Integrated Authority File

The Gemeinsame Normdatei (GND) (Integrated Authority File) is a standardized index of authorities control for data on individuals, institutions, congresses, geographic data, descriptors and keywords, as well as titles of works, serving mainly library literature cataloging and increasingly also for categorization into archives, museums, projects and web applications. It is maintained in cooperation between the German National Library, all library associations of German-speaking countries (the Österreichischer Bibliothekenverbund of Austria, the Swiss National Library) and the Database of Newspapers and Magazines (Zeitschriftendatenbank) and many other institutions. Standardized data facilitates cataloging, offers unambiguous entry for searches, and enables the networking of different information resources.

The GND emerged on 19 April 2012, replacing the standardized data that were previously handled separately in the following separate indices:


 * Personennamendatei (PND), only people
 * Gemeinsame Körperschaftsdatei (GKD), only organizations
 * Schlagwortnormdatei (SWD), only keywords (descriptors)
 * Einheitssachtitel-Datei (DMA-EST-Datei) of Deutsche Musikfilename (German music file)

As of July 2014, standardized data is collected and recorded in accordance with RDA rules (Resource Description and Access), which is the standard that śe uses, among others, in the United States Library of Congress.