John et al.,<div><br></div><div>You might be interested in a special issue of the NISO newsletter that reviews various efforts towards organization and people identifiers, including such standards efforts as ISNI and ORCD. </div>
<div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.niso.org/publications/isq/2011/v23no3/">http://www.niso.org/publications/isq/2011/v23no3/</a></div><div><br></div><div>Matt<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 1:44 PM, John Wieczorek <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:tuco@berkeley.edu" target="_blank">tuco@berkeley.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Hi Aaike,<br>
<br>
The institutionID is definitely meant to be a GUID, and as such would<br>
not likely be of much use within an institutional database, where the<br>
institutionID would likely be the same for every record. Instead, it<br>
is meant to identify an institution in a persistent, hopefully<br>
resolvable way, where resolution would be able to give more<br>
information about the identified institution.<br>
<br>
Identifiers for institutions do exist. An example is<br>
urn:lsid:biocol.org:col:34777, the institutionID in the Biodiversity<br>
Collections Index for the University of California Berkeley Museum of<br>
Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ), within which there are several collections,<br>
each with its distinct collectionID, such as<br>
urn:lsid:biocol.org:col:34818 for the Herpetology Collection at the<br>
MVZ.<br>
<br>
The IDs are useful to provide the possibility of a link to other<br>
information that may not be shared in original record. They are also<br>
useful to distinguish the institutions and collections from each<br>
other. For example, MVZ is the acronym used for the Institution as a<br>
whole where the collections are housed, and it is also used<br>
independently by each of the collections when specimens are cited in<br>
literature. In other words, the institutionCode (MVZ) is not distinct<br>
from the collectionCodes (MVZ), and the collectionCodes within the<br>
institution are not unique (all MVZ). The IDs are meant to overcome<br>
this and other problems of reference and uniqueness.<br>
<br>
I hope that helps,<br>
<br>
John<br>
<br>
On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 7:03 AM, Aaike De Wever<br>
<<a href="mailto:aaike.dewever@naturalsciences.be">aaike.dewever@naturalsciences.be</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
> Dear all,<br>
><br>
> While composing a template and recommendations for the Darwin Core fields<br>
> to supply for the BioFresh project<br>
> <<a href="http://www.freshwaterbiodiversity.eu/" target="_blank">http://www.freshwaterbiodiversity.eu/</a>>, similar to what Peter Desmet did<br>
> for herbaria in Apple Core <<a href="http://code.google.com/p/applecore/" target="_blank">http://code.google.com/p/applecore/</a>>, I came<br>
> across a number of terms which I haven't yet completely understood and<br>
> hope to get some feedback on from this community.<br>
><br>
> Two of these terms are:<br>
><br>
> InstitutionCode - InstitutionID<br>
> <a href="http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/institutionCode" target="_blank">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/institutionCode</a> -<br>
> <a href="http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/institutionID" target="_blank">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/institutionID</a><br>
><br>
> The name (or acronym) in use by the institution having custody of the<br>
> object(s) or information referred to in the record. / An identifier for<br>
> the institution having custody of the object(s) or information referred to<br>
> in the record.<br>
><br>
> I guess that the latter term is supposed to be a DOI/GUID for the<br>
> institute, but am wondering if there is such a thing or whether this field<br>
> is rather for internal database purposes?<br>
><br>
> Any advise would be appreciated!<br>
><br>
> With best regards,<br>
> --<br>
> Aaike De Wever<br>
> BioFresh Science Officer<br>
> Freshwater Laboratory, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences<br>
> Vautierstraat 29, 1000 Brussels<br>
> Belgium<br>
> tel.: <a href="tel:%2B32%280%292%20627%2043%2090" value="+3226274390">+32(0)2 627 43 90</a><br>
> mobile.: <a href="tel:%2B32%280%29486%2028%2005%2093" value="+32486280593">+32(0)486 28 05 93</a><br>
> email: <<a href="mailto:aaike.dewever@naturalsciences.be">aaike.dewever@naturalsciences.be</a>><br>
> skype: aaikew<br>
> AIM: <a href="mailto:aaike@mac.com">aaike@mac.com</a><br>
> LinkedIn: <<a href="http://be.linkedin.com/in/aaikedewever" target="_blank">http://be.linkedin.com/in/aaikedewever</a>><br>
> BioFresh: <<a href="http://www.freshwaterbiodiversity.eu/" target="_blank">http://www.freshwaterbiodiversity.eu/</a>> and<br>
> <<a href="http://data.freshwaterbiodiversity.eu/" target="_blank">http://data.freshwaterbiodiversity.eu/</a>><br>
> Belgian Biodiversity Platform: <<a href="http://www.biodiversity.be" target="_blank">http://www.biodiversity.be</a>><br>
><br>
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