LEAF: Linking and Exploring Authority Files

LEAF tries to enhance search and retrieval facilities by providing high quality access to international authority information for everyone. For this purpose LEAF is developing a model architecture for collecting, harvesting, linking of, and providing access to existing local or national name authority data, independent from their creation in libraries, archives, museums or other institutions and independent from national differences. When a user searches for a name string, LEAF will search the records of all LEAF Data Providers and combine these records to one single LEAF authority record. This record will automatically be stored in a “Central Name Authority File” which will thus contain international name information of high quality and high user relevance, as it will only contain records for which searches were actually done. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: Website: © 2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]