DOI: an instrument for building the digital library

Abstract

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is born to address to the needs of publishers in the context of digital documents and of the distribution via Internet of works protected by copyright. The syntax of DOI is quite simple; one of the most important characteristics is to be a "dump number".
The initial proposal sorts from the Association of American Publishers in 1996. DOI came as a common base that allows to connect among different identification systems, like ISBN, ISSN, PII, SICI ect. With notable emphasis the fact is stressed that AAP did not intend to deal with DOI and with the DOI system but a specific foundation, born in 1998, the International DOI Foundation. The discussion about it was developed in particular between 1997 and 2002, when the infrastructure was built that served to manage and to promote the DOI. Several interventions specified the characteristics and the role of DOI. It was decided to use the <indecs> framework to describe the set of the metadata elements connect with DOI. Norman Paskin, director of IDF, emerges as referring officer of DOI. In the beginnig resolution was "one to one", but DOI requests a resolution "one to many". The change was done when the agency CrossRef started to offer its services to a wider public. This passage facilitates further developments, such as the integration of the standard OpenURL.
It is suggested that a possible competor for the DOI will be the OAI identifier. However it is less robust than the DOI. The future developments of the situation will depend from the quality of related services and from the proliferation of open archives.