A concrete example.

The MODS schema, version 3.3, has an info identifier, for SRU purposes:

info:srw/schema/1/mods-v3.3

So in an SRU request you can say"

recordSchema=info:srw/schema/1/mods-v3.3

Meaning you want records returned in the mods version 3.3 schema.  And 
that's really the purpose of the schema identifier. Both the client and 
server know the schema by this identifier  - or the server doesn't know it 
at all and the request fails - but nobody wants to resolve the identifier.

Now in contrast, the schema is at
http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-3.xsd

And it's also at:
http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3/mods-3-3.xsd

And also:
http://www.loc.gov/mods/mods.xsd

And:
http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/mods.xsd

And:
http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods.xsd



So there you have five http "identifiers" for the schema.

Which is the better identifier for this purpose? The single info identifer, 
or a choice http identifers, one for  every possible location where the 
schema may reside (which is more than these five).    If the answer is that 
it's better to use one of the http identifiers, how do you know that the one 
you pick is the one that the server recognizes it by?  Or should the server 
maintain a list of all possible locations?

--Ray


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ross Singer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 12:26 PM
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] resolution and identification (was Re: [CODE4LIB] 
registering info: uris?)


> On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 12:22 PM, Karen Coyle <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> But shouldn't we be able to know the difference between an identifier and 
>> a
>> locator? Isn't that the problem here? That you don't know which it is if 
>> it
>> starts with http://.
>
> But you do if it starts with http://dx.doi.org
>
> I still don't see the difference.  The same logic that would be
> required to parse and understand the info: uri scheme could be used to
> apply towards an http uri scheme.
>
> -Ross.