brycewang-stanford VIAF (Virtual International Authority File) API
Overview
VIAF clusters authority records from 50+ national libraries worldwide, linking different forms of an author's name into a single canonical identity. It covers 50M+ personal, corporate, and geographic name entries. Essential for author disambiguation in bibliometric research — resolving "J. Smith", "John Smith", and "Smith, J.A." to the same person. Free, no authentication.
API Endpoints
Base URL
https://viaf.org
Search
# Search by name (AutoSuggest)
curl "https://viaf.org/viaf/AutoSuggest?query=einstein+albert"
# Search via SRU (structured query)
curl "https://viaf.org/viaf/search?query=local.personalNames+all+\"hinton+geoffrey\"&\
sortKeys=holdingscount&httpAccept=application/json"
# Search corporate names
curl "https://viaf.org/viaf/search?query=local.corporateNames+all+\"MIT\"&\
httpAccept=application/json"
Get Record by VIAF ID
# JSON format
curl "https://viaf.org/viaf/75121530/viaf.json"
# Linked data formats
curl -H "Accept: application/json" "https://viaf.org/viaf/75121530"
# Cluster data (all linked identities)
curl "https://viaf.org/viaf/75121530/justlinks.json"
Cross-Reference by External ID
# Look up by Library of Congress ID
curl "https://viaf.org/viaf/lccn/n79021164/viaf.json"
# Look up by ISNI
curl "https://viaf.org/viaf/isni/0000000121174331/viaf.json"
# Look up by ORCID
curl "https://viaf.org/viaf/sourceID/ORCID|0000-0002-1825-0097/viaf.json"
# Look up by Wikidata QID
curl "https://viaf.org/viaf/sourceID/WKP|Q937/viaf.json"
Source Codes
| Code | Library/Source |
|---|---|
LC |
Library of Congress |
DNB |
German National Library |
BNF |
Bibliothèque nationale de France |
NLA |
National Library of Australia |
NDL |
National Diet Library (Japan) |
NKC |
National Library of Czech Republic |
WKP |
Wikidata |
ISNI |
ISNI |
Response Structure
{
"viafID": "75121530",
"nameType": "Personal",
"mainHeadings": {
"data": [
{
"text": "Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955",
"sources": {"s": ["LC", "DNB", "BNF"]}
}
]
},
"x400s": {
"x400": [
{"datafield": {"subfield": [{"text": "Albert Einstein"}]}}
]
},
"birthDate": "1879",
"deathDate": "1955",
"sources": {
"source": [
{"nsid": "n79022889", "sid": "LC|n79022889"},
{"nsid": "118529579", "sid": "DNB|118529579"}
]
}
}
Python Usage
import requests
BASE_URL = "https://viaf.org/viaf"
def search_person(name: str, limit: int = 10) -> list:
"""Search VIAF for personal name authorities."""
resp = requests.get(
f"{BASE_URL}/AutoSuggest",
params={"query": name},
)
resp.raise_for_status()
data = resp.json()
results = []
for item in data.get("result", [])[:limit]:
results.append({
"viaf_id": item.get("viafid"),
"name": item.get("displayForm"),
"name_type": item.get("nametype"),
"source_count": len(item.get("sources", "").split("|")),
})
return results
def get_authority(viaf_id: str) -> dict:
"""Get full VIAF authority record."""
resp = requests.get(f"{BASE_URL}/{viaf_id}/viaf.json")
resp.raise_for_status()
data = resp.json()
name_forms = []
for heading in data.get("mainHeadings", {}).get("data", []):
if isinstance(heading, dict):
name_forms.append({
"text": heading.get("text"),
"sources": heading.get("sources", {}).get("s", []),
})
external_ids = {}
for src in data.get("sources", {}).get("source", []):
sid = src.get("sid", "")
if "|" in sid:
prefix, local_id = sid.split("|", 1)
external_ids[prefix] = local_id
return {
"viaf_id": data.get("viafID"),
"name_forms": name_forms,
"birth": data.get("birthDate"),
"death": data.get("deathDate"),
"external_ids": external_ids,
}
def resolve_by_orcid(orcid: str) -> dict:
"""Resolve ORCID to VIAF authority record."""
resp = requests.get(
f"{BASE_URL}/sourceID/ORCID|{orcid}/viaf.json"
)
resp.raise_for_status()
return resp.json()
# Example: disambiguate an author name
candidates = search_person("Geoffrey Hinton")
for c in candidates:
print(f"VIAF {c['viaf_id']}: {c['name']} "
f"({c['source_count']} libraries)")
# Example: get all name forms for an author
if candidates:
record = get_authority(candidates[0]["viaf_id"])
print(f"\nName forms for {record['viaf_id']}:")
for form in record["name_forms"]:
sources = ", ".join(form["sources"][:3])
print(f" {form['text']} [{sources}]")
print(f"External IDs: {record['external_ids']}")
Use Cases
- Author disambiguation: Resolve name variants to canonical identities
- Cross-library linking: Connect records across national catalogs
- Bibliometric deduplication: Merge author records from different databases
- Identity verification: Confirm author identity via multiple authority sources
- Linked data enrichment: Bridge ORCID, Wikidata, and library authorities