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Recommendations Regarding Persistent Identifiers in the Performing Arts
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This spreadsheet offers recommendations pertaining to the adoption of common bridge identifiers for named entities in the performing arts sector and their technical implementation in information systems.
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A identifier is a string of alphanumeric characters that identifies a single resource (ex. book) or entity (ex. artist) in a permanent and global fashion, no matter in which database it is referenced. Persistent identifiers can be expressed in the form of a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). A URI makes it possible to both identify an entity and access information about it. A URI is actionable: it resolves to a location (i.e., a URL) where information about the entity can be accessed in a human-readable form (i.e. an HTML document) and/or in a machine-readable form (for example a JSON-LD application or an RDF document).
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The FAIR Principles affirm: “Principle F1 – ‘(Meta)data are assigned a globally unique and persistent identifier’ – is arguably the most important because it will be hard to achieve other aspects of FAIR without globally unique and persistent identifiers.”
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Some persistent identifiers are called “bridge” identifiers because they are used across a wide range of information systems (or have the potential to be used in this fashion). As such, they play a critical role in the reconciliation of named entities across datasets.
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Identifiers assigned by fair-compliant authority files and base registers (for example, ISNI, VIAF) are excellent candidates for bridge identifiers, because they are persistent, they are retrievable under open protocols, they are accessible for reuse under an open licence, and they are typically useable both by machines and by humans.
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The following four bridge identifiers are recommended for performing arts information systems:
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Official URLIn the absence of a formal bridge identifier for an entity (or in addition to bridge identifiers), informations systems should locally store a valid URL denoting the official web page of the entity. This URL should 'preferably' be unique within the system (i.e.,: no two entities should have the same URL).
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ISNIThe International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) is an identifier for persons and organizations who contributed to works. It is a standardized identifier (ISO 27729). It can only be assigned by an authorized registration agency.
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Wikidata IDAlso called QID, it is an identifier for any concept (i.e., class) or named entity (i.e., instance of a class) in the Wikidata knowledge base. The Q ID is used as a bridge identifier in hundreds of authority files (e.g., Library of Congress) and information systems (e.g., OpenStreetMap). Any Wikimedia user can create a Wikidata item for which a Q ID will be automatically assigned.
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Artsdata IDThe Artsdata ID is a an identifier for any concept or named entity in the Artsdata knowledge graph. It can be assigned to performing arts entity types for which there exists at present no good bridge identifier (for example, an event). The Artsdata knowledge graph has an ID minting API. Any entity that meets SHACL validation can be minted an ID.
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Any other persistent identifier expressed in the form of a URI can serve as a bridge identifier. For example, Artsdata supports the VIAF ID, the Musicbrainz ID and any other identifier that can be dereferenced to an RDF resource.
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The ID by Type tab indicates which IDs are recommended for which type of entity.
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Recommended IDs should be locally stored in performing arts systems' databases. They should also be made accessible to third-parties via APIs to enable easier reconciliation and exchange of data across systems. They may also be exposed in user interface to allow individual users to consult HTML resources describing each entity.
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The Regex tab provides regular expressions to validate identifiers and/or their URIs.
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For ease of validation and ease of reuse, it is recommended that these identifiers be stored in local databases (or at least rendered via API) as full deferenceable URIs. In other word, the data type for bridge identifier fields should be "xsd:anyURI", "URL" or whatever equivalent data type is in use in the relational database management system.
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The fourth tab provides field names/labels, descriptions, alternate names, and contextual notes in English and in French.
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These can be used in an administrator interface, in a back-end user interface or in a front-end display. More elaborate content for tooltips and FAQ pages is available via a companion document.
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Authors
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Frédéric Julien, CAPACOA / Linked Digital Future Initiative
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Gregory Saumier-Finch, Culture Creates
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Dessa Hayes, CAPACOA / Linked Digital Future Initiative
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Version control
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Version numberDate
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1.3.62024-05-05
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For more information, contact Frédéric Julien at: frederic.julien@capacoa.ca
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