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OCLC Research : Projects : Virtual International Authority File

VIAF: The Virtual International Authority File

A joint project with the Library of Congress, the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, VIAF explores virtually combining the name authority files of all three institutions into a single name authority service.

The prototype system is available at http://viaf.org/.

About

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, the Library of Congress, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and OCLC are jointly conducting a project to match and link the authority records for personal names in the retrospective personal name authority files of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (dnb), the Library of Congress (LC), and the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF).

Why OCLC is conducting this research and how it helps libraries

  • OCLC has proven software for matching and linking authority records for personal names.
  • That software will be used to match the authority records from The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek and the Bibliothèque nationale de France to the corresponding authority records from the Library of Congress.
  • Once the existing authority records are linked, shared OAI servers will be established to maintain the authority files and to provide user access to the files.
    • Users then will be able to see names displayed in the most appropriate language.
      • For example, German users will be able to see a name displayed in the form established by the dnb, while
      • French users will see the same name as established by the BnF, and
      • American users will view the name as established by LC.
      • Users in either country will be able to view name records as established by the other nation, thus making the authorities truly international and facilitating research across languages anywhere in the world.

Presentation

Virtual International Authority File (PPT:325K/25 slides). ALA Annual Conference, 24 June 2006, New Orleans, Louisiana (USA)

Prototype

The prototype system is available at http://viaf.org/.

Research team