Virtual International Authority File

The Virtual International Authority File ( VIAF ) is a virtual international authority file for personal data. It is a joint project of several national libraries and library networks, which is operated by the Online Computer Library Center ( OCLC ). The project was initiated jointly by the German National Library and the Library of Congress.

Content and objectives

The goal of the VIAF is the linking of national authority files ( such as cared for by the German National Library common authority file ) to a uniform global virtual authority file. The data sets of 25 standard files are merged and linked identical records in a concordance file. The data are offered online and are available for research, data exchange and data sharing are available. To update the data sets the Protocol for Metadata Harvesting of the Open Archives Initiative ( OAI -PMH ) is being used. Once a month there is a pattern matching ( " pattern matching " ), will be merged with the new data with the existing ones.

For referencing a VIAF record gets its own standard data number as an identifier, stating a form as a Uniform Resource Identifier for Linked Data applications. It contains references to the merged records of the participating standard files and their fixtures.

Participating Libraries

In the project the following libraries or library consortia take part (as of September 2013):

  • Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt
  • National Library of Australia, Australia
  • Open VLACC, Belgium
  • Dansk BiblioteksCenter ( DBC ), Denmark
  • German National Library, Germany
  • Bibliothèque nationale de France, France
  • Système universitaire de documentation, France
  • The National Library of Israel, Israel
  • Central Institute Catalogo Unico, Italy
  • National Parliamentary Library, Japan
  • Library and Archives Canada, Canada
  • National Library of Latvia, Latvia
  • BIBSYS, Norway
  • Biblioteka Narodowa, Poland
  • Narodowy Uniwersalny catalog ( NUKAT ), Poland
  • Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Portugal
  • Royal Library in Stockholm, Sweden
  • Swiss National Library, Switzerland
  • RERO, Switzerland
  • Biblioteca Nacional de España, Spain
  • Biblioteca de Catalunya, Spain
  • National Library of the Czech Republic, Czech Republic
  • Széchenyi National Library, Hungary
  • Getty Research Institute, USA
  • Library of Congress, USA
  • Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican

The following institutions participate as a test:

  • National and University Library in Zagreb, Croatia
  • Royal Library of the Netherlands, Netherlands
  • Lebanese National Library, Lebanon
  • Russian State Library, Russia
  • National Library Board, Singapore
  • Perseus Project, United States
  • Syriac Reference Portal
  • International Standard Name Identifier
802913
de