VIAF (Virtual International Authority File) Building Blocks for the Future: Making Controlled Vocabularies Available for the Semantic Web Dr. Barbara B. Tillett Chief, Policy & Standards Division Library of Congress For BNE April 28, 2010

Linked Data National Library of Sweden DBpedia 2

Internet “Cloud” Databases, Repositories Web front end Services 3

Internet “Cloud” Web front end Services VIAF Databases, Repositories LCSH 4

VIAF Objectives  Facilitate exposure of authority data  Reduce cataloging costs  Simplify authority control (creation and maintenance) internationally  Provide authority data in form, language, and script users want 5

VIAF Чехов Chekhov 6

Universal Bibliographic Control  IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) in the 1970’s Single heading for each person, corporate body, etc.  Ignored user needs for language/script they could read

VIAF: The Virtual International Authority File Original VIAF partners  Library of Congress (LC) Library of Congress  Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (DNB) Deutsche Nationalbibliothek  Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) Bibliothèque nationale de France  OCLC - host  Virtually combining the name authority files of all institutions into a single name authority service.  7

Virtual International Authority File  Matches names across 20 authority files of 16 institutions  13 million name records  10 million personas  4.5 million clusters Based on KSY Cooperative Identities Hub, CEAL

Current Status  Available as linked data with URIs  Unicode throughout  UNIMARC and MARC 21 supported  Preliminary work on geographic names 9

Enhancing the Authorities Bibliographic Record Derived Authority Record Enhanced Authority 10

Mining the Bibliographic Record LDR 00638ncm a a s1965 oruuua n eng 10 $a $a DLC $c DLC 019 $a $c $ $a $b Matrix Publ. Co $b d $b d $b va01 $b ve01 $a ka $a M1258 $b.L $a Leigh, Mitch, $d $a The man of La Mancha / $c by Mitch Leigh & Joe Darion; arr. By Roland Barrett & Alan Keown. 260 $a Springfield, OR : $b Matrix Publ. Co., $c c $a 1 score (16 p.) ; $c 18 x 27 cm. 500 $a Brief record $a Musicals $x Excerpts $a Leigh, Mitch $v Musical settings $a Darion, Joe. Authors LC Control Number LC Classification Title Material Type Publisher Place of Publication Language Date of Publication Usage 11

Derived Authority Record 00505cz a n xlc OCoLC n|acannaab|n aaa c $a OCoLC $b eng $c OCoLC $f viaf $a Leigh, Mitch $a $a the man of la mancha $a matrix publ co $a oru $a mitch leigh $a eng $a $a 196x $a cm $a darian, joe $d All text is normalized Subjects are grouped into broad subject areas Material type is codedPublication date is by decadeCoauthor 12

Enhanced Authority Record 00505cz a n oca n| acannaab| |n aaa ||| 3 10 $a n $a DLC $c DLC $d DLC $a Leigh, Mitch, $d $a the man of la mancha, c1966: $b t.p. (Mitch Leigh) $a $ $a $ $a impossible dream $ $a century library of music and sound by mitch leigh $ $a matrix publ co $ $a kapp $ $a oru $ $a mitch leigh $ $a eng $ $a 234 $ $a 196x $ $a 197x $ $a cm $ $a darian, joe $d $ $a wasserman, dale $9 1 13

Information in Bibliographic Records  He writes music  His primary subject area is music  He was published in the 1960s and 1970s by Matrix Publ. Co. in Oregon and Kapp in New York  Worked with Joe Darion and Dale Wasserman  Mitch Leigh is the only name he has used on his publications  Etc. 14

viaf.org 15

As viewed April

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VIAF and Catalogers Use as a reference tool: To resolve conflicts, questionable dates, forms of name, etc. Cite as source in 670 $a, for example: BNF in VIAF, date searched BNE in VIAF, date searched Nat. Lib. of Australia in VIAF, date searched LAC in VIAF, date searched 23

Next steps for VIAF  Better searching  More “Linked data” Related persons as in WorldCat Identities, Wikipedia, etc.  Participants beyond libraries Rights management agencies, Publishers Museums, Archives  More name types Corporate and Family names Uniform titles Geographic names … not topical terms 24

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