BnF and the VIAF

There has been quite a bit of activity in the Virtual International Authority File project.  Probably the most important event is that the Bibliothèque nationale de France has joined the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, the Library of Congress, and OCLC as a principal partner.  We had a meeting at the BnF in Paris in October to sign the agreement, review what has been done, and make plans for the future.  The French seem very enthusiastic about the possibilities.  We have been working with a small sample of records for some time (we still have some unresolved problems incorporating UNIMARC authorities) are eagerly awaiting the rest of the file.

Probably the most visible thing we have done is bring up a prototype that shows the links we are forming between records.  Right now this only shows the LC/NACO and DNB records, but we expect to receive the French file this year (2007).  The next big step, beyond adding the French authorities, is to present a view of the VIAF with merged records, rather than just showing links between existing records.  We have done quite a bit of work towards that and I plan to do some blog entries about it soon.  After doing the merge we plan to expand the system to additional authority files, and now have an agreement that lays out how that will be conducted going forward.

--Th