# Re: Suggest meaning for URN

Stu Weibel (weibel@oclc.org)
Mon, 7 Jun 93 10:29:19 EDT

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    Date: Mon, 7 Jun 93 10:29:19 EDT

    From: weibel@oclc.org (Stu Weibel)

    Message-Id: <9306071429.AA15579@ora.rsch.oclc.org>

    To: uri@bunyip.com

    Subject: Re: Suggest meaning for URN

The URN should be a symbolic reference. To the extent that a user
can dereference its location, that location must be hard-coded in
some sense, and hence constrained across time, assuring its
obsolescence and/or incurring future maintenance of unpredictable
cost without an obvious responsible party.

Maintaining the purity of a URN as a symbolic link incurs another
kind of cost, but one for which there are well-understood, existing
models. A central database linking URNs to location, type, and other
record fields is inherently more flexible and sustainable over the
long run, and also will be invaluable when people are trying to make
decisions about how many places should retain an item and how
important it is to preserve a particular item.

Stuart Weibel
Senior Research Scientist
OCLC Office of Research
weibel@oclc.org

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