[Digir-dev] Question on DiGIR Darwin Core and uniqueness of Catalog Numbers

[Donald H. <dh...@gb...>]

I'd like to find out how different projects have viewed CatalogNumbers.
I had assumed that CatalogNumbers should be unique within any DiGIR
resource and hence that the CatalogNumber should serve as a unique key
to retrieve the record again from that resource.

 

I have just found a provider which is reusing the same CatalogNumber for
different records but with a different CollectionCode for each.  Looking
at the DwC documentation this seems valid.  Indeed it would seem to be
valid to have records sharing the same CollectionCode and CatalogNumber
provided that they have different InstitutionCode values.  Should
clients of DiGIR resources always provide all three of these concepts
when they issue a search request for a given record?  Or is there an
unwritten assumption that CatalogNumbers should be unique on their own?

 

Many thanks for your thoughts,

 

Donald

 

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Donald Hobern (dh...@gb...)

Programme Officer for Data Access and Database Interoperability 

Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat 

Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark

Tel: +45-35321483   Mobile: +45-28751483   Fax: +45-35321480

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