Yep,using a globally unique identifier like an ARK is better than my 
/records/12345 example,that's a better way to do it for sure.

So in that example, 
http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth60974/   is what you 
access, http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth60974/ is what 
you see in your browser location bar, and they can switch software 
systems all they want, as long as the new system lives at 
http://digital.library.unt.edu, and can take an ARK and give you your 
think -- without a redirect.

[One way to do that on top of a system that doens't otherwise care about 
it would be to use apache reverse proxy -- so long as the system has 
SOME url template with a slot for an ARK.  Although the system has to 
care enough to _generate_ the right URLs in links too, I guess, but that 
sometimes just requiers changing at a view/template layer, that may be 
easier to change than the actual controller/URL parsing/handling layer. ].


On 1/26/2011 5:27 PM, Kevin S. Clarke wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 5:11 PM, Jonathan Rochkind<[log in to unmask]>  wrote:
>> Seems like your link abstraction layer should be baked into your system, so
>> the URL your users see in the location bar IS the one that your link
>> abstraction layer is handling and you are committing to persisting.
> Which I think is what UNT does(?)  An example of how to do it?
>
> http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth60974/
>
> Kevin