Integrating Handle service in the Persistent Identifier module

Omeka S
1

Hi everyone,

I would like to know if the Omeka Team or someone else has considered integrating the Handle system into the Persistent Identifier module.

When it comes to organizations holding collections of cultural or archival material, registering DOIs is not an affordable option. ARKs are more suitable identifiers for this kind of material but the new fee model implemented by EZID translates into a considerable effort (1200$ annual fee) for small organizations, having in mind that the annual fee for Handle is only 50$.

It is well known that the ARK community has a different approach to persistent identifier and advocates for a decentralized infrastructure in which each organization is responsible for resolving its ARKs. In that sense, Daniel Berthereau follows that approach with its ARK module.

However, for the least brave (and techy) of us, it would be great if Omeka could integrate ways for registering persistent identifiers through other third party services with a fee model more affordable than the one offered by Datacite or EZID. The Handle system seems to be a good option in this sense.

I have seen that back in the early developing stages of the Persistend Identifier module, @Matthew sent a message to the forum asking for feedback and Handles were mentioned as candidates for the new plugin. Just wondering if they were discarded for a good reason or not.

Looking at the directory of Omeka sites, I can see that three of the listed sites use a plugin called “Handles (NT Canarias)” which seems to allow registering Handles to its items (like in this example: https://mdc.ulpgc.es/s/mdcte/item/268371 ). Doing a bit research, it seems like @ntcanarias is the company behind these sites developed for Las Palmas de Gran Canaria University Library. It would be great if they could give us some hints about this development that, in my opinion, could be a game changer to the efforts that small cultural organizations, struggling with budgetary constrictions, find in its way to give persistent identifiers to its digital resources.

Best regards to everyone,
Daniel

2

It’s definitely on our list of future features!

3

That’s good news! Thanks a lot Sharon

4

Hi Daniel,

Indeed, we developed this module some time ago to integrate persistent urls through the Handle.net service in the projects we manage at the Library of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (BULPGC).

Its operation is based on connecting through php/curl with the local Handle server that we have in the BULPGC and, in this way, create the handles of the items that do not have it. It is a very crude but effective development :wink:

If you want to know more about it, let me know.

Kind regards,
Alejandro

5

Hi Alejandro,

Thanks a lot for answering. I would definitely like to know more about it.

Do you think could be integrate it into the official Persistent Identifier plugin?

Best regards,

Daniel

6

Hello @ntcanarias,

We are interested in this too - it would be great if you could share your documentation. We would like to use Handle for our PIDs and have Omeka S for LOD (we use CONTENTdm for our digital collections).

Best wishes,
Sharon

7

We are also interested in this module at the university of Rochester

8

Why not use the Quark module to generate UUID based persistent identifiers?