Persistent URLs for Legislation

The Library of Congress website THOMAS, which provides information about U.S. legislation, has established a system of persistent URLs for legislative documents. This means that hyperlinks using this format will always (i.e. for the foreseeable future) take a reader to the desired document, regardless of any server changes that might have occurred since the link was created.

The persistent link is created by following a syntax that assembles a document’s URI. (A “uniform resource identifier” is a unique string of characters that is used to identify a particular resource on the internet; a URL — “uniform resource locator” — is like the address for that resource; a URL may change but the URI should remain constant.) The THOMAS system “resolves” this URI, finding the current URL for it and directing the reader’s browser to it.

This is something that should be copied here in Canada, and CanLII is just the organization to do it. At the moment it’s often possible to construct a CanLII URL for a given piece of legislation: for example, the Saskatchewan Heritage Property Act (S.S. 1979-80, c. H-2.2) resolves to http://www.canlii.org/sk/laws/sta/h-2.2/index.html (the user must then click on the link to the current version to obtain the actual statute). But of course this isn’t a necessary URI for the act. CanLII would have to establish a system whereby a URI was created and a URL resolver developed to ensure that any URL that once pointed to that URI would always point to that URI.

Moreover, CanLII would have to have better cooperation from the various jurisdictions than it now has in order to make this possible, and more funds to elaborate its services. Saskatchewan, for instance, only makes available in html form an entire act, and doesn’t provide anchors allowing links to the various sections of a statute. Worse, British Columbia has chosen to restrict publication of its regularly updated online legislation to its own subscription service QPLegalEze.

[via Law Librarian Blog]