A graph database for persistent identifiers

Abstract

The Handle Software manages references to resources of information. However, it does not support a search functionality. A prior implementation with Elasticsearch could not efficiently capture the complex structure of our dataset, especially the relationships between handles. In this paper, we apply a graph database together with Elasticsearch to provide more search capabilities to users. In addition, the graph can efficiently store meta-data provided during handle creation. Further use cases for this graph include redundancy detection (two or more handles pointing to the same URL), or bibliographic network analysis.