VIAF Name Authority Records Search

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The Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) is an international collaborative project that integrates name authority records from over 50 national libraries and cultural institutions worldwide, creating a unified, multilingual database to standardize the identification and linking of authors, creators, and other entities.

Operated by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), VIAF consolidates authority records and reduces duplication and improves the efficiency of information retrieval in global research contexts.

As example, VIAF contributes to the enrichment of platforms like Wikipedia and Wikidata, providing authoritative identifiers that aid in the accurate representation of individuals and works.

Simply enter your reference, author, or book keywords, and it will perform your meta search.

Disciplines: Library science, Bibliography, Academic research, Publishing, Digital humanities.

Free alternative to ORCID, Library of Congress Authorities, Wikidata.

VIAF compared with ORCID, Library of Congress Authorities and Wikidata
VIAF	ORCID	Library of Congress Authorities	Wikidata
Scope: VIAF merges name authority files into one OCLC-hosted service. Data from more than 50 organisations in over 30 countries is represented, and the aim is to match and link widely used files.	Scope: ORCID gives people who take part in research, scholarship and innovation a persistent identifier that links them to their work. It identifies individuals only.	Scope: id.loc.gov provides the LC Name Authority File (LCNAF) and LC Subject Headings, with related thesauri. It is one national file, not a merge of several.	Scope: Wikidata is a free, open knowledge base holding about 90.3 million items. It feeds Wikimedia projects and other sites, and covers far more than names.
Who creates the records: Records come from contributing national libraries and cultural agencies. Contributors help govern the service through the VIAF Council.	Who creates the records: Researchers create, edit and maintain their own record at no charge. The organisation is not-for-profit and funded by member fees.		Who creates the records: Anyone can edit Wikidata, so quality depends on community review rather than a single institution.
Machine access: The page does not describe an API.	Machine access: ORCID provides APIs so member organisations can connect with records, and researchers choose what to link.	Machine access: The site provides interactive and machine access, an API documentation section (beta) and a download section.	Machine access: The page points to a tools page for using and exploring the data.
Licence and cost: The page states no data licence. Its rights link points to the OCLC copyright policy.	Licence and cost: The ORCID iD is free to researchers.		Licence and cost: Structured data in the main, property and lexeme namespaces is licensed under CC0, which the project describes as equivalent to public domain.

Topics covered: VIAF, name authority records, international collaborative project, national libraries, cultural institutions, multilingual database, standardization, identification, linking, authors, information retrieval, global research, authoritative identifiers, Wikipedia, Wikidata, meta search, OCLC, and authority records..