2. 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.
3. Who is VIAF
• OCLC is implementing this project.
– Conducting research
– Performing authority control
– Providing infrastructure
4. 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
5. 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
6. 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.
7. 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
8. 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
14. How does VIAF work
• Individual heading links to national authority
record
15. 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
16. 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
17. Further Information on VIAF
• VIAF website: www.viaf.org
• OCLC’s VIAF webpage:
VIAF (Virtual International Authority File)
