Hi all, (cross-posted to purl-dev)

I'm a documents librarian (and member of the Depository Library Council) 
and usually just a lurker over here. Thanks Keith and Patricia for the 
easy workaround. I shared this with govdoc-l and on my blog:

http://freegovinfo.info/node/2704

See especially the comment that as of today, only 3,677 PURLs out of 
116,237 have been restored (3.1%). I would love to hear your 
thoughts/ideas for how this kind of critical system failure can be 
averted in the future from a technological standpoint. Is it possible to 
mirror a purl server? Will the same issue occur when GPO moves to 
handles in FDsys (http://www.handle.net/)? Will a distributed 
infrastructure as I've briefly mapped out be able to handle these types 
of critical system crashes better?

Please let me know and I'd be happy to share your ideas with GPO and the 
documents community.

Best,

James Jacobs




Keith Jenkins wrote:
> Thanks to everyone who helped me confirm that the GPO PURL server is
> down.  An official announcement on the GPO Listserv said:
>    "The PURL Server is currently inaccessible. GPO is working with IT
> staff to restore service as soon as possible. We regret any
> inconvenience caused by the server problems. An updated listserv will
> be sent once service is restored."
>
> While the server is down, here is one workaround (thanks to Patricia Duplantis):
>    1. Go to http://catalog.gpo.gov/
>    2. Click "Advanced Search"
>    3. Search for word in "URL/PURL", enter the PURL
>    4. Click "Go"
>    5. The original URL at the time of cataloging should appear in a 53x note.
>
> This incident, however, illuminates a weakness in PURL systems: access
> is broken when the PURL server breaks, even though the documents are
> still online at their original URLs.
>
> Maybe someone more familiar with PURL systems can tell me... is there
> any way to harvest data from a PURL server, so that a backup/mirror
> can be available?
>
> Keith

-- 
James R. Jacobs
International Documents Librarian
Green Library, Stanford University
P: (650) 725-1030 E: [log in to unmask]
AIM: LibrarianJames T: @freegovinfo

The more beautiful questions demand the more beautiful answers,
and if we can learn to ask them, we stand a chance of steering
clear of shipwreck on our jury-rigged and not so distant star.
--Lewis Lapham, Lapham's Quarterly I(3), Summer, 2008, p.17.

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