Authority Source Resource

Authority Source Records are MARC21 or Unimarc Name Authority records that have been processed for improved uniformity. You can search for these records and use them in your application.

URLs and Supported Requests

Operation	Resource URL	HTTP METHOD
Read	http://viaf.org/processed/{Authority_Source_Code}|{Local_Authority_ID}	GET
SRU Search	http://viaf.org/processed/search/processed?query={CQL_Query}&maximumRecords=10&startRecord=1&sortKeys=holdingscount&httpAccept=text/xml	GET
SRU Browse	http://viaf.org/processed/search/processed?scanClause={CQL_Query}&responsePosition=10&maximumTerms=20	GET

Response Formats

Data Responses

The Authority Source endpoint allows a client to specify the response format either through content negotiation or by using a URL parameter.

Response Format	Content Negotiation mime type Use with HTTP accept header	httpAccept Parameter Values
HTML	*/* application/xhtml+xml text/html	text/html
XML	application/xml	text/xml

SRU Search and Browse Responses

Response Format	Content Negotiation mime type Use with HTTP accept header	httpAccept Parameter Values
HTML (default)	*/* application/xhtml+xml text/html	*/* application/xhtml+xml text/html
SRU XML	text/xml application/xml	text/xml application/xml

Reading Source Records

Source records are identified by the source authority and a local control number.

Authority Source Codes

Source Code	Authority
ALL	All source data within VIAF
BAV	Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
BNE	Biblioteca Nacional de España
BNF	Bibliothèque Nationale de France
DNB	Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
EGAXA	Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Egypt)
ICCU	Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico
JPG	Getty Research Institute
LC	Library of Congress/NACO
LAC	Library and Archives Canada
NKC	National Library of the Czech Republic
NLA	National Library of Australia
NLIara	National Library of Israel (Arabic)
NLIcyr	National Library of Israel (Cyrillic)
NLIheb	National Library of Israel (Hebrew)
NLIlat	National Library of Israel (Latin)
NUKAT	The National Union Catalog of Poland
PTBNP	Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal
SELIBR	National Library of Sweden
SWNL	Swiss National Library

SRU Searching and Browsing

Search Parameters

Parameter	Required?	Description	Expected/Sample Value
query	Yes	CQL query	query=local.personalName+all+%22austen%20jane%22
httpAccept	No	The accept type to return the results as. By default html is returned	application/xml
recordSchema	No	The record schema to return information in. By default VIAF XML is returned	VIAF XML - http://viaf.org/VIAFCluster MARCXML - info:srw/schema/1/marcxml-v1.1
maximumRecords	No	The number of records to return per page.	10
startRecord	No	The record to start with.	1
sortKey	No	The field to sort the results on	holdingscount

Browse Parameters

Parameter	Required?	Description	Expected/Sample Value
scanClause	Yes	CQL query	scanClause=local.personalName+exact+%22austen,%20jane%22
maximumTerms	No	The number of items per page to include in the response. Similar to the maximum records parameter in the search response.	maximumTerms=20
responsePosition	No	The value for this parameter will put the seed term (or closest match) at the specified position. For example, if the API request includes the following parameters: scanClause=local.personalName+%3D+"wittgenstein"&maximumTerms=20&responsePosition=10 the closest match to the personal name "wittgenstein" will be at position 10 response and there will be 10 terms preceeding it and 9 after it in the list of 20.	responsePosition=10

The Contextual Query Language (CQL) Indices

A list of possible indices to be used in Search and SRU Search requests. You can browse values for each search term by going to http://viaf.org/processed/search/processed, selecting the index term on the right side of the page, entering a term, and pressing the "Browse" button.

Note that search terms can be:

• = (one or more terms)
• exact (searchs the exact string, including any punctuation)
• any (for any of a list of terms)
• all (for all the listed terms)
• <
• >
• <=
• >=
• not

Index	Description	Expected/Sample Value(s)
local.authLink	Link to an authority record. This indexes the 998 |2 in the source records	local.authLink+exact+"NLP|a11563254"
local.bibLink	Link to a bib record. This indexes the 999 |2 in the source records	local.bibLink+exact+"NTABIB|333850041"
local.identifiers	identifier	local.identifiers+exact+"NLP|a11563254"
local.lccn	Library of Congress Number	local.lccn+exact+"nr2006027192"
local.personalName	Personal Names	local.personalName+all+%22jane austen%22
local.title	Titles	local.title+all+"magic flute"

Example URLs

Data Examples

Retrieve a single Authority Source record with the Source Control Number NTA|332786250 in XML format:

GET http://viaf.org/processed/NTA|332786250?httpAccept=text/xml

SRU Search Examples

Search for authority source records where the personal name contains all the terms "Jane Austen"

GET http://viaf.org/processed/search/processed?query=local.personalName+all+%22jane austen%22
&recordSchema=info%3Asrw%2Fschema%2F1%2Fbriefmarcxml-v1.1&httpAccept=text/xml

Search for authority source records where the title contains all the terms "Magic Flute"

GET http://www.viaf.org/processed/search/processed?query=local.title+all+%22magic%20flute%22
&recordSchema=info%3Asrw%2Fschema%2F1%2Fbriefmarcxml-v1.1&httpAccept=text/xml

Search for Authority Source records where the lccn is "nr2006027192"

GET http://www.viaf.org/processed/search/processed?query=local.lccn+exact+%22nr2006027192%22
&recordSchema=info%3Asrw%2Fschema%2F1%2Fbriefmarcxml-v1.1&httpAccept=text/xml

SRU Browse Examples

Browse for personal name "austen, jane"

GET http://viaf.org/processed/search/processed?operation=scan&scanClause=local.personalName+exact+%22austen,%20jane
%22&responsePosition=10&maximumTerms=20

Browse for title "magic flute"

GET http://viaf.org/processed/search/processed?operation=scan&scanClause=local.title+exact+%22magic%20flute%22
&responsePosition=10&maximumTerms=20

Browse for LCCN "nr2006-27192"

GET http://viaf.org/processed/search/processed?operation=scan&scanClause=local.lccn+exact+%22nr2006-27192%22
&responsePosition=10&maximumTerms=20

Notes

VIAF Self Documenting Features

The service itself describes the search parameters available for source records:

Documentation Endpoint	Description
viaf.org/processed/search/processed	Search/Retrieve via URL (SRU) search parameters for processed source records.