A command line tool to mint and validate ARKs

This program generate pseudo-random ARK identifiers.

Installation

To install this software locally, set up a virtual environment and use pip to install dependencies:

$ python3 -m venv venv
$ source venv/bin/activate
$ pip install -r requirements.txt

Mint

To mint a new identifier:

python ark_minter.py

Please note that this program does not check for collisions. You should confirm that there were no collisions before publishing these ARKs. This program also does not store ARKs in any database, so please be sure to do that separately.

Validation

To validate an existing ARK:

python ark_minter.py ark:61001/b2db20724g7b

The validator will report True or False for the given ARK.

Testing this code

python test.py

A unit test for this program includes a set of ARKs that John Kunze verified independently on February 9, 2022.

About UChicago Library ARKs

UChicago Library ARKs follow this pattern:

ark:61001/b2.reedeedeedk

In the above string-

• "ark:" is the ARK label,
• "61001" is the Name Assigning Authority Number (NAAN)
• "b2" is a shoulder- literal characters we want each ARK to start with.
• "r" means that we generate ARKs randomly.
• "e" is an extended digit. (see https://metacpan.org/dist/Noid/view/noid#NOID-CHECK-DIGIT-ALGORITHM)
• "d" is a digit.
• "k" is a check digit.

For more information on NOIDs, see https://metacpan.org/dist/Noid.