Virtual International Authority File

An IntroductionCason Snow2 DEC 2009

What if VIAF

• VIAF is a joint project of national libraries implemented by OCLC.

• Begun by OCLC, Library of congress, Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

Who is VIAF

• OCLC is implementing this project.– Conducting research– Performing authority control– Providing infrastructure

Who is VIAF• Participating national

libraries include– Australia– Czech Republic– Egypt– France– Germany– Israel– Italy– Portugal– Spain– Sweden– United States– Vatican City

• Participating libraries include– Getty Research Institute

Who is VIAF

• Poland and Switzerland are being tested• OCLC is in negotiations with– Canada– Japan– Russia

• Finland may participate in the future• Other European nations lack required

authority files

How does VIAF work

• The primary goal of VIAF is to provide universal bibliographic control by linking name authority files from across multiple data sets.

• Currently VIAF is working with personal names in Romanized scripts, with a strong focus on Europe.

How does VIAF work

• All of the names in authority file are compiled and then sent through matching process.

• Strong matches include– Work in common– Control numbers in authority record (LCCN)– Exact bibliographic dates (birth and death)– Joint authors– Name as subject heading

• Cannot match simply name or name and one date

How does VIAF work

• Matching variations– Same name, same person– Same name, different people– Different names, same person

• Dates provide one of the strongest matches but they are not present in some national authority files, e.g. Spain

How does VIAF work

How does VIAF work

How does VIAF work

How does VIAF work

How does VIAF work

• Individual heading links to national authority record

Future plans for VIAF

• Non European languages– Have a small set with Israeli records– First start with Romanized then move to non

Romanized• Integrate with International Standard Name

Identifier (ISO 27729)• Incorporate additional national and regional

authority files• Add other authority types, e.g. geographical

Why have VIAF

• VIAF seeks to provide consistent guidelines for the control of name authority records

• Does not impose one form of the name, it provides suggested form, based on primary language of the cataloger

Further Information on VIAF

• VIAF website: www.viaf.org• OCLC’s VIAF webpage:

VIAF (Virtual International Authority File)