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Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)
VIAF Screenshot 2012
Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)
URL VIAF.org
Commercial? no
Type of site Web search engine, Online public access catalog
Registration No
Available language(s) English
Owner OCLC
Created by joint project of 4 library organizations
Current status Active

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] The project was initiated by the German National Library and the American 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.

Participating libraries[]

English-language name Native-language name (if non-English) Location Country
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 Ottawa, Ontario Canada
Library of Alexandria Bibliotheca Alexandrina Alexandria Egypt
Library of Congress (NACO consortium) Washington, D.C. United States
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 Libray 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 naukowyc 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[]

Portal Library and information science

References[]

  1. ^ (2012) "VIAF service transitions to OCLC". Library Journal 137 (8): 16. 

External links[]


This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Virtual International Authority File. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.
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