RiC Attribute Identifier

Alternative Names
  • RiC-A22 (RiC-CM Consultation Draft v0.2 December 2019)

Summary

Identifier is an Attribute in the Records in Context - Conceptual Model.

Details

The Records in Context - Conceptual Model v. 0.2 (December 2019) defines and describes Identifier as follows:
Definition
A word, number, letter, symbol, or any combination of these used to uniquely identify or reference an individual instance of an entity within a specific information domain.

Specifications
The attribute can include Global Persistent Identifiers (globally unique and persistently resolvable identifier for the entity) and/or Local Identifiers.
Both the domain within which the Identifier is unique, and the rules used in forming the Identifier value should be provided with the identifier value.

Extensibility
The attribute may be extended with any number of specific attributes.

Repeatability
Repeatable

Value Schema
Rule-based value; model-based text; free text

Scope Notes
Within a given domain (a closed system), identifiers are used to uniquely reference instances of an entity. Identifiers are instruments of control that facilitate management of the entities within the domain. The formulation of identifiers commonly is based on rules.
In addition to an identifier needing to be unique within a domain, it is also highly desirable that they be persistent, that is, that the identifier uniquely identifies the entities over time. A variety of organizations provide rules for the formation of identifiers, and services designed to facilitate the persistence of the identifiers. Such identifiers are commonly referred to as Persistent Identifiers (or PIDS). PIDs conform to RFC 3986, but impose additional rules. Common examples are Archival Resource Keys (ARKS) and Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) .
Within the global environment of the Internet, there are special rules for the formation of identifiers to ensure that they are unique within the domain of the Internet. Such identifiers must conform to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Uniform Resource Identifier rules (RFC 3986) .

Examples
Global persistent identifier
http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v1266v [example of an Archival Resource Key persistent identifier for a Record];
Permalink: http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tz44ht; Ark ID: w6tz44ht; SNAC ID: 83847206
http://isni.org/0000000073572182 [example of a persistent International Standard Name Identifier for a person];
Local identifier
BUD-01-F002 [example of a classification number from a corporate file plan];
NAS1/A/1.1 [example of local identifier for a Record];
F 1204 [example of a local identifier for a Record Set assigned by a repository]

Gavan McCarthy