refine.codefork.com

This server provides OpenRefine reconciliation services for the following data sources:

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File
• ORCID - digital identifiers for researchers
• Open Library - an open, editable library catalog (a project of the Internet Archive)
• more to come...

You can use these services to resolve many types of names (i.e. persons, organizations, geographic regions, book titles) to standard IDs representing those entities.

Important Notes

Please keep your usage within reasonable limits (say, a few thousand requests a day), to avoid a) taxing my server and b) pissing off the data sources which this service queries. If your needs are greater, consider downloading and running this software yourself (it's free) and hosting your own service. See below.

This project is not affiliated with OpenRefine, VIAF, ORCID, or Open Library. I make no guarantees about availability, the accuracy of the data transmitted, or anything else that can go wrong in life. Use at your own risk.

How to Use This Service

• In OpenRefine, select "Reconcile" and "Start Reconciling..." in the pull-down menu beside a column whose values you want to reconcile.
• Click "Add Standard Service..."
• Type in the relevant URL from below, depending on the data source you want to use.

Using VIAF

• To reconcile against names from any VIAF source, type in:
  
  https://refine.codefork.com/reconcile/viaf
• OR, to reconcile against a specific VIAF source, add its code to the end of the path. For example, to search only names from the Bibliothèque nationale de France, type in:
  
  https://refine.codefork.com/reconcile/viaf/BNF
• OR, to retrieve the IDs used by source institutions, rather than VIAF IDs, use "proxy mode." For example, to search only names from the Library of Congress and retrieve their IDs, type in:
  
  https://refine.codefork.com/reconcile/viafproxy/LC

Using ORCID

• To reconcile against names from ORCID, type in:
  
  https://refine.codefork.com/reconcile/orcid
• To use "smartnames" mode for ORCID (see README), type in:
  
  https://refine.codefork.com/reconcile/orcid/smartnames
• On the reconciliation screen, under the "Also use relevant details from other columns" panel, you can check the "Include?" box for columns to use as fielded searches. See the README for ORCID documentation pages listing valid field names, which you should use for the "As Property" box.

Using Open Library

• To reconcile against names from Open Library, type in:
  
  https://refine.codefork.com/reconcile/openlibrary
• On the reconciliation screen, under the "Also use relevant details from other columns" panel, you can check the "Include?" box for columns to include in the query. Give them any name in the "As Property" box. If no results are found with these column values added to the query, the service will try again with only the original selected column.

News and Updates

Sep 2022 - Now running v3.1.0 with under-the-hood improvements. There's now stats.

Aug 2022 - Now running v3.0.6 with a fix for VIAF (it now requires https). This server also now uses https.

May 2020 - Now running v3.0.5 with CORS support for OpenRefine 3.3.

Mar 2018 - Now running v3.0.

Apr 2017 - Added the Open Library data source.

Oct 2016 - Now running conciliator, which supercedes the refine_viaf project. For details, see this blog post.

Jul 2016 - Now running v1.5 with fix for "too many requests" errors from VIAF.

Jun 2016 - Now running v1.4 with new "proxy mode" feature added.

May 2016 - Now running v1.3 with caching.

Apr 2016 - This service now runs v1.2 which calculates scores for results based on a name's similarity to the search string. Previously, all results had a score of 1.

Dec 2015 - The software that runs this service has changed. For details, please read this page.

Source Code

The source code for this service is in this github repository. Feel free to host your own service.