German database of authority data
TheGemeinsame Normdatei (translated asIntegrated Authority File) orGND is an internationalauthority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies fromcatalogues. It is used mainly fordocumentation inlibraries and increasingly also byarchives andmuseums. The GND is managed by theGerman National Library (German:Deutsche Nationalbibliothek; DNB) in cooperation with various regional library networks inGerman-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under theCreative Commons Zero (CC0) licence.[1]
The GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful inlibrary classification, and an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It also comprises anontology intended forknowledge representation in thesemantic web, available in theRDF format.[2]
The GND became operational in April 2012 and integrates the content of the following authority files, which have since been discontinued:
- Personennamendatei (PND) (Translation: Name Authority File)
- Gemeinsame Körperschaftsdatei (GKD) (Translation: Corporate Bodies Authority File)
- Schlagwortnormdatei (SWD) (Translation: Subject Headings Authority File)
- Einheitssachtitel-Datei des Deutschen Musikarchivs (DMA-EST) (Translation: Uniform Title File of the German Music Archive)
It is referred to by identifiers namedGND-ID.
At the time of its introduction on 5 April 2012, the GND held 9,493,860 files, including 2,650,000 personalised names.[citation needed] In July 2020 non-individualized files were deleted. In 2022, the GND held 9,370,736 files, including 5,937,788 personalised names.[3]
The GND participates in theVirtual International Authority File (VIAF) project.
Types of GND high-level entities
[edit]There are six main types of GND entities:[4]
| Typ | German (official) | English (translation) |
|---|
| p | Person | person |
| k | Körperschaft | corporate body |
| v | Veranstaltung | event |
| w | Werk | work |
| s | Sachbegriff | topical term |
| g | Geografikum | geographical place name |
