FAST for Cataloging and Discovery

December 11-12, 2013

Hosted by Jennifer D. Miller and Chew Chiat Naun

Please join us for an e-forum discussion. It’s free and open to everyone!
Registration information is at the end of the message.

Each day, discussion begins and ends at:

Pacific: 7am – 3pm
Mountain: 8am – 4pm
Central: 9am – 5pm
Eastern: 10am – 6pm

FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology) was designed as a lightweight derivative of Library of Congress Subject Headings that would be easy to learn and work well with faceted discovery systems. It has recently drawn renewed interest following OCLC’s announcement that it would add FAST headings globally to WorldCat. This e-forum looks at possible uses of FAST and how libraries may go about implementing it.

Topics may include the following:

• Who is using FAST, or thinking of doing so? What kinds of collections is it being used to describe? Is the work being done by traditionally trained catalogers, or by others as well?
• What training and implementation issues have arisen for FAST users? What do you need to get started? Does FAST live up to its promise of being comprehensive and easy to apply?
• What does FAST mean for discovery systems? What efforts have been made to implement it in faceted interfaces? How would you evaluate its impact on catalog users?
• How could FAST influence the way we do authority control? What would a linked data implementation of FAST look like?

Jennifer D. Miller is the Assistant Head of Cataloging and Metadata Services and the Metadata Coordinator at Rice University. She received her MSLIS and a Certificate in Special Collections from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is active in ALCTS, currently serving as the Vice-Chair of the Metadata Interest Group.

Chew Chiat Naun has been Director of Cataloging & Metadata Services at Cornell University since May this year. He is a graduate of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and held cataloguing positions there and at the University of Illinois and the University of Minnesota. He has been active in ALCTS and PCC.

*What is an e-forum?*

An ALCTS e-forum provides an opportunity for librarians to discuss matters of interest, led by a moderator, through the e-forum discussion list. The e-forum discussion list works like an email listserv: register your email address with the list, and then you will receive messages and communicate with other participants through an email discussion. Most e-forums last two to three days. Registration is necessary to participate, but it's free. See a list of upcoming e-forums at: http://www.ala.org/alcts/confevents/upcoming/e-forum.

*To register:*

Instructions for registration are available at: http://www.ala.org/alcts/confevents/upcoming/e-forum/sympa. Once you have registered for one e-forum, you do not need to register again, unless you choose to leave the email list. Participation is free and open to anyone. If you have any problems, please contact alcts-eforum-request@ala.org.

Posted on behalf of the ALCTS Continuing Education Committee