Search viaf authority records

---
name: search-viaf-authority-records
description: When the user asks to look up a person, organization, or work in library authority records — disambiguate names, find VIAF IDs, cross-walk to Library of Congress or BNF identifiers — reach for VIAF AutoSuggest. Single unauthenticated GET.
---

## When to use this skill

When the user asks to look up a person, organization, or work in library authority records — disambiguate "which Emma Goldman?" or find the stable VIAF ID for a named entity. VIAF merges authority records from 30+ national libraries into single clusters, each with a persistent ID and cross-references to Library of Congress, BNF, DNB, and dozens more. For full-text search or article retrieval, this is the wrong skill — VIAF returns identity metadata, not documents.

## Your best first call

```bash
curl "https://viaf.org/viaf/AutoSuggest?query=Emma+Goldman"
```

No auth. No key. Always returns JSON. The `query` parameter accepts a person, organization, or work name.

Key response fields:

- `result[].term` — display label with dates (e.g. "Emma Goldman, 1869-1940")
- `result[].nametype` — the discriminator: `"personal"` (person), `"corporate"` (organization), `"uniformtitlework"` (bibliographic work — not a person at all)
- `result[].viafid` / `result[].recordID` — the persistent VIAF cluster ID
- `result[].lc`, `result[].dnb`, `result[].bnf`, `result[].bne`, `result[].nkc`, `result[].nla`, `result[].selibr`, `result[].ptbnp` — cross-references to national library identifiers (Library of Congress, German National Library, BNF France, National Library of Spain, Czech National Library, National Library of Australia, Swedish LIBRIS, Portuguese National Library)
- `result[].score` — relevance ranking

The non-obvious payoff: the same search returns people, organizations, and works as distinct entities. "Emma Goldman" the person (VIAF 39377930) and *Living My Life* her autobiography (VIAF 205789421) each have their own VIAF ID. Filter on `nametype` before assuming you have the right entity.

## Fallbacks (when the best call isn't enough)

- **Full authority record with alternate names, nationalities, and source cross-walks** → `https://viaf.org/viaf/{viafid}?format=json` returns the complete cluster with multilingual headings, birth/death dates, and nationality arrays. Always append `?format=json` — the default is RDF/XML.
- **Crosswalk from a Library of Congress Control Number** → `https://viaf.org/viaf/lccn/{lccn}?format=json` translates an LCCN directly into a VIAF cluster, no search step needed.
- **Field-specific CQL queries (e.g. `local.personalName`, `local.sources`)** → `https://viaf.org/viaf/search` supports SRU/CQL syntax, but the response is SRU-wrapped XML-as-JSON, deeply nested with `recordPosition` and `xsi:type` annotations. Prefer AutoSuggest unless you need CQL field targeting.

## Pitfalls

- The cluster endpoint (`/viaf/{viafID}`) defaults to RDF/XML, not JSON. Always append `?format=json`. AutoSuggest itself always returns JSON — this pitfall only bites when you follow up on a `viafid`.
- JSON keys from the cluster endpoint carry XML namespace prefixes: `ns1:viafID`, `ns1:mainHeadings`, `ns1:text`. Do not assume plain key names like `viafID`.
- A single person can have multiple nationality entries from different library sources — "US" per the Library of Congress and "Russian Empire" per Wikidata are not contradictions; they reflect different cataloging traditions and historical boundaries.
- `nametype` `"uniformtitlework"` is a bibliographic work, not a person. "Emma Goldman, 1869-1940. | Living my life" is the book, not the author. Filter on `nametype` before treating a result as a person.

## One-line summary for the user

I can search VIAF for authority records by name — disambiguating people, organizations, and works across 30+ national libraries in a single unauthenticated GET — but VIAF returns identity metadata, not full-text documents.