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A detail of the Goldsmiths’ Company’s catalogue (powered by Sirsi, Eos.web) showing search results and faceting.


ard bibliographical catalogue records, stored in an internal database, into records ­


­fit­for­a­21st­century­Online­


Public­Access­Catalogue­(OPAC);­and­ as we were essentially starting from scratch, how should such records be structured and indexed?


Having researched what other librar- ies used, it was an easy decision to make regarding structure and format: our new library records would be MARC and RDA. And my initial decision was that we would use Library of Congress subject headings (LCSH).


Then the pandemic came. Working from home, and with fewer enquiries, I was able to focus primarily on the cataloguing project and take advan- tage of online training opportunities. In July 2020 I attended the webinar Introduction to FAST, held by CILIP’s Metadata and Discovery Group; and shortly­afterwards,­an­OCLC­webinar­ on 21st indexing and the use of FAST. Having discussed it with my manager, the decision was made to go with FAST. One­particularly­strong­deciding­factor­ was that outlined by Alan Danskin, Collection Metadata Standards Manager at­the­British­Library,­in­the­OCLC­ webinar – that it was part of the British Library’s strategy to move to FAST headings. I already knew that we would be depending on free services to get our basic bibliographical records, including the BL’s Z39.50 service. Moreover, it would be good – after so many years in the ‘internal database’ wilderness – to feel that we were ahead of the curve.


What is FAST and what are


the benefits of using it? FAST stands for Faceted Application of Subject Terminology. It has been developed­by­OCLC­and­the­Library­ of­Congress­from­the­LCSH.­In­effect­ it is an adaptation of the LCSH with a simplified­syntax,­leaving­the­emphasis­ on the vocabulary itself. It is compatible with MARC, and is free and available online at https://fast.oclc.org/searchfast/. One­big­advantage­which­departs­ from LCSH is that FAST is simple to apply and it is therefore easy to train staff.­The­British­Library­estimates­that­ it takes three to six months to train staff­in­Library­of­Congress­Subject­ Headings; it takes one day to learn the FAST syntax. Its simplicity also allows non-librarians to use it, (as long as they are trained in subject analysis). This is


April-May 2023


a­particular­benefit­for­our­library,­which­ has a tradition of hiring subject specialists rather­than­librarians­(our­current­staff­ members include a gemmologist and a jeweller).


It is also easier to control. Anyone who has ever clicked on a beautifully con- structed­LCSH­string,­only­to­find­zero­ other resources (when it’s clear there are other resources of similar subject matter) might­find­some­relief­in­the­simplicity­of­ its faceted application.


So one might convert a Library of Con- gress string for an exhibition catalogue as follows:


Subject 650 $aSilverware$zEngland$zLondon$vExhibitions. Expressed in FAST as an array:


Subject 650 7 $a Silverware. $2 fast $0 (OCoLC) fst01119010


Geographical 651 7 $a England $z London. $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst01204271


Genre 655 7 $a Exhibition catalogs. $2 fast $0 (OCoLC) fst01424028


As you will have noticed from the $0 components, FAST is also a linked data vocabulary, and can be used in linked data environments; subjects can also be expressed as URIs.


What are the challenges of using FAST


– and are they really challenges? We engaged with FAST from what was­effectively­a­clean­slate.­­However,­ I appreciate that LCSH is already embedded in many libraries’ catalogues and procedures, so changing will take time­and­effort.­This­is­at­least­partially­ counterbalanced by the ease of training;


Facet


Personal name Corporate name Meeting or Event Chronological


Topic Geographical Form and Genre MARC tag


600 610 647 648


650 651 655


and there are tools to help, such as a FAST Converter accessible from the SearchFast page which will break down LCSH into FAST headings.


Another possible challenge is the shift in perspective when handling the facets, sep- arating out the pieces that would normally have­all­occurred­in­a­650­subject­field.­ For example, you would no longer have a heading such as ‘Silverwork-France-His- tory’­in­a­650­field;­instead­you­would­ place France in the 651 geographical facet and history in 655 as the genre, leaving silverwork in the 650. You can also state multiple genres against one item – for example a historical overview which also contains biographical information can be categorised as ‘History’ and ‘Biographies’. The ease of use may also present another challenge. There may be some sense of challenging traditional cataloguer expertise. As mentioned above, with FAST, there are no cataloguer-constructed sub- ject strings, with attendant implications on the Browse Search function. However, there’s nothing to stop users from carry- ing out Boolean searches, and the ability to­filter­by­facet­is­still­present­so­FAST­ doesn’t necessarily lead to a simplistic form of searching (see the image of our catalogue). It’s also worth bearing in mind that there has been a shift in user behav- iour towards ‘Google type’ or keyword searches (87 per cent of the searches car- ried­out­on­our­OPAC­are­of­this­type,­and­ I have heard other librarians say this is closer to 95 per cent in their catalogues). I did have to adapt one facet for our use


Example (text only)


Lamerie, Paul de, 1688-1751 Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths Great Fire (London, England : 1666)


Before 1800 1700-1799 Silverware


England-London Exhibition catalogs


INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 39


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