Expanding the concept of universal bibliographic control

Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)
The Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) is a new, international service designed toprovide convenient access to the world’s major name authority files (limited in the initialstages of the service to names for persons). Its creators envision the VIAF as a building
block for the Semantic Web to enable switching of the displayed form of names for persons
to the preferred language and script of the Web user.

A multinational collaboration
VIAF is a joint effort of the Library of Congress,
the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, theBibliothèque national de France and OCLC, incooperation with an expanding number of othernational libraries.
The long-term goal of the VIAF is the inclusionof authoritative names from many libraries into
a global service that will be freely available via
the Web. By linking disparate names for thesame person or organization, the VIAF will
provide a convenient means for a wider
community of libraries and agencies to better
repurpose bibliographic data produced bylibraries serving different language
communities.

How the VIAF service works
OCLC Research built special name-matchingsoftware that builds on development that
underlies WorldCat Identities(http://worldcat.org/identities) and OCLC’s
work with FRBR (Functional Requirements ofBibliographic Records) bibliographic record
clustering.
The VIAF project’s matching criteria include
examination of names associated withauthorship of works listed in multiple national
bibliographic files and WorldCat. The VIAF
authority records are constructed frominformation derived during the matchingprocesses and include elements from source
authority and bibliographic records.

The VIAF service also provides a searchable
interface to the VIAF file, and machine-tomachine services are available.

Participating in the VIAF consortiumand the VIAF service
Agencies that wish to participate in VIAF must
apply. The application process requires
submission of test files of bibliographic andauthority files from the participating agency tothe VIAF consortium.
OCLC Research—on behalf of the VIAF
consortium—processes the records to match
name headings from the source files with VIAF
records built from content previously suppliedby other VIAF consortium members. If anagency’s application is successful, the agency
enters into agreement with the VIAF
consortium and sends its full bibliographic andauthority files to OCLC Research with updates
sent on a regular cycle.
New participants receive reports and assist
OCLC Research in making process adjustments
as needed. The new content is published to theVIAF Web site at http://viaf.org.
VIAF consortium members periodically confer
in face-to-face meetings, or more often byconference call. They also participate insetting the agenda and direction for the VIAFproject.
Continued

Participating organizations••••••••••••

Library of Congress (also representing NACO
[Name Authority Cooperative Program of theProgram for Cooperative Cataloging])
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (GermanNational Library)
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
Bibliothèque nationale de France (NationalLibrary of France)
Kungl. biblioteket – Sveriges
nationalbibliotek (National Library ofSweden)
Národní knihovna České republiky (NationalLibrary of the Czech Republic)‫( תימואלה היירפסה‬National Library of the Stateof Israel)
Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Library ofAlexandria, Egypt)
Biblioteca Nacional de España (NationalLibrary of Spain)
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (VaticanLibrary, Vatican City)
Schweizerische Nationalbibliothek/Bibliothèque nationale suisse/Biblioteca
nazionale svizzera (Swiss National Library)
Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (NationalLibrary of Portugal)••

Istituto Centrale Per Il Catalogo Unico Delle
Biblioteche Italiane (ICCU) (Central Institutefor the Union Catalogue of Italian Libraries
and for Bibliographic Information, Italy)
National Library of Australia

Goals of the VIAF service•••

Linking national or regional-levelauthority records
Expanding the concept of universal
bibliographic control by (1) allowing
national and regional variations inauthorized form to coexist; and (2)supporting needs for variations in
preferred language, script and spelling
Playing a role in the emerging Semantic Web

For more information
To learn more about the VIAF service, and toinitiate an application to participate, contact
Barbara Tillett, (202) 707-4714, btil@loc.gov
and visit http://viaf.org.

A display of the VIAF record for ‘Anton Chekhov.’ Multiple forms of names
for this person appear in textual and graphical displays.

The following OCLC product, service and business names are trademarks or service marks of OCLC: OCLC,WorldCat and “The World’s Libraries. Connected.” In addition, the WorldCat symbol and OCLC symbol areservice marks of OCLC. OCLC grants permission to photocopy this publication as needed.

213998USF 0908, OCLC