Fwd: On URIs, URCs, URN, et. al. (was: FYI: IETF URI WG changes) (fwd)

From: Lloyd G. Rasmussen (lras@loc.gov)
Date: Tue Oct 03 1995 - 06:02:27 PDT


This info is to help you keep all your internet resources straight,
and with the right moniker attached to them.
  -- Lloyd Rasmussen

----- Forwarded message begins here -----
From: Linda White <lwhi@loc.gov>
To: Multiple recipients of list <lc-internet@loc.gov>
Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 08:25:31 -0400
Subject: On URIs, URCs, URN, et. al. (was: FYI: IETF URI WG changes) (fwd)

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Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 18:40:00 -0700
From: IFLA <ifla@ITS.NLC-BNC.CA>
To: Multiple recipients of list DIGLIB <DIGLIB@INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA>
Subject: On URIs, URCs, URN, et. al. (was: FYI: IETF URI WG changes)

From: weibel@oclc.org
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 11:19:08 -0400
Subject: Re: FYI: IETF URI WG changes

Eduardo Villanueva Mansilla asks:

> Could anyone explain the difference between an URL, an URC and an URN? I
> haven't been able to find it.

URL

  A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a location pointer... think of it
  as the spine label... it tells you (the client software, actually)
  where to get the object.

  URLs are pretty much in place and stable (they're baked), though the
  standard will undergo adjustments for various protocols from time to
  time.

URN

  URNs (Uniform Resource Names) are not an agreed upon technology at this
  point in time (they're half baked), the community is approaching
  something resembling consensus, and I believe the next 3 to 6 months
  will witness serious pilot projects for the assignment, maintenance,
  and resolution of URNs.

  The goal of URNs is to provide a globally unique, location-independent,
  persistant name for a resource that will be less prone to the failures
  now encountered with URLs as resources are reorganized or moved. The
  current correlate in the paper world might be an ISBN or LCCN. There
  will probably be more than one URN schemes, at least at first.

URC

  URCs (Uniform Resource Characteristic) refer to any descriptive data
  one might store about resources. No one even agrees what the
  ingredients should be, though from the library perspective, URCs can be
  thought of as cataloging records. In fact, this notion will need to be
  expanded to include description that is normally not found in
  cataloging records today (terms and conditions of use is one possible
  example).

  It is my belief that only the library community, by virtue of its
  long experience with MARC, is really in a position to make this piece
  of the puzzle fall into place, though Libraries will have to
  accomodate the changing needs and requirements of resource
  description in a distributed network environment such as the
  Internet. The Internet Resources Cataloging Project is the formost
  example of a step in this direction.

  <URL: http://www.oclc.org/oclc/man/catproj/catcall.htm>

URIs

  Collectively, URLs, URNs, and URCs are referred to as Uniform Resource
  Identifiers.

  See my home page for related work in the area of IETF standards and
resource description (metadata).

Stuart Weibel
Senior Research Scientist
OCLC Office of Research
weibel@oclc.org
(614) 764-6081 (v)
(614) 764-2344 (f)
http://www.oclc.org:5046/~weibel

------ Forwarded message ends here ------

Lloyd Rasmussen
Senior Staff Engineer
National Library Service f/t Blind and Physically Handicapped
Library of Congress 202-707-0535
            lras@loc.gov



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