Virtual International Authority File
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2012) |
Screenshot  Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) | |
Type of site | Web search engine, online public access catalog |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | OCLC |
| Created by | Joint project of four library organizations |
| URL | VIAF.org |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | No |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| BIBSYS | BIBSYS | 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 of Western Switzerland | Réseau des bibliothèques de Suisse occidentale or Westschweizer Bibliothekverbund | Switzerland | |
| French university library consortium | Système universitaire de documentation | France | |
| Swiss National Library | Schweizerische Nationalbibliothek, Bibliothèque nationale suisse, Biblioteca nazionale svizzera, Rete delle bibliotheche della Svizzera occidentale | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| BIBNET: Flemish Public Libraries | Brussels | Belgium | |
| Russian State Library | Российская государственная библиотека | Moscow | Russia |
| BIBSYS | Norway |
See also
References
- ^ Kelley, Michael; Schwartz, Meredith (2012). "VIAF service transitions to OCLC". Library Journal. 137 (8). Media Source: 16.
- ^ VIAF, OCLC.
- ^ Wikipedia to add VIAF identifiers, CNI