While the MARS system uses handles to give a persistent address to items in the collection, it is also possible to build a URL that goes directly to the bitstream of interest. Using this method you lose the features of the handle (finding an item even if the physical server changes) but you do get right to the object you’re trying to view/read/hear etc.
This handle takes you to a record detailing a photograph of the original deed for George Mason University’s Fairfax campus:
http://hdl.handle.net/1920/198
To link directly to the photograph, you’d use this URL:
http://u2.gmu.edu:8080/dspace/bitstream/1920/198/1/40th_12.jpg
Notice the 2nd entry uses the server’s real name…and you have to know to put bitstream in the URL and you have to know the handle value (198) and which bitstream we’re talking about (both by number (1 in this case) and filename (40th_12.jpg).
I imagine this would be used for people who want to link into MARS for a specific bitstream but don’t want to bother their reader with the intervening stop at the MARS system that merely using a handle would require. Handles resolve to the item record in the database–then you must select the bitstream you’re interested in examining.