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Sustaining the ARK Ecosystem

July 9, 2025 Author: John ChodackiCategories:

Since their inception, CDL has been home to the ARK (Archival Resource Key) community. ARKs were originally developed at CDL to support persistent access and durable citation of information objects. From the early release of the Noid software in 2004 to the launch of the Name-to-Thing (N2T) resolver and global registry, we’ve remained committed to making persistent identifiers accessible, open, and usable for the long term.

In June 2022, with the retirement of longtime ARK steward John Kunze, we had the opportunity to revisit the core infrastructure that supports the ARK ecosystem. Our team at the University of California Curation Center (UC3), working in collaboration with Dave Vieglais, the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), and ARK community partners, has since undertaken a top-to-bottom refactoring of the entire ARK technical stack. This includes major improvements to ensure the stability, maintainability, and performance of:

  • – the N2T resolver,
  • – the ARK resolution layer,
  • – the arks.org website, and
  • – workflows that support Name Assigning Authority Number (NAAN) registry curation.

These are not just technical upgrades; they are deep investments in the sustainability and future of the ARK community, made possible by CDL’s dedicated staff and our long-term commitment to UC3’s Persistent Identifier portfolio, led by Adam Buttrick.

Today, ARKs are used in more than 70 countries by libraries, archives, museums, data centers, publishers, and government agencies. What began as a local solution is now part of the global PID infrastructure landscape. The ARK Alliance, launched in 2018 as an ARK user group, continues to grow and mature, supported by the foundation that CDL helped build and continues to maintain.

CDL is proud to be part of this community and remains committed to advancing persistent, open, and durable infrastructure. We invite you to join us in supporting the next generation of ARK services.

Learn more at arks.org or n2t.net or reach out to uc3@ucop.edu