GND Authorities
GND authority records
The Integrated Authority File (GND) is an authority file that contains over 9.3 million records for personal, corporate, conference, and geographic names, name-titles, uniform titles, and subjects. It is operated cooperatively by the German National Library, all German-speaking library networks, the German Union Catalogue of Serials and numerous other institutions.
Contributions to the GND are made either via the networks or in direct agreement with the German National Library.
Types of headings
See GND indexes and indexed fields for a list of headings.
Search or browse for a GND authority record
When working with WorldCat bibliographic records, you can search the German authority records (GND Authorities) to determine the correct forms for persons, corporate bodies, conferences and events, geographic information, topics and works associated with the resource you are describing.
- From the Data Type drop-down list, select Authority Records.
- From the Scope drop-down list, select a scope.
- GND Authorities - searches the GND file
- GND Authorities - Browse - browses the GND file
- From the Index drop-down list, select an index. For a list of all indexes, see GND indexes and indexed fields.
- In the Term(s) text field, enter your search terms. The text field will expand to fit your search terms, if needed.
- Click Search. The Search results page appears with the matching authorities results listed in a table.
- Click the Name of the matching item to view the authority file record.
Apply GND authority heading information to a bibliographic record
After you control a heading and replace the record in WorldCat, Record Manager automatically updates the heading whenever the linked authority record changes.
Copy authority heading information from an authority file
- Open the record to which you wish to apply GND authority heading information.
- In the MARC 21 editor, click the field immediately above the location where you want to add the controlled field and then click the Add Field icon (
) . - Enter the controllable field and, if applicable, the indicator you want to add to the bibliographic record.
- In the Basic search panel, select a scope.
- GND Authorities - searches the GND file
- GND Authorities - Browse - browses the GND file
- From the Index drop-down list, select an index.
- Based on the index you selected, enter your search terms. The text field will expand to fit your search terms, if needed.
- Click Search. The Search results page appears with the matching authorities results listed in a table.
- Click the Name of the matching authority to view the authority file record.
- Click Copy Authority Data.
- Return to the field you created in the MARC 21 editor.
- Select Apply Authority Data from the Edit drop-down menu. The GND authority heading information is added to the field. The header displays as a hyperlink in the bibliographic record and the $0 value is shown as a mouse-over of the link.
Manually enter a single authority heading
- Open the bibliographic record to which you wish to apply authority heading information.
- In the MARC 21 editor, click the field immediately above the location where you want to add the controlled field and then click the Add Field icon ().
- Enter the field number and indicator for the new field.
- Enter an authority heading in the new field.
- Right-click the new field and click Add from the Controlled Heading flyout menu.
- If the text you entered matches an authority heading, the header displays as a hyperlink in the bibliographic record and the following confirmation message appears: The controlled heading is associated with a single authority record.
- If the text you entered does not match an authority heading, the Control Heading dialog opens and states that no matching authority record wa found. Click Cancel to close the dialog and edit the text you entered.
Manually enter multiple authority headings
- Open the bibliographic record to which you wish to apply authority heading information.
- In the MARC 21 editor, click the field immediately above the location where you want to add the controlled field and then click the Add Field icon ().
- Enter the field number and indicator for the new field.
- Enter an authority heading in the new field.
- Repeat steps 2-4 for additional authority headings.
- Select Control All Headings from the Record drop-down menu.
- If the text you entered matches an authority heading, the header displays as a hyperlink in the bibliographic record and the following confirmation message appears: Some of the controllable headings were controlled.
- If the text you entered does not match an authority heading, the following message appears: Some of the controllable headings were not controlled.
Controllable fields
Only the following fields permit the control of these headings using a GND authority record:
- 100, 110, 111, 130, 700, 710, 711, 730 (where $b = "ger")
- 600, 610, 611, 630, 650, 651 where indicator 2 = 7 and subfield $2 = gnd