where/how do you get the ID skill?

First, you have to train in "Arcane Lore" from the priest's guild and then, once the training in that is finally over and you've acquired the "Artifacts" skill, you have to train in that skill to increase your ability to identify.

When you go to that character's inventory screen and right-click on an item that is unidentified, you'll get an identify button on it's information box (the one that comes up when you right-click).

I've managed to aquire the Identify skill, (more through luck than knowledge) but can only identify certain items (none of which is a great help).
How can I increase the items that can be identified?

Also, ankh's, do they give a PERMANENT increase to the ability?

Thanks

you need to increase your artifact skill to identify more items.for ankh's i'm not sure but i think it's permanent

Ankhs do increase the approriate skill permanently. You must increase your identify skills by training in order to be able to identify items with magic traits. However you may not be able to reach a high enough level to identify certain items. My characters are quite highly trained
and there are still many items they can't identify.

Warlocks get arcane lore automaticaly, when you need rank 3 in priest guild (I guess mage guild too) to get chance to train artifacts.