Overview

Entity Facts is a data service provided by the German National Library that provides machine-readable “fact sheets” on entities in the Integrated Authority File (GND).

This service makes it possible to use information from the GND with no prior knowledge of bibliographic data formats or cataloguing conventions.

The data is delivered in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format. It is optimised for direct display or indexing in other applications. The data can currently only be queried by using GND identifiers.
Other search options are facilitated by integration of the GND into the German National Library’s interfaces.

Entity Facts is offered as part of our Linked Data Service. The most commonly used JSON is the variant "JSON for Linking Data" (JSON-LD). This facilitates the processing of data in the triple structure of the Resource Description Framework (RDF).

Entity Facts currently supports the entity types "Person" (example), „Family“ (example), "Corporate Body" (example), "Event" (example) and "Geographical Entity" (example).

Along with data from the GND, links are furnished to other data providers such as VIAF, ISNI, BNF, LoC, Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, Bayerisches Musiker-Lexikon Online, IMDb. The links are taken from publicly available external data such as VIAF and Wikidata or in the form of BEACON files.

Entity Facts was set up in 2014 as part of a project aimed at depicting the entity type “Person”.

Description of application programming interface (API)

The base URL of the Entity Facts service is: https://hub.culturegraph.org/entityfacts
The GND identifier is appended to this.
Example: https://hub.culturegraph.org/entityfacts/118540238

You do not have to register to use the Entity Facts service.

Download

Information about the Linked Data Dumps
Download the Entity Facts dump (format: RDF (JSON-LD), updated monthly)

Examples of use

The Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (DDB) uses Entity Facts for its entities page and to index alternative name forms for search purposes.
Example: https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/person/gnd/118540238

The Specialised Information Service (FID) for Performing Arts www.performing-arts.eu uses Entity Facts to display detailed information on performers.
Example: https://www.performing-arts.eu/agent/gnd_118540238

Subscription terms and terms of use

All bibliographic data from the German National Library and the authority data from the Integrated Authority File (GND) is available free of charge for general use under Creative Commons Zero terms (CC0 1.0).

The metadata and online interfaces are provided with no guarantee that they will be continuous, punctual, error-free or complete or that they do not violate third-party rights (e.g. personal rights and copyright).

Further development

The service is continually being expanded as part of the import/export releases.

Documentation

• Integrated Authority File (GND)
• Entity Facts - overview of JSON
• Metadataservice Info (information about changes to RDF format (various serialisations))

Interested in information?

Subscribe to the Linked Data Service mailing list to stay up to date on impending changes and other services. Your questions and suggestions are also welcome here.

Contact

metadatendienste@dnb.de