Integrated Authority File

The Integrated Authority File (German: Gemeinsame Normdatei) or GND is an international authority file. It is used by librarians for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies. It is used mainly for documentation in libraries and increasingly also by archives and museums. The GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license.^[1]

GND screenshot

Predecessors

The Integrated Authority File became operational in April 2012 and integrates the content of the following authority files which have since been discontinued:

• Name Authority File (German: Personennamendatei; PND)
• Corporate Bodies Authority File (German: Gemeinsame Körperschaftsdatei; GKD)
• Subject Headings Authority File (German: Schlagwortnormdatei; SWD)
• Uniform Title File of the Deutsches Musikarchiv (German: Einheitssachtitel-Datei des Deutschen Musikarchivs; DMA-EST)

At the time of its introduction (“GND-Grundbestand” from 5 April 2012), the GND holds 9,493,860 files, including 2,650,000 personalized names.