2. Experiences

The general concept of the decentralized URN assignment has proven its worth with respect to the possibility of individualized URN assignment at university libraries. In this context the application of a check number resulted in the discovery of several mistakes of an URN string delivered by an university library. Therefore the check number will continue applying.

In Germany several software systems support URN assignment and registration process at Die Deutsche Bibliothek e.g. OPUS (Online Publications of the University of Stuttgart).[7] These condition caused an increasing number of university libraries to participate at the URN management.

Until March 2003 about 12 % of URLs registered by university libraries had to be updated. Furthermore, four university libraries announced a complete reorganization of the online publication storage structure. Furthermore, several URLs are temporarily unavailable every 1-2 weeks. During the last 19 months we identified 3 unstable server and three server which were temporarily unavailable. The experience with respect to the availability of URLs suggest the application of the link check procedure every night.

To guarantee permanent document access in case an URL is temporarily unavailable the resolution service refers automatically to the URL of the archived online dissertation at Die Deutsche Bibliothek.

Besides Die Deutsche Bibliothek, at present there are about 15 university libraries which have integrated the application of URNs by means of http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn[...] in their local catalogues. This number is steadily increasing.

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