The benefits of the GND authority data

Libraries were quick to develop a tool that helps them in their cataloguing work by allowing them to reference recurring entities such as authors, places of publication, specialist fields and other elements in a standardized manner across different institutions. Out of this arose the idea of authority data. These data also provide definitive search entries and forge links between different information resources. The Integrated Authority File (GND) is a service which facilitates the collaborative administration and use of authority data. It is cooperatively managed by the German National Library in collaboration with all German-language library unions, the German Union Catalogue of Serials, and many other institutions. Both the authority data and the entire data set are freely available at no charge under Creative Commons Zero (CCO 1.0) license terms. From the perspective of cultural preservation and research institutes, authority data also make their cataloguing easier.

The GND improves the visibility of data

The use of authority data in an institution’s own descriptive data – the metadata – for digital objects and digital copies considerably improves data quality in all aspects of the FAIR Data Principles. This is because the GND improves the visibility of an institution's own data online. A growing number of platforms such as Wikipedia, the German Digital Library, Archivportal-D, the National Bibliography, union catalogues and many others are linking to the GND to make their data more visible. In the following, one example highlights all the aspects of the FAIR Data Principles: All the data linked to the authority data record on Clara Schumann – from her Wikipedia entry and her works and their interpretations, through to images of and articles on Clara Schumann and to her favoured instruments – provide a reference point via which to find further data records. By being linked in this way, authority data create considerably more reference points for research than a museum’s own website alone can provide. This is why the findability (F) of their data is so crucial to many GLAM institutions, as visibility is an important metric for the efficacy of the respective institution and its collections. The interoperability (I) and reuse (R) of data is becoming increasingly important as ever more applications such as mobile apps combine data from various data sources. Here too, authority data and their standardized structure make an essential contribution to improving data quality. Taken together, they then improve the accessibility (A) of the data by simplifying the integration of the data on major data portals such as the German Digital Library and Europeana.

Shortening working procedures with the GND

One other significant factor in digital transformation is the limited availability within the respective institutions of resources for cataloguing digital collections with metadata. By using authority data, it is possible to reduce working procedures while still maintaining high levels of quality. The content of the GND promise both. It delivers quality-assured content that doesn’t need re-entering but merely referencing.

A prerequisite to project funding

The awarding of grants in the world of research and the field of digitalised cultural heritage is becoming increasingly dependent on the application of the aforementioned FAIR Data Principles. External funding bodies thereby wish to ensure that the results – which today mainly comprise of some form of data – remain permanently usable by being findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. The data records of the GND are in line with the FAIR Data Principles while also supporting these principles in data records where they are applied.

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