Name Authority Work in the Linked Data Environment

Abstract

Linked data and the semantic web have been the focus of library metadata research for years, in particular, the question of how cultural heritage and library communities can leverage this technology to enhance their metadata and build relationships across the web to their materials. One area of library metadata that stands to benefit from linked data, name authority work, is addressed in this special issue of the Journal of Library Metadata. For a very long time, library metadata was contained in the catalog, with a specific set of rules to organize library materials, allowing for multiple points of access. Name authority files have long been central to these catalogs and to the libraries’ mission to provide efficient access to the resources that they hold by enabling researchers to easily retrieve materials by or about the same entity. In the United States, libraries have heavily relied on the Library of Congress/NACO Name Authority File (LCNAF) (http://id. loc.gov/authorities/names) to provide them with the necessary controlled access points and cross-references to fulfill that need. Given the never-ending amount of materials that libraries acquire, that is a tall order, particularly with the evolution of digitized and born digital materials and their newly adopted and developed repositories. Many cultural heritage institutions, including libraries, have long resorted to creating local authority files or to leaving names “uncontrolled” (meaning not represented in the authority file at all) for all or some of their collections in order to avoid time and expense. This left a lot of valuable locally created information siloed or inaccessible. Linked data provides the opportunity to build stronger connections between people and library resources, places, and other people. Local authority files might be enhanced by utilizing external name authority thesauri such as the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF), LCNAF, ORCID, etc. Designing applications that allow users to explore name authority metadata both from within and outside the local name authority file can help to provide rich