Re: [dxwg] Clarify the scope of `dct:identifier` (#771)

I, too, have struggled with dct:identifer in the RDF context. dct:identifier predates DC terms in RDF, and was developed in a time when one created records that described a resource and gave a publicly visible identifier to the _resource_ being described. So a record for a book would have the ISBN as an identifier. I don't recall any solution for providing the identifier for the metadata record itself, which was generally considered to be an internal number and not identifying of the resource. In any case, DC terms doesn't define a record format and therefore doesn't define a record identifier. 

In RDF, there are no records, and _all_ resources have identifiers, and everything is a resource. But I see the IRI of the object of dcat:record as the identifier of the catalog record. It looks to me like this is a blank node unless one mints actual IRIs for them. A dct:identifier wouldn't be needed to identify the catalog record because it already has one by virtue of existing as an RDF "thing", but if there is a known, public identifier, then dct:identifier could be used. 

I'll check with Tom Baker over the weekend to see if he has a better response to this, but I think what I've given is correct.

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Received on Thursday, 21 February 2019 16:27:55 UTC