For information. Apologies for cross-posting.

 Ann

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NISO-Sponsored INFO URI Scheme is Information Gateway to the
Web
Publishing and Library Communities Join Forces to Facilitate and
Expedite Representation of Standard Identifiers such as Library of
Congress Control Numbers on the Web

Bethesda, MD - January 14, 2004 - Working under the auspices of
the
National Information Standards Organization (NISO), a joint task
force
of the publishing and library communities has developed and
published
a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) scheme aimed at the
identification
of information assets.  Information assets should be interpreted
rather broadly to include, for example, documents and terms from
classification schemes.  The INFO URI scheme is a consistent and
reliable way to represent and reference such standard identifiers as
Dewey Decimal Classifications on the Web so that these identifiers
can
be "read" and understood by Web applications.  Led by four NISO
members and associates-Los Alamos National Laboratory, Online
Computer
Library Center (OCLC), Elsevier, and Manifest Solutions-the
initiative
builds on earlier consultations with representatives from the World
Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task
Force
(IETF). An Internet-Draft for the INFO URI scheme was first
published
Sept. 25th, 2003 and a revision published Dec. 5th, 2003 (see
<http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-vandesompel-info-uri-01.txt
>).*

Herbert Van de Sompel, Digital Library Research & Prototyping at
the
Los Alamos National Laboratory's Research Library, stated, "A
good
example of the problem that the INFO URI scheme solves involves
PubMed
identifiers: unique numbers assigned to records in the PubMed
database
maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information
(NCBI)
of the National Library of Medicine.  PubMed identifiers originated
prior to the Web, so they are not URIs. As such they do not exist
naturally in the Web infrastructure because the Web only
recognizes
URIs as a means to identify information resources.  So Web
applications cannot use PubMed identifiers, and hence cannot
reference
PubMed records that are identified by them.  The solution is to turn
PubMed identifiers into URIs.  The INFO Registry enables the
registration of public namespaces of standard identifiers; NCBI
registered its PubMed identifier namespace under the INFO
Registry-their namespace is pmid-so we can now talk about the
record
with the PubMed identifier '12376099' in URI terms as
<info:pmid/12376099>."




"The goal of INFO is to act as a bridging mechanism to the Web by
providing a lightweight means for registering public namespaces
used
for the identification of information assets," said Tony Hammond,
Advanced Technology Group at Elsevier, a world-leading publisher
of
scientific, technical and medical information products and services.
"We see INFO as an enabling technology for the library, publishing
and
media communities-a way to facilitate and speed the growth of the
Web
as a truly global information place beyond a basic document
repository. The Library of Congress, the National Library of
Medicine,
and NASA are among those organizations that have already
registered
public namespaces with the INFO Registry."

"There are different ways to represent these identifiers on the Web,"
explained Pat Harris, NISO's Executive Director, "but the INFO URI
scheme really simplifies matters. As a Web user, you aren't likely
to
see the scheme in action on your screen-for example,
<info:lccn/2002022641>, because it's an under-the-hood way of
communicating the identity of an information asset to a Web
application."




The INFO Registry is now available online at <http://info-uri.info/>
for receiving new registrations. This Registry contains all the
information needed by Web applications to make use of INFO
namespaces.
Each Registry entry defines the namespace, the syntax, and
normalization rules for the representing INFO identifiers as URIs,
and
gives full contact information for the namespace authority for that
entry. Moreover, the INFO Registry is readable by both humans and
machines alike.


For more information about the INFO URI scheme, see the FAQ at

< http://info-uri.info/registry/docs/misc/faq.html >.

  _____

About NISO
NISO, a non-profit association accredited by the American National
Standards Institute (ANSI), identifies, develops, maintains, and
publishes technical standards to manage information in our
changing
and ever-more digital environment. NISO standards apply both
traditional and new technologies to the full range of
information-related needs, including retrieval, re-purposing, storage,
metadata, and preservation. www.niso.org

Press Contact: Maryann Karinch ([log in to unmask]), T:  970-577-
8500

* Both Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) and Uniform Resource
Names
(URNs) are types of URIs.  While URLs are locators, or addresses,
on
the Web, URNs are names on the Web.  The INFO URI scheme is
a special
type of URN which complements regular URNs but is designed to
be
simpler and more convenient both to manage and to use.


--
************************************
Pat Harris
Executive Director
National Information Standards Organization (NISO)
4733 Bethesda Avenue, Suite 300
Bethesda, MD 20814 USA
T: 301-654-2512 ** Mobile: 202-258-3296
Fax: 301-654-1721
Email: [log in to unmask]
url: http://www.niso.org


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Ann Apps. Senior Analyst - Research & Development, MIMAS,
     University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 161 275 6039    Fax: +44 (0) 0161 275 6040
Email: [log in to unmask]  WWW: http://epub.mimas.ac.uk/ann.html
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