom Hickey

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