Towards an open and collaborative Authority Control

Abstract

As digital transformation is speeding up, the need for a reliable retrieval is too. Libraries have long used authority files to enhance the search for information. Now, as the entire GLAM field is increasingly presenting its content online, national libraries face the requirement to provide authority data as reference points to a far more diverse community. The request is not limited to persistent identifiers but new records on non-librarian entities are needed. The German National Library (DNB) aims to provide an open framework that allows collaboration on all levels: editing the records, defining the regulations and standards plus ease the data flow in both directions. To this end, the DNB has started an ambitious project transferring both the authority file records and their regulations into a Wikibase instance. The article relates the findings working with the beta version of the software that drives Wikidata. To spur the process the DNB co-published the WikiLibrary Manifesto together with Wikimedia Deutschland. The institutions signing the manifesto shall cooperate to improve the building of a technical infrastructure that will ease knowledge equity through the FAIR Data Principles and the creation of a structured data ecosystem. The manifesto was signed by IFLA in June 2021.