Persistent Identifiers and Finnish
Institutional Repositories
Rita Voigt
Helsinki University of Technology and OA-JES
Coordinator for Institutional Repositories in Finland
IR workshop – 11.1.2007 – Helsinki
OA-JES
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Promoting Open Access Publishing in Finland
Funding: Ministry of Education
Initiative: Finnish Open Access Working Group
4 parts:
• Advocacy (Kalle Korhonen, Univ. of Helsinki)
• Coordination of IRs (Rita Voigt, TKK)
• The National Library of Finland, definition of tasks
• TSV, development of a publishing tool for OA journals
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Duration: 1.4.2006 – 31.1.2007
Results: Increasing awareness, new repositories,
this workshop…
Julkaisuarkisto-workshop – Helsinki 11.1.2007
Rita Voigt / TKK ja OA-JES
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Institutional Repositories –
(OA-JES) definitions
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In addition to bibliographic metadata the full text is
available for all publications.
The full text is stored locally (in most cases,
cooperation solutions for smaller institutions). The
institution is responsible for its availability.
Outsourcing the archive is possible, but usually
has its problems.
Both metadata and full text are open access.
The permanent availability and access to the
publication is ensured  each publication is given
a persistent identifier (URN or other).
The repository is OAI compatible.
Julkaisuarkisto-workshop – Helsinki 11.1.2007
Rita Voigt / TKK ja OA-JES
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URN – Uniform Resource Name
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Ensures permanent access to the publication now and in the
future.
Unambiguous identifier, can be used in OpenURLs.
Persistent identifier, no need to update links in library
catalogs, provides a link from bibliographic metadata to full
text.
Persistent link in lists of references, no need to give date of
access.
Future researchers are able to get to the cited reference,
which should be a prerequisite for any scholarly work!
No broken links.
Julkaisuarkisto-workshop – Helsinki 11.1.2007
Rita Voigt / TKK ja OA-JES
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Persistent identifiers
Why URNs?
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URNs are in use in many European countries and
elsewhere.
National Libraries support the use of URNs.
URNs are free.
The administration of URNs is flexible.
Already published documents can get URNs during
batch processing.
Other persistent identifier systems: DOI, Handle, ARK
Julkaisuarkisto-workshop – Helsinki 11.1.2007
Rita Voigt / TKK ja OA-JES
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Usage example: Library catalog
Database:
Title:
Material:
Published:
Series:
Links:
Teknillisen korkeakoulun kirjasto
Sanat kivettyvät kaupungiksi [Elektroninen aineisto] :
tutkimus Helsingin kaupunkisuunnittelun prosesseista
ja ihanteista / Pasi Mäenpää ... [et al.]
kirja
Espoo : Teknillinen korkeakoulu, 2000
(Yhdyskuntasuunnittelun tutkimus- ja
koulutuskeskuksen julkaisuja. B ; 83)
urn:nbn:fi:tkk-004097
http://urn.tkk.fi/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:fi:tkk-004097
http://lib.tkk.fi/Reports/2000/isbn951226336X.pdf
Julkaisuarkisto-workshop – Helsinki 11.1.2007
Rita Voigt / TKK ja OA-JES
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Persistent identifiers and Finnish IRs
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The National Library has actively participated in the
standardisation work of URNs since the 1990’s (Juha
Hakala). However, theoretical considerations haven’t led to
any practical results during these years. Recommendations
put an emphasis on the use of URN:ISBN identifiers, which
are not widely used elsewhere. URN:NBN for web articles.
http://www.lib.helsinki.fi/julkaisuala/urn.htm
URN:NBN for all publications at Helsinki Univ. of Technology
since the establishment of the repository in 2003.
URN:ISBN at the Univ. of Oulu.
Both URN:ISBN and URN:NBN at the Univ. of Joensuu.
Many other institutions are assigning some kind of URN to
their publications or have expressed interest in doing so.
DSpace comes with the handle identifier system, possible to
use URNs in addition.
Julkaisuarkisto-workshop – Helsinki 11.1.2007
Rita Voigt / TKK ja OA-JES
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Distribution of URNs
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Overall administration: National Library.
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The National Library provides the possibility to generate
single URNs of the URN:NBN type
urn:ubn:fi:fe...
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If an institution publishes a lot, it could/should(?) get an own
namespace for this type of URNs,
e.g. urn:nbn:fi:tkk...
 Contact the National Library for the namespace.
When having an own namespace the institution can assign
URNs for their publications independently.
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Julkaisuarkisto-workshop – Helsinki 11.1.2007
Rita Voigt / TKK ja OA-JES
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URN standardisation
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IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force)
RFC’s:
• URN Syntax (2141)
• Functional Requirements of URN’s
• Registration of NID’s
• Resolving
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Syntax: URN : NID : NISS
namespace identifier
(ex. NBN, ISBN, ISSN)
Julkaisuarkisto-workshop – Helsinki 11.1.2007
namespace specific string
Rita Voigt / TKK ja OA-JES
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URN @ TKK
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Centralised distribution and administration in the library.
