FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology) is one of the library domain’s most widely used subject terminology schemas and is a collaborative effort between OCLC Research and the Library of Congress dating all the way back to 1998.
At OCLC, we are committed to the growth and support of FAST and we are actively working to transition it from an experimental research environment to OCLC production servers. The first stage, which is underway, is transitioning FAST to a production database, and we are already analyzing options for next steps, based on community needs and interest.
Additionally, we have partnered with representatives from the library community to create a new FAST Policy and Outreach Committee (FPOC). FPOC is an advisory and outreach body that will represent users of FAST for the purposes of:
- Establishing editorial policies regarding terms
- Overseeing community engagement, term contributions, and procedures
- Recommending directions and goals for development/improvements
- And much more (see http://oc.lc/FASTcommittee for additional details)
The FPOC Committee has established the following vision statement:
"FAST will be a fully supported, widely adopted and community developed general subject vocabulary derived from LCSH with tools and services that serve the needs of diverse communities and contexts."
Are you interested in keeping up to date with FAST-related activities or joining working groups to help shape the future of FAST? If yes, then please consider joining the FACETVOC-L (Faceted Controlled Vocabularies discussion) listserv. The information to join this listserv is available below.
Service availability
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FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology)
Available everywhere
Join this listserv
Join FACETVOC-L, a listserv discussion of all Faceted Controlled Vocabularies. To subscribe, simply send an e-mail message to listserv@oclclists.org with the word "subscribe FACETVOC-L" in the body of your message. To post messages, simply send an e-mail message to FACETVOC-L@oclclists.org.
Recent news
Watch this space for FAST news.