Wikisource:Authority control

Authority control is the practice of creating and maintaining index terms for bibliographic material in a catalogue, and is particularly useful for assigning unique identifiers to people, works or subjects. When applied to Wikisource, it means maintaining links to a set of standard external catalogues.

Authority control practices at Wikisource

The {{authority control}} template is used on author, portal and book pages to collect authority control data from relevant sources. This template accesses Wikidata via the authority control module.

It should be placed at the end of the page.

List of authority controls

Below is a list of authority controls which can be used on Wikisource, along with example identifiers and links to the corresponding database entries. Different authority controls are appropriate to different namespaces.

Author authority controls

Authority control is used mostly within the author namespace and make up the bulk of the available controls.

Authority	Wikidata	Parameter	Example	Notes
Virtual International Authority File	P214	VIAF	75121530	VIAF combines authority data from a range of around 20 authority files and libraries around the world. It is a very useful starting point when researching authors. Because VIAF is a record aggregator, it is particularly vulnerable to split records when one entity has multiple records from different databases. In this case, use the record with the LCCN and report the split record to VIAF.
Library of Congress Control Number	P244	LCCN	n/79/022889	Authority data on persons from the United States Library of Congress have a control number of the forms below (alphabetical prefix, followed by a 2- or 4-digit year and a 6-digit serial number). The second format is the format used in Wikisource templates, as the parts are combined in various ways for various purposes. The number is split into the parts with "/" and leading zeroes are removed: "n79063767" → "n/79/637675" "n79022889" → "n/79/228895" "no2010136878" → "no/2010/136878"
International Standard Name Identifier	P213	ISNI	0000 0001 2126 5882	Developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
Open Researcher and Contributor ID	P496	ORCID	0000-0002-9126-6845	Unique identifier for content creators (including, but not limited to, scientific and academic authors). See Wikisource:ORCID
Integrated Authority File	P227	GND	118529579	German, Austrian and Swiss database.
LIBRIS	P906	SELIBR	184709	Swedish database. Records labelled "Person" that are true author authority controls; records labelled "Name" do not distinguish between different people with the same name.
Système universitaire de documentation	P269	SUDOC	026842718	French database.
Bibliothèque Nationale de France	P268	BNF	cb119016075	French national library database.
Biografisch Portaal	P651	BPN	59069719	Dutch database.
ResearcherID	P1053	RID	I-6013-2012	Identifying system for scientific authors.
BIBSYS	P1015	BIBSYS	x90060933	Norwegian database.
Union List of Artist Names	P245	ULAN	500240971	Authority data from the J. Paul Getty Trust.
Historical Dictionary of Switzerland	P902	HDS	3554	Swiss database.
Lexicon Istoric Retic	P886	LIR	300	Swiss database. Variant of the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
MusicBrainz	P434	MBA	78b3e75a-e409-4018-92f8-2ad8b9afede9
National Library of Australia	P409	NLA	36582360	Australian database.
National Diet Library	P349	NDL	00453065	Japanese database.
National Central Library	P1048	NCL	1084237	Taiwanese database.
National Library of the Czech Republic	P691	NKC	jn19981001510	Czech database.
China Academic Library & Information System	P270	CALIS	n2004257484	Chinese database.
CiNii	P271	CiNii	DA01901178	Japanese database for authors of scholarly literature maintained by the National Institute of Informatics.
Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico	P396	SBN	IT\ICCU\CFIV\008732	Italian database.
China Biographical Database	P497	CBDB	0015887	Chinese database.
Léonore	P640	Leonore	LH/2064/18	French database of members of the Légion d'Honneur.
Digital Library for Dutch Literature	P723	DBNL	orwe001	Dutch database.
Russian State Library	P947	RSL	000083167	Russian database.
Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal	P1005	PTBNP	75714	Portuguese database.
Nationale Thesaurus Auteursnamen	P1006	NTA	06825878X	Dutch database.
Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana	P1017	BAV	ADV12232726	Vatican library.
National Library of Israel	P949	NLI	000038104	Israeli database.
National Library of China	P1213	NLC	000167505	Chinese database.
Narodowy Uniwersalny Katalog Centralny	P1207	NUKAT	n93129655	Polish database.
International Plant Names Index	P428	Botanist	E.Britton	Standard botanical author abbreviation
National Archives and Records Administration	P1222	NARAid	1261102	Identifier for a person. Note: The National Archives and Records Administration no longer supports its previous Archival Research Catalog (ARC). It is currently only maintained for old, incoming links.
Internet Broadway Database	P1220	IBDB	87740	American theatrical database.
Internet Speculative Fiction Database	P1233	ISFDB	5	Database of speculative fiction authors (i.e. science fiction, fantasy, horror, etc).
Find a Grave	P535	Grave	1024	Database of grave locations and information.
Mathematics Genealogy Project	P549	MGP	60985	Database of mathematicians and computer scientists
Netherlands Institute for Art History	P650	RKD	23481	Dutch database.
Biblioteca Nacional de España	P950	BNE	XX1720461	Spanish database
National Library of Romania	P1003	NLR	000074735	Romanian database.
French National Assembly	P1045	Sycomore		French database of members of the French National Assembly.
Catholic Hierarchy	P1047	CH	bertj	Database of Catholic bishops.
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress	P1157	USCongress		Database of all present and former members of the United States Congress and Continental Congress.
Theaterlexikon der Schweiz	P1362	TLS		Swiss theatrical encyclopedia.
SIKART	P781	SIKART		Swiss and Liechtenstein visual arts encyclopedia.
KulturNav	P1248	KULTURNAV		Norwegian database.
Litterra	P6130	Littera	11	Galician-Portuguese database.

