Help:Authority control
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Authority control is a way of associating a unique identifier to articles on Wikipedia. This is useful to disambiguate different items with similar or identical headings, as well as establish a single standard title for an item that is commonly known by two or more titles. When used, authority control data links can be found near the bottom of Wikipedia pages, linking to bibliographical records on worldwide library catalogs. Authority control is often used in biographical articles because it is quite common for more than one person to share the same name. It is commonly used in other subject material as well.
Authority control enables researchers to search more easily for pertinent information on the subject of an article, without needing to disambiguate the subject manually. For example, authority control is used on music articles so that the information in the article can be easily cross-referenced with popular databases.
More generally, authority control is a method of creating and maintaining index terms for bibliographical material in a library catalog, similar to the Dewey Decimal System. The links produced by the authority control template on Wikipedia go to authority control data in worldwide library catalogs. As an example, the Wikipedia authority control information for Alexander Graham Bell looks like this:
The abbreviations in the box represent the following: International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI); Virtual International Authority File (VIAF); Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN); and Integrated Authority File (GND), Gemeinsame Normdatei in German. WorldCat is a global cooperative union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories.
Supported files
The following authority files are supported on the English Wikipedia:
| Wikidata property | Identifier | Section | Appears as |
|---|---|---|---|
| (P213) | International | ||
| Remarks:ISNI is a method for uniquely identifying the public identities of contributors to media content such as books, TV programmes, and newspaper articles. Please take care not to confuse ISNI and ORCID identifiers. | |||
| (P214) | International | ||
| Remarks:International authority data from the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) | |||
| (P227) | National | ||
| Remarks:Authority data on people, corporations and subjects from the German National Library (DNB) | |||
| (P244) | National | ||
| Remarks:See Wikipedia:Authority control#LCCN for formatting instructions | |||
| (P245) | Artists | ||
| Remarks:ULAN is an online database using a controlled vocabulary currently containing around 293,000 names and other information about artists. Names in ULAN may include given names, pseudonyms, variant spellings, names in multiple languages, and names that have changed over time (e.g., married names). | |||
| (P268) | National | ||
| Remarks:Authority data of people listed in the general catalogue of the National Library of France | |||
| (P268) | National | ||
| (P269) | Other | ||
| Remarks:Authority data of people listed in the general catalogue of the University Documentation System of France. Also available from English-speaking catalog (search author, click one book, click author name, take PPN= value of the URL) | |||
| (P271) | Academics | ||
| Remarks:CiNii is a bibliographic database service for material in Japanese academic libraries. It is maintained by the National Institute of Informatics. | |||
| (P347) | Other | ||
| (P349) | National | ||
| Remarks:Authority data listed in the catalog of the national library of Japan. Search also available via VIAF. | |||
| (P350) | Other | ||
| (P380) | Geographic | ||
| (P396) | National | ||
| Remarks:Central Institute for the Union Catalogue (ICCU: Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico) is an Italian government agency created to build a single catalog of all the libraries in the nation. It manages National Library Service (Servizio bibliotecario nazionale). | |||
| (P409) | National | ||
| Remarks:NLA Trove's People and Organisation view allows the discovery of biographical and other contextual information about people and organisations. Search also available via VIAF. | |||
| (P428) | Academics | ||
| Remarks:Author citation (botany): standard form (official abbreviation) of a personal name for use in an author citation (only for names of algae, fungi and plants). Links to page at International Plant Names Index (IPNI). | |||
