Persistent Identifiers at the British Library

This case study provides an overview of persistent identifiers (PIDs) at the British Library, including both those in use and those planned for the future. We hope that this case study will help other heritage organisations to see what the path to use PIDs looks like, and understand what decisions need to be made along that path. Where possible we have tried to demonstrate ways in which organisations can engage and adopt PIDs in their processes and highlight considerations and challenges that may be encountered. In particular we’ve included the lessons we have learned in facing those challenges, so that our peer organisations can avoid some of those pitfalls. For the purposes of this case study, a PID is an identifier that is globally unique, actionable (it can be resolved to a user to a resource or information about a resource), and where it is managed to remain unique and actionable for the long term. They may be used to identify the Library’s content or elements of its metadata. The systems that create, maintain and hold these identifiers are referred to as PID infrastructure. Within the British Library the main PIDs in use are Archival Resource Keys (ARKs), Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), International Standard Name Identifiers (ISNIs) and some others including ORCID IDs. Other types of identifiers such as International Standard Book Number (ISBN), International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), shelfmarks and accession numbers are not included in this report, as those identifiers do not meet the definition.