Virtual International Authority File

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VirtualInternationalAuthorityFile

• ALA, June 2006

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Virtual International Authority File

• Link authority records from national
  bibliographic agencies
• Build on their authority work
• Expand the concept of universal bibliographic
  control
• Allow national or regional variations in
  authorized form to co-exist
• Support needs for variations in preferred
  language, script, and spelling

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Joint VIAF Project
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Semantic Web Building Blocks
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Project Goal

• Demonstrate feasibility of linking personal names
  across
• Personennormadatei (PND)
• Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF)

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What is the VIAF?

• System
• Links between files
• Web browser access
• Multi-lingual and multi-scripts
• Maintenance
• National agencies control their records
• Records harvested from national systems
• Scalable
• Any number of national authority files

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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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Two Different People One Name

• Adams, Mike
• PND a golfer
• LCNAF author of a Beatles collector's guide

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One Person Two Names

• LCNAF Morel, Pierre
• PND Morellus, Petrus

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Enhancing the Authorities
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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
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Strong Matching Attributes

• A work (title) in common
• Common control numbers (ISBN, ISSN, or LCCN)
• Exact birth and death year
• Joint authors
• Name as subject

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Weaker Attributes

• Only one of birth/death date(s) (allows some
  variation)
• Subject area of works (two levels)
• Format (books, films, musical scores, etc.)
• Language
• Publisher
• Partial title match
• Date of publication
• Country
• Role (author, illustrator, composer, etc.)
• Format (books, films, musical scores, etc.)

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(No Transcript)
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LC Names
Established Names 4,187,973
Names from Bib Records
3,440,706
Active Established Names 2,556,824
Uncontrolled Names 883,882
Orphaned Names 1,631,149
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DDB Names
Established Names 2,659,276
Names from Bib Records
2,319,829
Active Established Names 2,013,618
Uncontrolled (Undifd) Names 306,211
Orphaned Names 645,658
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Results

• Matches 558,618
• Complex Matches 70,797
• Unique Matches 487,821

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VIAF File
LC Names 4,187,973
DDB Names 2,659,276
Common 558,618 (70 of potential)
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Next Steps

• Move to incremental updates
• Start harvesting national files
• Bring up Web interface (to full files)
• Make OAI accessible
• Bring in new participants
• Handle non-Roman matching
• Move to other types of authorities
• Corporate names
• Geographic names

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Stage 3 Build OAI Server
OAI Server(s)
LCNAF
DDB/PND
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Stage 4 Ongoing maintenance
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Stage 5 Build End User Interface with Unicode
displays
Users cookie specifies Hangul is preferred.
Display 700 form, building on local systems
authority structure
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Thank you

• T. Hickey
• http//errol.oclc.org/laf/n82-54463.html
• ALA June 2006