| (P434) | Artists | ||
| Remarks:MusicBrainz is an open music encyclopedia that collects music metadata and makes it available to the public. | |||
| (P435) | Other | ||
| (P436) | Other | ||
| (P454) | Geographic | ||
| (P496) | Academics | ||
| Remarks:Authority data on researchers, academics, etc. The ID range is a subset of the ISNI range. For free text links (for example when mentioning a person on page which is not about them), it is also possible to use {{ORCID}}. Authors—including Wikipedia editors—may obtain an ORCID by signing up at orcid.org/register. Please take care not to confuse ORCID and ISNI identifiers. | |||
| (P549) | Academics | ||
| Remarks:Mathematics Genealogy Project is a web-based database for the academic genealogy of mathematicians. | |||
| (P650) | Artists | ||
| Remarks:RKDartists is an online database using a controlled vocabulary currently containing around 200,000+ names and other information about artists. Names in RKDartists may include given names, pseudonyms, variant spellings, names in multiple languages, and names that have changed over time (e.g., married names). | |||
| (P651) | People | ||
| Remarks:Dutch project with material for 40,000 digitized biographies, including former colonies of the Netherlands. | |||
| (P691) | National | ||
| Remarks:National Library of the Czech Republic (Národní knihovna České republiky) is the central library of the Czech Republic. | |||
| (P716) | Other | ||
| (P781) | Artists | ||
| Remarks:SIKART is a biographical dictionary and a database on visual art in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is published online by the Swiss Institute for Art Research (SIAR). | |||
| (P791) | People | ||
| Remarks:Libraries, museums and archives, decentralized national databases. | |||
| (P864) | Academics | ||
| (P865) | People | ||
| (P886) | Other | ||
| Remarks:Lexicon Istoric Retic (LIR) is a two volume version with a selection of articles published in Romansh. | |||
| (P902) | Other | ||
| Remarks:Historical Dictionary of Switzerland is an encyclopedia on the history of Switzerland. | |||
| (P947) | National | ||
| Remarks:Russian State Library (Российская государственная библиотека) is the national library of Russia. | |||
| (P950) | National | ||
| Remarks:National Library of Spain (BNE: Biblioteca Nacional de España) is a major public library, the largest in Spain. | |||
| (P966) | Other | ||
| (P982) | Geographic | ||
| (P1003) | National | ||
| (P1004) | Geographic | ||
| (P1005) | National | ||
| (P1006) | National | ||
| (P1015) | National | ||
| Remarks:BIBSYS is a supplier of library and information systems for all Norwegian university Libraries, the National Library of Norway, college libraries, and a number of research libraries and institutions. | |||
| (P1045) | People | ||
| (P1048) | National | ||
| Remarks:National Central Library is the national library of Taiwan, Republic of China. | |||
| (P1053) | Academics | ||
| Remarks:An identifying system for scientific authors. The system was introduced in January 2008 by Thomson Reuters. The combined use of the digital object identifier with the ResearcherID allows for a unique association of authors and scientific articles. | |||
| (P1146) | People | ||
| Remarks:The IAAF athlete database lists information about sport of athletics competitors. | |||
| (P1153) | Academics | ||
| Remarks:SciVerse Scopus is a bibliographic database containing abstracts and citations for academic journal articles. It covers nearly 19,500 titles from over 5,000 international publishers, of which 16,500 are peer-reviewed journals in the scientific, technical, medical, and social sciences (including arts and humanities). | |||
| (P1157) | People | ||
| Remarks:Biographical Directory of the United States Congress is a biographical dictionary of all present and former members of the United States Congress and its predecessor, the Continental Congress. Also included are Delegates from territories and the District of Columbia and Resident Commissioners from the Philippines and Puerto Rico. | |||
| (P1186) | People | ||
| (P1225) | Other | ||
| Remarks:National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records. | |||
| (P1248) | Artists | ||
