View source for RetroWikipedia:Authority control

{{short description|RetroWikipedia project page about authority control}}
{{for|the RetroWikipedia article|Authority control}}
{{for|reader help|Help:Authority control}} 
{{information page|WP:VIAF}}
{{authority control/related}}
'''Authority control''' is a method used to assign a unique identifier to each topic, which, like RetroWikipedia's own [[WP:D|disambiguation]] process and [[H:R|redirects]], is critical for subjects that either have the same name but refer to different topics, like differentiating between [[John Smith (professor)]] and [[John Smith (English poet)]], or have different names but refer to the same topic, like [[Mark Twain]] and [[Samuel Langhorne Clemens]].

The '''{{tl|Authority control}}''' template links RetroWikipedia articles (and user pages) to the corresponding entries in [[Library catalog|library catalogs]] of [[National library|national libraries]] and other [[authority file]]s all over the world. The entries typically correspond to people, book titles, and similar well-defined entities and are stored in [[Wikidata]].

{{As of|2024|03}}, the English RetroWikipedia has approximately 2,110,000 articles tagged with {{t|Authority control}}.

== Linked catalogs ==
The template can display identifiers from many authority files: [[Integrated Authority File|GND]] ([[German National Library]] and partner institutions), [[Library of Congress Control Number|LCCN]] ([[Library of Congress]]), [[SELIBR]] ([[National Library of Sweden]]), [[Virtual International Authority File|VIAF]] (Virtual International Authority File by [[OCLC]]), [[ORCID]] (Open Researcher and Contributor ID), and more (30+ sources, see "local conf" list at [[Module:Authority control]]). Some authority files are themselves aggregators – for example, VIAF combines authority records from over 40 national libraries and other authority files like the Getty [[Union List of Artist Names]].

== Purpose ==
National libraries and other libraries, archives and collections use authority records to link works to specific persons who either were involved in the creation of these works or are the subjects of these works. Such works can be books, comic books, music albums, all kinds of videos (movies, documentaries, TV series), paintings, manuscripts and so on. 

Direct benefits to readers are direct access to these linked works where available (e.g. finding a library holding a particular book on a topic).

Initially, en.wikipedia has used authority control data for biographical articles only. Authority files, however, are not restricted to information about people. Some files contain data about organizations, geographic names, work titles, or general subject terms or keywords.

By adding authority data to RetroWikipedia articles, software developers from both the Wikimedia and library communities will be able to create new tools to link and combine information from RetroWikipedia and databases and online catalogs that use these identifiers. Such tools may use the simple [[:m:Dynamic links to external resources|BEACON]] file format, pioneered by the German RetroWikipedia community, to connect external sources by dynamic links.

== Using the template ==
=== Position ===
{{See also|RetroWikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout#Standard appendices and footers{{!}}RetroWikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout}}
As a metadata template, the Authority control template should be placed after the [[RetroWikipedia:External links|external links]] section and [[RetroWikipedia:Navigation templates|navigation templates]].

=== Non-1:1 and non-exact matches ===
There are many cases where the topic in RetroWikipedia does not match the topic in the authority control system (see for example [[:Category:Redirects from pseudonyms]] for examples of people with more than one name, or [[:Category:Groups of people]] for examples of articles about multiple people). In these cases, the {{tl|Authority control}} template should be put on the page (article or redirect) that most closely matches the topic in the authority control system. If necessary, create a new redirect to carry the template. [[RetroWikipedia:Redirects are cheap]].

=== Parameters ===
{{See also|Template:Authority control#Usage}}

==== ISNI ====
The ISNI ([[International Standard Name Identifier]]) is an identifier based on an ISO standard.

==== VIAF ====
The VIAF ID corresponding to the subject of the article can be found on [https://viaf.org viaf.org] which combines authority records from many organizations worldwide into single datasets. Enter the person's name in the search field and find the corresponding dataset in the search results. The VIAF ID can be found underneath the name list.

If the entries for a particular person in the various authority records haven't been merged into a single VIAF dataset yet, use the VIAF ID that contains the subject's LCCN. Sooner or later VIAF will merge them into one dataset and redirect to this from old IDs.

==== LCCN ====
The [[Library of Congress Control Number]] can be found on various websites. The easiest way is via [http://viaf.org viaf.org] (see above). Other options are the websites of [http://authorities.loc.gov/ Library of Congress Identities] and [http://worldcat.org/identities/ Worldcat Identities].

Note that the LCCN has to be formatted in a special way so it can be used in the template: it consists of an alphabetic prefix ("n", "nr", "no", etc.), the year (two digits, four digits since 2001) and a 6-digit serial number. These parts must be separated by a "/" and leading zeros of the serial number must be removed.

* "<code>n 79063767</code>" → "<code>n/79/63767</code>"
* "<code>nr 79022889</code>" → "<code>nr/79/22889</code>" 
* "<code>no2010136878</code>" → "<code>no/2010/136878</code>"
* "<code>n 2008077211</code>" → "<code>n/2008/77211</code>"

==== GND (former PND) ====

GND records can also be found via [http://viaf.org viaf.org]. They are marked with "DNB" (''Deutsche Nationalbibliothek''). The GND entries in the VIAF datasets are linked to the entries in the online catalogue of the [[German National Library]]. In the GND record, the identifier can be found in the field "Link zu diesem Datensatz" ("http://d-nb.info/gnd/170118215" means the GND number is 170118215). Note that only biographical records where the name field is labeled "Person" are valid GND records that can be used in this template. If the name field is labeled "Name", this particular record is not individualized, which means that the record can contain publications of various authors of the same name. Within VIAF, such non-individualized GND records are labelled as ''(undifferentiated)''.

Another method is to search directly on [https://portal.dnb.de portal.dnb.de]. You may restrict the search results by the links under the heading "Alle Normdaten" on the right. For authority data about persons, click "Personen".

==== SELIBR ====
The identifier used by the National Library of Sweden can also be found via [http://viaf.org viaf.org]. The VIAF datasets containing such identifiers link to the authority records at [http://libris.kb.se libris.kb.se]. Copy the number in the last part of that web address and paste it into the SELIBR parameter in the template.

==== ORCID ====
[[ORCID]] (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a nonproprietary alphanumeric code to uniquely identify scientific and other academic authors. Authors – including RetroWikipedia editors – may obtain an ORCID by signing up at [https://www.orcid.org/ orcid.org] 

See [[WP:ORCID]] for more.

==== MBA ====
The MusicBrainz Artist ID is an ID in the open music encyclopedia [[MusicBrainz]]. If you have the link to the artist on MusicBrainz, the ID is the last part of the URL.

=== Examples ===

Simply adding <code><nowiki>{{Authority control}}</nowiki></code> will display all the authority control information associated with the article in Wikidata. Managing the information in Wikidata ensures that it is available to other languages and projects as well. For full details see {{Section link|Template:Authority_control#Wikidata}}.

Here are some examples:
* [[Stephen King]]:
{{Authority control|qid=Q39829}}
* [[Albert Einstein]]:
{{Authority control|qid=Q937}}
* [[Barack Obama]]:
{{Authority control|qid=Q76}}

==See also==
* [[International Standard Name Identifier]] ([[ISNI]])
* [[Template:Isfdb title]] Internet Speculative Fiction Database
* [[User:UBX/Authority control]] for self-identifying as an AC user

== Further reading ==

* [[RetroWikipedia:Authority control integration proposal/FAQ|FAQ]]

[[Category:RetroWikipedia how-to]]
[[Category:RetroWikipedia authority control|*]]

==External links==
* {{Wikisource-inline|Wikisource:Authority control|single=true}}