Corporate Bodies Authority File

The Corporate Bodies Authority File (German: Gemeinsame Körperschaftsdatei) or GKD is a German authority control for the organisation of corporation names (corporate bodies) from catalogues. It is used mainly for documentation in libraries. Like the Subject Headings Authority File (Schlagwortnormdatei or SWD) and the Name Authority File (Personennamendatei or PND), the GKD is looked after and updated by the German National Library (DNB), the Bavarian State Library, the Berlin State Library and, since 1997, the Austrian National Library, several library networks taking part. The responsible editor is the State Library in Berlin. The Common Corporate File was created in the 1970s from the catalogue data of the Journal Database (ZDB). In April 2004 it contained more than 915,000 records.

Since April 2012 GKD, SWD and PND are part of the Integrated Authority File (Gemeinsame Normdatei or GND).

As with the SWD and PND, the "Rules for Alphabetical Cataloguing" (Regeln für die alphabetische Katalogisierung or RAK-WB) are used. They stipulate, amongst other things, what counts as a corporation. These include, inter alia, local authorities and associations such as firms and clubs, but also congresses and exhibitions.

In addition to names (index terms and synonyms) of individual corporations, GKD data files contain links to parent bodies as well as earlier and later names.

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