Workbook on Digital Private Papers > Administrative and preservation metadata > Persistent identifiers
Persistent identifiers
Adding persistent identifiers: when to identify?
Adding traditional identifiers, such as reference codes or shelfmarks
It is useful to retain traditional identifiers (such as shelfmarks or archival reference codes) as well as persistent identifiers. PIDs will allow the repository to manage the identity of objects and metadata in a digital environment from the moment an archive is ingested, while shelfmarks can be allocated to digital and analogue items when the archive is being catalogued. The continued use of shelfmarks for digital records in addition to persistent identifiers allows:
- The integration of analogue and digital materials in hybrid collections in a single catalogue.
- The use of familiar references for staff and researchers.
- Some meaning, logic or structure to be incorporated into an identifier.
- The retention of context and provenance.
- The ability to retain one shelfmark for the object which can have several representations.
Shelfmarks or archival reference codes should themselves be persistent and unique, in accordance with ISAD(G)2.
