Virtual International Authority File

Virtual International Authority File

Screenshot 2012
Acronym VIAF
Managing organisation Online Computer Library Center
Example https://viaf.org/viaf/70042340
Website viaf.org

The Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) is an international authority file. It is a joint project of several national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC).[1][2] The project was initiated by the German National Library and the US Library of Congress.

The aim is to link the national authority files (such as the German Name 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 records, and refers to the original authority records. The data are made available online and are available for research and data exchange and sharing. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative protocol.

The file numbers are also being added to Wikipedia biographical articles.[3]

Participating libraries

English-language name Native-language name (if non-English) Location Country
Bibnet : Flemish Public Libraries (VLACC: Flemish Central Catalogue) VLACC: Vlaamse Centrale Catalogus Brussels Belgium
BIBSYS: National Library of Norway BIBSYS: Nasjonalbiblioteket Trondheim Norway
Central Institute for the Union Catalogue of Italian Libraries and Bibliographic Information Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico Rome Italy
German National Library Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt Germany
Getty Research Institute – Los Angeles, California United States
Library and Archives Canada Bibliothèque et Archives Canada Ottawa, Ontario Canada
Library of Alexandria Bibliotheca Alexandrina Alexandria Egypt
Library of Congress (NACO consortium) – Washington, D.C. United States
National Diet Library 国立国会図書館 Tokyo and Kyoto Japan
National Library of Australia – Canberra Australia
National Library of France Bibliothèque nationale de France Paris France
National Library of Israel הספרייה הלאומית Jerusalem Israel
National Library of Portugal Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal Lisbon Portugal
National Library of Spain Biblioteca Nacional de España Madrid Spain
National Library of Sweden Kungliga Biblioteket Stockholm Sweden
National Library of the Czech Republic Národní knihovna České republiky Prague Czech Republic
National Széchényi Library Országos Széchényi Könyvtár Budapest Hungary
RERO (library network) : Library Network of Western Switzerland Réseau des bibliothèques de Suisse occidentale, Rete delle bibliotheche della Svizzera occidentale or Westschweizer Bibliothekverbund Martigny Switzerland
French university library consortium Système universitaire de documentation – France
Swiss National Library Schweizerische Nationalbibliothek, Bibliothèque nationale suisse, Biblioteca nazionale svizzera, Berne Switzerland
NUKAT : Union Catalogue of Polish Research Libraries NUKAT: katalog zbiorów polskich bibliotek naukowych – Poland
Vatican Library Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana – Vatican City

Libraries added for testing purposes

English-language name Native-language name (if non-English) Location Country
ISNI – London United Kingdom
National Library Board Singapore – – Singapore
National Library of the Netherlands Koninklijke Bibliotheek The Hague The Netherlands
Russian State Library Российская государственная библиотека Moscow Russia

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kelley, Michael; Schwartz, Meredith (2012). "VIAF service transitions to OCLC". Library Journal (Media Source) 137 (8): 16.
  2. ↑ VIAF, OCLC.
  3. ↑ VIAFbot Edits 250,000 Wikipedia Articles to Reciprocate All Links from VIAF into Wikipedia, OCLC, 2012-12-07

External links

Wikidata has a property, P214, for VIAF (see uses)