Forwarded on behalf of OCLC colleagues, with apologies for multiple postings.

From: OCLC-Cataloging [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Childress,Eric
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 5:31 PM
To: OCLC-CAT
Subject: [OCLC-CAT] OFFICIAL: OCLC is enriching WorldCat records with FAST headings

OCLC is systematically adding FAST headings to selected WorldCat records.

This message provides a brief description of the FAST enrichment activity.

For more detailed information, please see information posted at the URL listed below (“More detailed information about this enrichment….”)

What is FAST?

FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology) is a fully enumerative faceted subject heading schema derived from the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), a widely-used subject-access vocabulary published and maintained by the Library of Congress. The development of FAST has been a collaboration of OCLC and the Library of Congress with advice from members of the ALCTS/SAC/Subcommittee on FAST.

Enriching WorldCat records with FAST headings

Beginning in September 2013, OCLC is systematically adding FAST headings to WorldCat bibliographic records. The records affected will already have LCSH assigned, and the routines will be applied only to records that are attributed as being English-language-of-cataloging.

FAST-enriched WorldCat records will include “OCLCF” in the MARC 040 subfield “d” (ǂd), have one or  –- more likely -- several 6xx fields with a second indicator of “7” and subfield “2” (ǂ2) that contains the string, “fast.” Additionally, subfield “zero” (ǂ0) will be present in the machine-process-added FAST headings -- this provides the FAST authority record number.

The processes performing this FAST enrichment work in WorldCat will run as background processes and should not adversely impact system performance. OCLC will initially prioritize the enriching records originally created by the Library of Congress and then will apply the FAST enrichment process to records from other sources. For the initial run, records will be excluded from FAST enrichment until at least six months from date of entry have elapsed.

Why is OCLC systematically adding FAST to WorldCat Records?

OCLC Research and other agencies  have been experimenting with using FAST for a variety of purposes and in a range of application for many years. FAST has repeatedly proven itself to be remarkably effective for clustering, indexing, analysis, and navigation of WorldCat data.

The FAST headings have been drawn from a non-production, enriched copy of WorldCat maintained by OCLC Research. And as such, these FAST enrichments have not been easily available to many OCLC applications and also to interested third parties. This enrichment of WorldCat will permit more applications and agencies to take advantage of FAST.

Going forward OCLC has plans to make FAST available in its cataloging tools. In particular, a FAST assignment feature will be released in early 2014 in an updated version of OCLC WorldShare Metadata Record Manager, which is currently available to WMS libraries and will be available to all cataloging subscribers in the future.

More information:

More detailed information about this enrichment of WorldCat is available here: http://www.oclc.org/en-US/news/announcements/2013/enriching-worldcat-with-fast.html

Please contact OCLC-Support at  [log in to unmask]"> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> with any questions or concerns related to this announcement.

Eric Childress

OCLC Research