Towards a European global resolver service of persistent identifiers

In this paper we present the Italian initiative that involves relevant research institutions and national libraries, aimed at implementing an NBN Persistent Identifiers (PI) infrastructure based on a novel hardware/software architecture. This solution can be the base infrastructure towards the implementation of the European Global Resolver Service of PI. The proposal is about a distributed and hierarchical approach for the management of an NBN namespace and illustrates assignment policies and identifier resolution strategies based on request forwarding mechanisms. Starting from the core motivations for the assignment of "persistent identifiers" to digital objects, this paper outlines a state of art in PI technologies, standards and initiatives, and illustrates other NBN implementations. The structure and goals of our initiative are described as well as the features already implemented in our system and the results of our testing activities. The paper ends with a proposal for the extension of this approach to the EU scenario