Towards Identity Conditions for Digital Documents

By "identity conditions" we mean a method for determining whether an object x and an object y are the same object. Identity conditions are arguably an essential feature of any rigorously developed conceptual framework for information modeling. Surprisingly, the concept of same document, which is fundamental to many aspects of library and information science, and to digital libraries in particular, has received little systematic analysis. As a result, not only is the concept of a document itself under-theorized, but progress on a number of important practical problems has been hindered. We review the importance of document identity conditions, demonstrate problems with current approaches, and discuss the general form a solution must take.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe