This document specifies:

—     How to uniquely identify Digital Items (and parts thereof);

—     How to uniquely identify IP related to the Digital Items (and parts thereof), for example abstractions;

—     How to express the relationship between the two above identifiers;

—     How to deal with varying levels of functional granularity for Digital Item identifiers;

—     How to uniquely identify description schemes;

—     The relationship between Digital Items (and parts thereof) and existing identification systems. Annex C contains a list of relevant identification systems. This is not an exhaustive list and is subject to change over time;

—     How to express the relationship between two Digital Items.

This document does not specify:

—     New identification systems for the content elements for which identification and description schemes already exist and are in use (e.g. this document does not attempt to replace the ISRC, as defined in ISO 3901, for sound recordings);

—     Normative description schemes for describing content.