Work authority controls

Authority	Wikidata	Parameter	Example	Notes
Library of Congress Control Number	P1144	LCCNbook	67007868	American database.
Online Computer Library Center	P243	OCLC	653572	The template will also create an identical link for WorldCat at the end of the list.
International Standard Book Number	P212	ISBN	ISBN 978-3-16-148410-0	Uses a Wikimedia search tool at Special:BookSources. The module currently only accesses the 13-digit ISBN and ignores the separate 10-digit property.
National Diet Library	P1054	NDLbook		Japanese database.
International Standard Serial Number	P236	ISSN	0028-0836	Unique identifier for periodicals. Links to a WorldCat page.
Digital object identifier	P236	DOI		Links to a WorldCat page.
Excellence in Research for Australia	P1058	ERA		Australian journal directory.
International Standard Music Number	P1208	ISMN		Unique identifier for printed music.
Open Library	P648	OL	OL24401731M	Database run by the Internet Archive.
Internet Archive	P724	ARCHIVE	greggshorthandfu00greg
Google Books	P675	Google
Europeana	P727	Europeana
LibraryThing	P1085	LT	111764	Book-based social network. Individual editions are in subdirectories of the main work's URL (e.g. 111764/81952229). Authors are not supported by this property on Wikidata.
Système universitaire de documentation	P1025	SUDOCbook		French database.
Zeitschriftendatenbank	P1042	ZDB		German magazine database.
South-West German Library Network	P1044	SWB		German database.
United States National Library of Medicine	P1055	NLM		American database of medical journals.
SELIBR	P1182	SELIBRbook		Swedish database.
Internet Speculative Fiction Database	P1235	ISFDBser		Speculative fiction series or periodical.
Internet Speculative Fiction Database	P1234	ISFDBcon		Speculative fiction publication content (e.g. an issue of a magazine or an edition of an anthology)
National Digital Library of India	P2185	DLI

Subject authority controls

Authority	Wikidata	Parameter	Example	Notes
Dewey Decimal Classification	P1036	Dewey		Classification in the Dewey Decimal system.
National Archives and Records Administration	P1223	NARAorg	1164181	Identifier for an organisation. Note: The National Archives and Records Administration's no longer supports its previous Archival Research Catalog (ARC). It is currently only maintained for old, incoming links.
National Archives and Records Administration	P1224	NARAgeo	4177390	Identifier for a geographic location. Note: The National Archives and Records Administration's no longer supports its previous Archival Research Catalog (ARC). It is currently only maintained for old, incoming links.
National Archives and Records Administration	P1225	NARAsub	4508288	Identifier for a topical subject. Note: The National Archives and Records Administration's no longer supports its previous Archival Research Catalog (ARC). It is currently only maintained for old, incoming links.
National Archives and Records Administration	P1226	NARAtype	4172800	Identifier for a specific record type. Note: The National Archives and Records Administration's no longer supports its previous Archival Research Catalog (ARC). It is currently only maintained for old, incoming links.
Internet Speculative Fiction Database	P1239	ISFDBpub		Speculative fiction publisher.
Lista de Encabezamientos de materia para las Bibliotecas Públicas	P920	LEMBP		List of Subject Headings for Public Libraries; Spanish database.

General authority controls

Authority	Wikidata	Parameter	Example	Notes
WorldCat	P7859	WORLDCATID	lccn-no2009165810 viaf-86022071 np-greenwood, edgar	WorldCat is operated by the OCLC and can be linked to by a LCCN or VIAF identifier, along with its own identifiers when no LCCN or VIAF identifier exists. Use of the WORLDCATID parameter will override the automatically generated link.
Freebase	P646	Freebase	/m/02mjmr	Knowledge base.
Internet Movie Database	P345	IMDB	nm0831290	Mostly of use for screenwriters and other authors, this is also useful for films on Wikisource.

Finding authority control IDs

Authority control identification numbers can be found on the respective website associated with the authority controls. For example, searching the Library of Congress catalog is a good way to find a correct LCCN. Some sources provide links to other authority control but many do not.

There are two main sources that can provide more than one authority control ID:

• VIAF
• WorldCat, for works
• WorldCat Identities, for authors

Of these, VIAF, as an authority control aggregator, will provide the most IDs in one place. WorldCat will often provide, for authors, the LCCN and VIAF numbers and, for works, LCCN and OCLC numbers.

For works sourced from the Internet Archive, some authority controls can be found on a linked website, Open Library. The link to this is the "editable web page" in the line "This book has an editable web page on Open Library" on the Internet Archive. The Open Library page will often list authority control IDs such as LCCN and OCLC as well as its own Open Library ID.

Authority controls are also used with Wikisource's sister projects, Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. It is possible that some authority control IDs have been added to appropriate page on those projects. They can usually be copied to the Wikisource page without alteration.

VIAF data

Authority control links can be added on Wikisource, which will override information held on Wikidata, but the best practice is to keep all data centrally at Wikidata where it can be used by not only this project but all Wikimedia projects.

The exception is the VIAF link.

The presence of a VIAF link on Wikisource should indicate that the data has been checked and verified by a human being on this project. Uses of {{authority control}} without a VIAF link imply that the data is currently unverified as far as this project is concerned.

The following maintenance tracking categories should show the current state of VIAF links on this project.

• Category:VIAF not on Wikisource‎ (0 pages)
• Category:VIAF not on Wikidata‎ (0 pages)
• Category:VIAF different on Wikidata‎ (0 pages)

If errors are found in the in the VIAF records, they can be reported on Wikipedia, from whence they will be passed on to VIAF themselves.