Citation
Calvert, P. (1998), "PURL Resolver Service at the National Library of Australia", Asian Libraries, Vol. 7 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/al.1998.17307dad.005
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 1998, MCB UP Limited
PURL Resolver Service at the National Library of Australia
PURL Resolver Service at the National Library of Australia
What is a PURL?
PURL stands for Persistent Uniform Resource Locator. A PURL is an special kind of URL which, instead of pointing directly to an Internet document, points to an intermediate resolver service. This service then redirects the search to the current URL for the document. Once a PURL is allocated to an Internet document it remains constant even if the document is moved to another location or another server. It is similar to a "see" reference in library catalogues.
Why use PURLs?
PURLs allow you to manage access to your World Wide Web documents as they are moved on your system. Currently, when a document's location is changed, organisations create a redirect page to let searchers know about the new location. PURLs can do this in a similar way. When a document is moved to another area of your site or another organisation's site, all you need to do is change the URL associated with the PURL. This means that, provided you maintain the PURL by changing the associated URL, anyone pointing to your document's PURL will always find it. Internet users can bookmark a PURL with the confidence that it will not change.
What is the PURL Resolver Service?
The Australian PURL Resolver Service uses software developed by the OCLC Online Computer Library Centre. The service is available to any Australian organisation which adds content to the Internet. It allows users to register themselves, create PURLs and modify them, as the resource location changes. There are no charges associated with using this service. Anyone who is interested in providing persistent access to important information on the World Wide Web and who is willing to maintain the online links should consider the PURL Resolver Service. The ABN/Ozline Help Desk is happy to provide further information on this new service.
E-mail: networks @nla.gov.au; Homepage: http://purl.nla.gov.au/
Philip CalvertVictoria University of Wellington