# Re: Re URNs & dead publishers

Ed Krol (e-krol@uiuc.edu)
Mon, 18 Oct 1993 10:21:08 -0500

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    Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1993 10:21:08 -0500

    Message-Id: <199310181521.AA27715@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>

    To: "Rob Raisch, The Internet Company" <raisch@internet.com>,

    From: e-krol@uiuc.edu (Ed Krol)

    Subject: Re: Re URNs & dead publishers

There is a whole area of librarianship concerned with archiving.
And they are really worried about who will archive the electronic stuff
that is cited in other works. However, this has nothing to do with
publishing. The question is one of responsibility: who will volunteer
to be responsible for the integrety of the URN. We just assume the publisher
would because they have a financial interest in the work. But I can
forsee a case where the publisher doesn't care if the work is not a financial
sucess. I would venture two guesses at what will happen (actually
they probably both will depending on the works).

1. Libraries which have special collections in an area will volunteer
to maintain the URN's. If a library has the worlds best collection
of Afro-american literature, it would be in their best interest to
keep the field stable.

2. Obscure interest "clubs", like the Brian Society (a society pledged
to furthering the works of a fairly obscure 20th century English
composer), might become the custodians for the URN's for Brian
symphonies.

Of course part of archiving is also trying to know what should be pruned.
So I am not saying that all URN's will survive forever - some will
fall by the wayside.

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