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To understand this FAQ you should first understand read this introduction to shoulders. Briefly, a shoulder is a sub-namespace under under a NAAN. In particular, it is the set all ARKs starting with This sub-namespace is identified by a short, fixed fixed alphanumeric extension to the NAAN. For example, in
the shoulder, /x5, extends the NAAN, 12345.
Why is there no "/" to mark the end of a shoulder?
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In fact, in-house ARK administrators always know where the shoulder ends, provided it was chosen using the "first-digit convention". A primordinal shoulder is a sequence of one or more betanumeric 187180637 letters ending in a digit. This means that the shoulder is all letters (often just one) after the NAAN up to and including the first digit encountered after the NAAN. Another advantage of primordinal shoulders is that there is an infinite number of them possible under any NAAN.
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There are different ways to implement a shoulder. Fundamentally, a shoulder is a deliberate practice based on a decision you make to assign ARKs that start with a particular extension to your NAAN. A shoulder Or a shoulder can then "emerge" while your practices consciously observe and incorporate that extension as a repeated prefix in ARKs that you assign. This sort of shoulder appears gradually instead of suddenly in one moment of creationdeliberate decision.
Having said that, there are two special cases where shoulder implementation does involve a kind of "creation" step. First, a system such as ezid.cdlib.org supports both the purely "decision-based" shoulders above (that emerge from user practice, eg, Smithsonian) as well as an administrative action that sets up a system-defined shoulder. The details depend on the system, for example, an "EZID shoulder" has accompanying minter service and registered API access point. By contrast, implementing a decision-based shoulder requires no explicit shoulder creation step, but does involve the creation of one or more ARKs that start with that shoulder.
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How do I request or make changes to a shoulder under a shared NAAN?
As mentioned, to implement a shoulder under your own NAAN requires no special request. To implement or change a shoulder under a shared NAAN requires filling out an online shoulder form. For security purposes requests are processed manually. Example reasons for a change may include
- notifying N2T of a change in your organization's contact person or resolver URL,
- updating your organization's name assignment policy (sample policy),
- requesting an additional shoulder, eg, to support a significant new body of ARKs or new organizational division, and
- transitioning your shoulder to another organization that will carry on your work and future use of your shoulder.
Like NAANs, shoulders under shared NAANs are portable. If your organization transitions into or out of a vendor relationship, there is no impediment to taking your shoulder with you.