EZID Introduces Link Checking

The EZID team is happy to announce the introduction of link checking. EZID now checks the location URLs (links) of all identifiers to see if any are broken.

Here are the details:

• EZID runs a harvester that continuously checks links. Links are checked monthly, though for accounts with hundreds of thousands or millions of identifiers, links are checked only once every 3 to 4 months.
• If a link doesn’t load normally, EZID keeps trying for 2 weeks, and only then is it considered broken.
• Identifiers with broken links are listed in the EZID user interface, on the Dashboard page, under Identifier Issues.
• And, every month, an Excel-compatible CSV file listing all broken links is emailed to the contact email address for the account. The first such monthly email will go out the first week of November.

The harvester only checks identifiers that are public, so if identifiers show up on a broken links report that you no longer intend to maintain (for whatever reason), then change their status to “unavailable.” You can also update the contact email address on the Account Settings screen.

Keeping the long-term identifier links active is the key to maintaining their persistence, so we believe this new service will help EZID clients keep track of their inventory of identifiers and links.