All publications get a URN:NBN identifier, when they are stored into
the TKK institutional repository (with the exception of photos).
”trusted repository”.
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Format:
urn:nbn:fi:tkk-123450
organisation
namespace
Julkaisuarkisto-workshop – Helsinki 11.1.2007
consecutive
numbers =
recordnumbers
in the IR
check
digit
Rita Voigt / TKK ja OA-JES
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From assignment to use
 The resolver software
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Implementation of a national resolver in Finland in Feb. 2005
 enables the use of URNs as the main identifier for the publication.
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Centralised service, located at Helsinki University of Technology
Library in Espoo.
Part of an international network of URN resolver services.
Resolves the location of any document that has a persistent
identifier.
Redirects the URN query to the web address where the
document is currently located.
Before redirection checks that the URL exists, displays error
messages where necessary.
Redirects foreign URNs and other than URN identifiers to the
location where they can be resolved.
Administrative features.
Julkaisuarkisto-workshop – Helsinki 11.1.2007
Rita Voigt / TKK ja OA-JES
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Resolver software
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Development: Univ. of Uppsala, Sweden.
Now moved to KB, National Library of Sweden.
Wiki: http://epc.ub.uu.se/niwiki/
Version 3.0, Feb. 2005.
Contact person for data providers in Finland: Rita Voigt.
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TKK has used the software for about two years.
Works fine for URN:NBN identifiers.
Initially no support for URN:ISBN identifiers implemented.
Extension and further development by Jukka Lehmus, TKK
Library.
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TKK, U. Joensuu and U. Oulu are now using the resolver
service.
If your organisation is interested, please contact us!
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Julkaisuarkisto-workshop – Helsinki 11.1.2007
Rita Voigt / TKK ja OA-JES
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URN:ISBN
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Seen as a Finnish curiosity in Europe.
Therefore no support in any resolver software.
Finnish URN:ISBN namespaces have to be included into the
service mappings of all the other national resolvers to enable
them to redirect these URNs to the Finnish resolver.
No big problem for Finnish ISBNs (?)
But: ISBNs usually do not identify the country of the
publication as clearly as the country code in the URN:NBN
identifiers.
Resolvable at the centralised ISBN agency  double
redirections needed.
As a result: If you like your URNs to work smoothly use the
URN:NBN type from now on.
Julkaisuarkisto-workshop – Helsinki 11.1.2007
Rita Voigt / TKK ja OA-JES
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Demo
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Question: Where do I find the publication with the identifier
urn:nbn:fi:tkk-004097
urn:nbn:de:gbv:089-3321752945
urn:nbn:ch:bel-9478
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-3475
URN:NBN:no-3132
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Answer: Redirection either
by showing the URL for a moment
http://urn.tkk.fi/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:fi:tkk-004781
or
directly (all foreign or other identifiers always directly)
http://urn.tkk.fi/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:fi:tkk-004781&godirectly
http://urn.tkk.fi/resolve?urn=URN:NBN:no-3132
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The resolver thus finds publications
which are known to the local service, and
which can be found in other services, see for example
http://epc.ub.uu.se/rs/services/servicemappings.xml
Julkaisuarkisto-workshop – Helsinki 11.1.2007
Rita Voigt / TKK ja OA-JES
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Demo 2
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Joensuu:
http://urn.tkk.fi/resolve?urn=URN:NBN:fi-fe20061759
http://urn.tkk.fi/resolve?urn=URN:ISBN:952-458-875-7
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Oulu:
http://urn.tkk.fi/resolve?urn=urn:isbn:951-42-8239-6
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TKK:
http://urn.tkk.fi/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:fi:tkk-007434
http://urn.tkk.fi/resolve?urn=URN:NBN:fi-fe20071017 
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Foreign services can redirect Finnish URNs to the resolver at TKK:
• Swedish National Library:
http://urn.kb.se/start
• German National Library:
http://www.persistent-identifier.de/?link=610&lang=en
Julkaisuarkisto-workshop – Helsinki 11.1.2007
Rita Voigt / TKK ja OA-JES
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How to get involved?
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Have a ”trusted repository”, e.g. maintainted by the university
library.
Produce an XML file containing the URN–URL –pairs for your
repository (simple schema, easy to accomplish).
Put the file in an openly accessible place on the web.
Tell us the URL of this file.
 The resolver will harvest this file regularly. Keep it up-to-date!
(cf. OAI-PMH)
Example (Joensuu):
http://joypub.joensuu.fi/NBN/records.xml
Julkaisuarkisto-workshop – Helsinki 11.1.2007
Rita Voigt / TKK ja OA-JES
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Thank you !
rita.voigt at tkk.fi
Julkaisuarkisto-workshop – Helsinki 11.1.2007
Rita Voigt / TKK ja OA-JES
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