Towards sharing Persian Name Authority Data in the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)

Towards sharing Persian Name Authority Data in the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)

The aim of the study was to investigate the barriers for sharing Persian name authorities in the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) based on the data of National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI) to know how these data could be added in VIAF and shared with other libraries and data centers. Survey method was used for the research. Name authority experts in NLAI were interviewed to understand the barriers for sharing name authority data in VIAF. Then qualitative content analysis was used for the analysis of a stratified random sample of 699 name authority records. Each record was checked in the Library of Congress Name Authority File to find out about the differences between them and how the differences could affect users and libraries for finding the records, for instance how users might lose the data of a unique name in Persian language in VIAF. Because all the Persian names are not in Library of Congress Name Authority File or they are not spelled as well as Iranians (Persian speakers) pronounce them. Sharing Persian Name Authority Data in VIAF is necessary. The results of the research showed that according to name authority experts of NLAI, it is necessary to share NLAI data in VIAF. However, there are some barriers with regard to human resources, management, research and education, software, hardware and data validity. In addition, investigating NLAI name authority sample data indicated that: 1) there is no link between name authorities’ database and bibliographic records, 2) differences in spelling similar names may be a problem for retrieving them, 3) almost half of NLAI name authority records are incomplete 4) there are more than one authorized name records for a single author name, 5) only 50% of NLAI name authorities matched to the Library of Congress Name Authority File. As a conclusion of the research, it is essential to optimize and correct NLAI name authorities in order to be able to share them in VIAF.