VIAF: Virtual International Authority File

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VIAFVirtual International Authority File

• by Dr. Barbara B. Tillett
• Chief, Cataloging Policy Support Office
• Library of Congress
• for Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services
  Librarians
• May 16, 2007

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Agenda

• Conceptual models
• FRBR, FRAD, FRSAR
• Authority control
• VIAF
• Cataloging principles
• IME ICC Statement
• New cataloging codes
• RDA

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Objectives VIAF

• Facilitate sharing
• Reduce cataloguing costs
• Simplify creation and maintenance of authority
  records internationally
• Enable users to access information in the
  language, script, form they prefer

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Authority control benefits

• Precision in searching
• Syndetic structure of references to help navigate
  (the variant forms of name/title/subject/etc.)
• Displays to collocate works
• Links to forms used in particular resources
• Bring library catalogues into the mix of tools
  available on the Web

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Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)
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IFLA UBC authority principles

• Each country responsible for authority headings
  for its own personal and corporate authors
• National authority records available for everyone
  to use
• Same form and structure used worldwide

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New view of UBC

• User perspective
• Display script/language(s) of ones own country
• National bibliographic agency responsibility
• Bibliographic and authority control in own
  country available to everyone
• International record sharing
• Link forms established in national or
  regional authority files to create a virtual
  international authority file

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Same Entity/Variant Scripts

Japanese

japanisch
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Entities

• Different entities same name

Winston Churchill
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Entities

• Different forms of names for same entity

Barbara Ann Barnett
Babs Barnett
Barbara Ann Barnett Tillett
Babs
Barbara B. Tillett
Dr. Tillett
Tillett, Barbara B.
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Bibliographic identities

• ??
• Yi Hwang (McCune-Resichauer)
• I Hwang (Revised romanization)
• ?? ??
• Toegye (Pen name)
• ?? ??
• Gyeongho (Courtesy name)
• ?? Hangul
• ?? Hanja

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If all forms are possible
Lewis Carroll

• Need to explain variants to end-user to avoid
  confusion (explain pseudonyms, abbreviations,
  etc.)

Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge, 1832-1898
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Entities

• Crosswalks and Mappings - not always 1-1
• Differences among cataloguing rules
• Ships
• Events
• Meetings of corporate bodies
• Undifferentiated names
• Differences among communities
• Libraries, archives, museums, etc.

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Projects to facilitate authority control on a
global scale

• EU AUTHOR Project, LEAF, ltindecsgt, INTERPARTY
• HKCAN
• IFLA MLAR, FRANAR, FRSAR
• Dublin Core Agents
• DELOS/NSF Working Group Actors/Roles
• EAC (Encoded Archival Context)
• Unicode/Multiple Scripts
• NACO/SACO for AACR2 and LCSH Users

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Russian National Authority Control Projects

• May 2003 International Conference on Authority
  Control (Russian State Library, Moscow)
• Personal Names
• National Library of Russia (Russian authors)
• Russian State Library (foreign authors whose
  works have been translated into Russian)
• Corporate Body Names
• National Library of Russia(1930- )
• Geographic Names RuGeo
• Russian State Library (Ministry of Culture)

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Systems to help future authority work

• Automatic check of heading against local
  authority file
• If not found, automatic check against virtual
  international authority file
• Display found matches for editing or reference
• Insert authorized forms into local authority
  record for future link

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Switching for displays

• Library default
• User-selected preferences
• Client set-up, cookies, or future method
• Language
• Script
• Culture (country)/spelling

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Scenario - Web access

• Original cataloguing with no match found in local
  authority file
• Launches Web search of virtual international
  authority file
• Assumes response times/system reliability will
  improve in future

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Scenario Create bibliographic record
100 1 a Tchaikovsky, Peter I
245 a Piano concerto
Not found in local authority file. Checking VIAF.
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Your search of the Virtual International
Authority File found the following match
RUSMARC-record ?????? 00445nx 22001453
450 001 10326 005 20001108144619.0 100
a20001108arusy0103 ca 200
18rus7caa??????????b?. ?.f1840- 1893g????
?????4070 200 18rus7baaChajkovskijbP.
I.f1840-1893gPetr Il'ich4070 300 0 a???????
??????????, ?????? ?.?. ???????????. 700
13103278rus7ba4070 810 a?????????
?????????????? ????????????????? ???????. - ?.,
1998. 801 0arusbrnbc20001108 810
a??? ???.
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Scenario Link authorities
100 1 a Tchaikovsky, Peter I
Create and Link?
Yes
No
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Automatically creates local authority record
010 a n 79072979





040 a DLC b eng





100 1 a Tchaikovsky, Peter
Ilich, d 1840-1893

Cataloguer adds AACR2 form

400 1 a Chajkovskii, Petr
Ilich, d 1840-1893



700 1 a ??????????b ?. ?.d
1840-1893q ???? ????? 0 (NLR)10326 2 NLR
l rus
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Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)
Tchaikovsky
(LC)n79072979
??????????
(NLR)10326
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ScenarioCorrects bibliographic record
100 1 a Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilich, d 1840-1893
245 a Piano concerto
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Local system - User view
Users cookie specifies Cyrillic/Russian
preferred.
??????????, ???? ?????
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????????
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Distributed - independent AFs with Z39.50 access
SEARCH
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Central Link
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Centralized - Union Authority File (OAI Model)
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Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)
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VIAF Proof of Concept

