Getting Persistent Identifiers Implemented By ‘Cutting In The Middle-Man’
The Persistent Identifier (PID) project of the Dutch Digital Heritage Network (DHN) promotes sustainable access in the cultural heritage domain by stimulating the use of PIDs as references to (digital) cultural heritage objects. PIDs are long- lasting references to objects and offer a solution for link rot, which often results in 404 or Not Found error messages.
Cultural heritage organisations, regardless of size, are often hesitant to implement PIDs in their systems. They lack knowledge of PIDs, are unaware of the capabilities and benefits of PIDs, and fear possible complex and costly implementation processes as well as the maintenance costs for sustained services.
To address these issues, the DHN PID project focussed on:
 Raising awareness of (the importance of) PIDs in cultural heritage organisations,
 Increasing knowledge regarding the use of PIDs within cultural heritage,
 Supporting the technical implementation of PIDs in cultural heritage collection management systems.
At the time of writing, four vendors have implemented PIDs in the collection management systems (CMS) they provide1, and a dozen cultural heritage institutions are taking part in this pilot implementation phase. More importantly however, is that through these CMS vendors, PIDs have become more available and affordable as a sustainable long term access solution for hundreds of institutional digital collections and their users. To ensure that the information, training and education the project provided about PIDs can be disseminated and used as widely as possible, the project created (best practice) documentation in Dutch and English, along with a unique PID Guide for learning about PIDs and taking the first steps towards selecting a suitable PID solution, along with a PID implementation Roadmap. This was an effort to encourage the adoption and use of PIDs in the cultural heritage domain, by utilising their existing collection management system vendors.
The concept of ‘cutting in the middle-man’ – cooperating with collection management system vendors and supporting the implementation of PIDs in their products – has proven extremely successful, and the outcomes of this project may help cultural heritage initiatives in other countries to get PIDs implemented in their organisations too.
["van Veenendaal, Remco", "Ras, Marcel", "Dangerfield, Marie Claire"]
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