Archival Resource Keys (ARKs) are persistent identifiers that serve as stable, trusted references for information objects. Designed to be web addresses that never return 404 errors, ARKs allow long‑term access to digital, physical, and abstract resources, ensuring that scholars can reliably locate and cite material across time.

Since 2001, 15.3 billion ARKs have been issued by over 1700 organizations—libraries, archives, museums, publishers, and government agencies. The ARK Alliance, an open global community, supports the infrastructure and offers researchers a free, decentralized system that can be started in under 48 hours.

ARKs are similar to DOIs, URNs, and Handles: all were introduced more than 25 years ago and require active URL redirects. But ARKs are cheaper, more flexible, and less centralized, letting you create unlimited identifiers, add any metadata, and link directly to content via suffix passthrough.

To begin creating ARKs, submit a request form for your organization or join a working group in the ARK Alliance. For example, the 1401 manuscript page illuminated by Johannette Ravenelle carries an ARK: https://n2t.net/ark:12148/btv1b8449691v/f29.