• Project underway
• Die Deutsche Bibliothek (DDB)
• The Library of Congress (LC)
• OCLC Online Computer Library Center (OCLC)
• Bibliothèque nationale de France

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VIAF Formally Approved in Berlin
Ed ONeill
Barbara Tillett
Renate Gömpel
Christel Hengel
Jay Jordan
Beacher Wiggins
Elizabeth Niggemann
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VIAF Proof of ConceptDDB/LC/OCLC
OCLC matching algorithms
LCNAF
Stage 1 Retrospective Files Link
DDB/PND
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Matching and linking

• LC Personal Name Authority File
• 4 million total authority records

• DDB Personal Name Authority File
• 2.5 million total authority records

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Matching Variations

• In the LCNAF and PND authority files
• Same name, same person
• Same name, different people
• Different names, same person
• Missing person in one file

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VIAF LEAF Model (Test)
5.8 Simple match (LEAF model) 10 false match
LCNAF
Stage 1 Retrospective Files Link
DDB/PND
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Other VIAF Models
InterParty Project AUTHOR
LCNAF
DDB/PND
Stage 1 Retrospective Files Link
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Enhancing the Authorities
Authority Record
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Mining the Bibliographic Record
LDR 00826ccm 2200289 a 4500 1 ocm10025532
5 20031229650847.0 8 840627s1982 nyuuua
n eng 10 a 84758340 40 a
DLC c DLC 19 a 17706440 20 c 2.95 28
22 a 48418 b G. Schirmer 45 2 b d198006 b
d198007 48 b va01 b ve01 a ka01 50 00 a
M1529.3 b .T 100 1 a Thomson, Virgil, d
1896- 245 14 a The cat b duet for soprano and
baritone / c Virgil Thomson words
by Jack Larson. 260 a New York b G.
Schirmer, c c1982. 300 a 1 score (11 p.)
c 31 cm. 500 a For soprano, baritone, and
piano. 650 0 a Vocal duets with piano. 600 10
a Larson, Jack x Musical settings. 700 1 a
Larson, Jack.
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Derived Authority Record

• 00525nz 2200229n 4500
• 0 1 xlc 1
• 1 3 OCoLC
• 2 5 20040721111415.0
• 3 8 040721nneanzabbn n and d
• 4 40 a OCoLC b eng c OCoLC f viaf
• 5 100 1 a Larson, Jack.
• 6 903 a 84758340
• 7 910 14 a the cat b duet for soprano and
  baritone
• 8 921 a g schirmer
• 9 922 a nyu
• 10 930 a jack larson
• 11 940 a eng
• 12 942 a 234
• 13 943 a 198x
• 14 944 a cm
• 15 950 1 a thomson, virgil d 1896

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Enhanced Authority Record
00824nz 2200301n 4500 0 1 oca01144962 1
5 19840809154202.7 2 8 840702n acannaab
n aaa 3 10 a n 84044261 4 40
a DLC c DLC d DLC 5 100 1 a Larson,
Jack. 6 670 a Thomson, V. The cat, c1982 b
t.p. (Jack Larson)
7 903 a 84758340 9 1 8 903 a 93710923
9 1 9 910 11 a the cat b duet for soprano and
baritone 9 1 10 910 11 a sun like b on a poem
by jack larson 9 1 11 921 a g schirmer 9
1 12 921 a belwin mills publ corp 9 2 13 922
a nyu 9 2 14 930 a jack larson 9 1 15
940 a eng 9 2 16 942 a 234 9 2 17 943
a 198x 9 1 18 943 a 197x 9 1 19 944 a
cm 9 2 20 950 11 a thomson, virgil d 1896 9
1 21 950 11 a samuel, gerhard 9 1
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Linking Retrospective Files
Matching Algorithms
Enhanced LCNAF Authorities
Enhanced PND Authorities
VIAF authorities
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VIAF File
PND Names 2,659,276
LCNAF Names 4,187,973
Common 558,618 (70 of potential matched by
algorithm)
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VIAF Proof of ConceptDDB/LC/OCLC
VIAF authority
LCNAF
Stage 2 Build searchable database
DDB/PND
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VIAF Proof of ConceptDDB/LC/OCLC
LCNAF
OAI Server(s)
DDB/PND
Stage 3 Ongoing maintenance - Harvest metadata
(OAI protocols)
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VIAF Proof of ConceptDDB/LC/OCLC
LCNAF
OAI Server(s)
DDB/PND
Stage 4 End user interface - Unicode display
switch
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Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)
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Semantic Web Building Blocks
Other controlled vocabularies
AI controlled vocabularies
(Library) authority files
Ontologies
End-user
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Semantic Web Building Blocks
Ontologies
Web search engines
Digital world
End-user
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Name space reserved
http//VIAF.org
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Questions?