22 November 2018

Authority records created in Lithuania are part of the VIAF system

While implementing one of its most important strategical objectives of being a reliable partner in developing access to knowledge and information, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania has signed an agreement with OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) for becoming a participant of the VIAF (Virtual International Authority File) system. The main goal of the VIAF system is to link authority records from national bibliographic agencies from across the globe into a shared public-access system for searching nationally or regionally approved forms of authority records that meet the needs of all global users for using records in desired language variations, character set, and spelling. VIAF participants include national libraries and other organizations in 38 countries responsible for the creation of national authority records since 1998.

The database containing authority records on personal, collective, family, territorial or geographical names, titles, subjects, and trademarks has been accumulated by the National Library since 1993. The database currently contains 840,303 records. The purpose of the database is to control bibliographic records and to support catalogue search and identification functions by linking different versions of personal, collective, family and other names. The creation of authority records allows us to identify resources by subject and to link them together.

Authority records are created by the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, the Wroblewskis Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, and the Kaunas County Public Library. The database of authority records is used by all Lithuanian institutions of national importance, public, educational and science institutions, school libraries as well as some museums and state institution libraries.