FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology) Users: Summary and Case Studies
26 August 2013
Jeffrey Mixter, Eric R. Childress
This report explores the real-world use and implementation of FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology), a simplified subject metadata schema derived from the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). The study focuses on understanding who uses FAST, how it's applied, and in what types of systems or workflows.
Form subdivisions their identification and use in LCSH
1 January 2001
Edward T. O’Neill, Lois Mai Chan, Eric Childress, Rebecca Dean, Lynn M. El-Hoshy, Diane Vizine-Goetz
The Library of Congress Subject Headings have long included form subdivisions, but until 1995, there was no dedicated MARC subfield to distinguish them from topical subdivisions. A new subfield code ($v) was introduced to address this, but older bibliographic records lacked this coding. To retroactively identify form subdivisions, OCLC developed an algorithm that accurately detected over 2,500 unique form subdivisions in WorldCat, with an error rate under 0.1%. Usage was highly concentrated, with the top 100 subdivisions accounting for 90% of occurrences.
FAST: Faceted Application of Subject Terminology: Principles and Application
Lois Chan, Edward T. O'Neill
FAST: Faceted Application of Subject Terminology: Principles and Application is a foundational resource that introduces and explains the development, structure, and use of the FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology) system.