| Remarks:KulturNav is a Norwegian cloud-based software service, allowing users to create, manage and distribute name authorities and terminology, focusing on the needs of museums and other cultural heritage institutions. The software is developed by KulturIT ANS and the development project is funded by the Arts Council Norway. | |||
| (P1315) | People | ||
| (P1323) | Other | ||
| (P1330) | Other | ||
| (P1362) | Other | ||
| Remarks:Theaterlexikon der Schweiz (TLS) is an encyclopedia about theatre in Switzerland. It was developed by the Institute of Theatre Studies of the University of Berne. | |||
| (P1368) | National | ||
| (P1375) | National | ||
| (P1407) | Other | ||
| (P1556) | Academics | ||
| (P1584) | Geographic | ||
| Remarks:Pleiades is a joint project of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University and the Ancient World Mapping Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. | |||
| (P1707) | Artists | ||
| (P1736) | Artists | ||
| (P1886) | Geographic | ||
| (P1890) | National | ||
| (P1907) | People | ||
| (P1908) | People | ||
| (P1960) | Academics | ||
| (P1986) | People | ||
| (P2041) | Artists | ||
| (P2092) | Other | ||
| (P2163) | International | ||
| (P2174) | Artists | ||
| (P2268) | Artists | ||
| (P2349) | Artists | ||
| (P2418) | People | ||
| (P2456) | Academics | ||
| (P2484) | Geographic | ||
| (P2558) | People | ||
| Remarks:autores.uy is an author's database, that focus on Uruguayan authors. It was created and maintained by the Uruguayan chapter of Creative Commons. It also provides access to digitized works of the authors in public domain. | |||
| (P2750) | Artists | ||
| Remarks:PIC is a photographer's database. It is maintained by the New York Public Library. | |||
| (P2980) | Geographic | ||
| (P3223) | Geographic | ||
| (P3233) | Academics | ||
| (P3326) | Geographic | ||
| (P3348) | National | ||
| (P3372) | Artists | ||
| (P3407) | Geographic | ||
| (P3430) | Other | ||
| (P3544) | Other | ||
| (P3562) | Geographic | ||
| (P3563) | Geographic | ||
| (P3601) | Geographic | ||
| (P3723) | Geographic | ||
| (P3788) | National | ||
| (P3829) | Academics | ||
| (P3863) | Geographic | ||
| (P3920) | Geographic | ||
| Remarks:Identifier from one of 4 volumes of List of Lights, Buoys and Fog Signals issued by the Canadian Coast Guard. | |||
| (P3993) | Geographic | ||
| (P4038) | Geographic | ||
| (P4055) | Geographic | ||
| (P4114) | Artists | ||
| (P4143) | Geographic | ||
| (P4186) | People | ||
| (P4423) | Geographic | ||
| (P4457) | Artists | ||
| (P4534) | People | ||
| (P4535) | Geographic | ||
| (P4581) | Artists | ||
| (P4613) | Other | ||
| (P4955) | Academics | ||
| (P5034) | National | ||
| (P5226) | Artists | ||
| Remarks:Identifier of an artist in the B.R.A.H.M.S. (Base Relationnelle d'Articles Hypertextes sur la Musique du 20e Siècle database), by the IRCAM | |||
| (P5288) | Geographic | ||
| (P5302) | Other | ||
| Remarks:Identifier for a musical work in the B.R.A.H.M.S. (Base Relationnelle d'Articles Hypertextes sur la Musique du 20e Siècle database) database, by the IRCAM | |||
| (P5321) | Artists | ||
| (P5368) | Artists | ||
| (P5504) | Other | ||
| (P5587) | National | ||
| (P906) | National | ||
| Remarks:Authority data from the National Library of Sweden | |||
| (P5736) | Other | ||
| (P5818) | Geographic | ||
| (P6213) | People | ||
| Remarks:UK parliament member data | |||
| (P6792) | Artists | ||
| (P6804) | Artists | ||
| (P6829) | People | ||
| (P7293) | National | ||
| (P1695) | National | ||
| (P7303) | Artists | ||
| (P7314) | Other | ||
| (P7902) | People | ||
| (P8034) | National | ||
| Remarks:Vatican Library document data | |||
| (P8189) | National | ||
| (P8381) | Artists | ||
| (P8671) | Other | ||
| Remarks:Deutsche Bahn station code, identifier for train stations and other operating points used by Deutsche Bahn | |||
| (P8980) | National | ||
| (P9070) | Other | ||
| (P9692) | Artists | ||
| Remarks:Identifier for a musician in the Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit | |||
| (P9725) | Geographic | ||
| Remarks:Identifier for an entry in the castles inventory database EBIDAT | |||
| (P9984) | National | ||
| (P10020) | People | ||
| (P10299) | Academics | ||
| (P10832) | International | ||
| Remarks:WorldCat Entities for persons and works, by OCLC | |||
| (P11249) | National | ||
| (P11646) | People | ||
| Remarks:Online database of voice actors in film and television productions | |||
| (P12204) | Other | ||
| Remarks:Identifier for an entry in the Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice (ELNCIP) Knowledge Base | |||