The Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) is an international authority file. It is a joint project of several national libraries, operated by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC).
History
Discussions about having a joint international authority started in the late 1990s. After several failed attempts to develop a unique joint authority file, the new idea was to link existing national authorities. This would present all the benefits of a standard file without requiring a significant investment of time and expense in the process.
The project was initiated by the American Library of Congress (LC), the German National Library (DNB), and the OCLC in April 1998 as a proof-of-concept that authority records can be linked. After extensive testing, the VIAF consortium was formed at the 2003 World Library and Information Congress, hosted by the International Federation of Library Associations. on 6 August 2003, and by September it had its own page at the OCLC website. The (BnF) joined the project on 5 October 2007.
The project transitioned to being a service of OCLC on 4 April 2012.
The aim is to link the national authority files (such as the German Integrated Authority File) to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together. A VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary "see" and "see also" records from the original documents, and refers to the original authority records. The data is made available online and is available for research and, data exchange and sharing. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) protocol.
The file numbers are also being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata.
Christine L. Borgman groups VIAF with the International Standard Name Identifier and ORCID systems, describing all three as "loosely coordinated efforts to standardize name forms". Borgman characterizes all three systems as attempts to solve the problem of author name disambiguation, which has grown in scale as the quantity of data multiplies. She notes that VIAF, unlike the other two systems, is led by libraries, as opposed to individual authors or creators.
VIAF clusters VIAF's clustering algorithm is run every month. As more data are added from participating libraries, clusters of authority records may coalesce or split, leading to some fluctuation in the VIAF identifier of certain authority records.
Participating libraries and organizations English Wikipedia entry nameIdentifierNative-language nameLocationCountry/RegionNational Library of Argentina ARBABNBuenos Aires ArgentinaBibliotheca Alexandrina EGAXAAlexandria EgyptBiblioteca Nacional de Chile BNCHLSantiago ChileBiblioteca Nacional de España BNEMadrid SpainBiblioteca Nacional de Portugal PTBNPLisbon PortugalBibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec B2QQuebec CanadaBibliothèque nationale de France BnFParis FranceNational Library of Greece ΕΒΕAthens GreeceBibliothèque Nationale du Royaume du Maroc (BNRM) MRBNRRabat MoroccoBiografisch Portaal BPNThe Hague NetherlandsBritish Library –London EnglandDanish Agency for Culture and Palaces Copenhagen DenmarkDanish Bibliographic Centre DBCBallerup DenmarkGerman National Library (DNB) GND Frankfurt GermanyInternational Standard Name Identifier ISNI –London United KingdomIsrael MuseumJerusalem IsraelIstituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico ICCUSBNRome ItalyLebanese National Library LNLBeirut LebanonLibrary and Archives Canada LACOttawa, Ontario CanadaLibrary of CongressNACO consortium (Name Authority Cooperative Program) LCCN –Washington, D.C. United StatesNational and University Library in Zagreb NSKZagreb CroatiaNational and University Library of SloveniaLjubljana SloveniaNational Central Library NCLCYTTaipei TaiwanNational Diet Library NDLTokyoKyoto JapanNational Institute of Informatics NIICiNiiTokyo JapanNational Library Board NLB – – SingaporeNational Library of Australia NLA –Canberra AustraliaNational Library of Brazil BLBNB Rio de Janeiro BrazilNational Library of Catalonia BNCBarcelona SpainNational Library of Estonia ERRRTallinn EstoniaNational and University Library of Iceland (NULI) UIYReykjavík IcelandNational Library of Ireland N6IDublin IrelandNational Library of Israel NLI (deprecated)J9UJerusalem IsraelNational Library of Korea KRNLKSeoul KoreaNational Library of Latvia LNBRiga LatviaNational Library of Luxembourg BNLLuxembourg City LuxembourgNational Library of Mexico BNMMexico City MexicoNational Library of the Netherlands NTAThe Hague NetherlandsNational Library of New Zealand –Wellington New ZealandNational Library of Norway BIBSYSW2ZTrondheim NorwayNational Library of Poland NLPWarsaw PolandNational Library of Russia NLRSaint Petersburg RussiaNational Library of ScotlandEdinburgh ScotlandNational Library of South AfricaCape TownPretoria South AfricaNational Library of Sweden SELIBRStockholm SwedenNational Library of WalesAberystwyth WalesNational Library of the Czech Republic NKCPrague Czech RepublicNational Széchényi Library NSZLBudapest HungaryPerseus Project PERSEUS –Medford, Massachusetts United StatesRERO (Library Network of Western Switzerland) REROMartigny SwitzerlandRépertoire International des Sources Musicales RISM –Frankfurt GermanySystème universitaire de documentation SUDOC – FranceSyriac Reference Portal SRP –Nashville, Tennessee United StatesSwiss National Library SWNLBern Switzerland NUKAT – PolandUnion List of Artist Names – Getty Research Institute ULANJPG –Los Angeles, California United StatesUnited States National Agricultural Library NALT –Beltsville, MarylandUnited StatesUnited States National Library of Medicine –Bethesda, Maryland United StatesVatican Library BAV – Vatican CityCultuurconnect ( and LOCUS)Brussels BelgiumWikidata WKP –Berlin, Germany International
Libraries added for testing purposes English Wikipedia entry nameIdentifierNative-language nameLocationCountryLithuanian National Library LIH Vilnius LithuaniaNational and University Library of Slovenia / COBISS SIMACOB Ljubljana Slovenia
See also Authority control Faceted Application of Subject Terminology (FAST) Integrated Authority File (GND) International Standard Authority Data Number (ISADN) International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) Wikipedia's authority control template for articles
References
Sources
External links
VIAF at OCLC