I just discussed FAST headings with the catalog librarians of the HELIN Consortium yesterday. I've always maintained that we should only keep topical and genre headings in the catalog that are supported by authority records. When I searched OCLC last week, I didn't find any FAST authority records, though the 655 fields in the bibliographic records have authority record numbers in subfield 0:

655   7 Literary collections.|2fast|0(OCoLC)fst01423811

Our general feeling is that they are redundant and too simplistic to be much help to catalog users. We agreed to do more research on the intention of libraries regarding FAST headings. If a major source of cataloging (e.g. Library of Congress) decided to use FAST in lieu of LCSH, we would not want to remove them.

--Martha

Martha Rice Sanders
Knowledge Management Librarian
HELIN Library Consortium
msanders@etal.uri.edu
401-874-4951
http://www.helininc.org/

From: "Nate Cothran" <nate@bslw.com>
To: "Backstage Library Works Authority Contol Listserv" <bslwac@mailman.xmission.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2014 3:38:19 PM
Subject: Re: [BSLWAC] fast headings?

Hi Jeanette,

 

This is a great question. So far, we have had just 3 inquiries from clients regarding the FAST headings. All 3 clients have chosen a different path with these headings: ignore, remove, or accept & deliver.

 

Since it appears you would like us to ignore FAST headings when they appear in your records, it will be interesting to see how this does affect your reports.

 

For now, due to the low number of responses, I think most of our clients are choosing to ignore the FAST headings that may appear in their catalog from OCLC.

 

Thanks,

Nate

 

 

You be the star. We'll stay backstage.

 

Backstage Library Works
Nate Cothran | Vice President, Automation Services

Backstage Library Works | Provo, Utah & Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

801.342.5697 | nate@bslw.com | bslw.com | ac.bslw.com/mars

 

 

From: bslwac-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:bslwac-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Jeanette Navia
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2014 12:55 PM
To: Backstage Library Works Authority Contol Listserv
Subject: [BSLWAC] fast headings?

 

We have not sent our authorities out for control since OCLC started adding "fast" headings to their records. Our library has decided that we currently are NOT deleting these headings. We think they may come in handy sometime down the road. However, a lot of new authority records have been created for these heading fragments, and I fear our Backstage reports are going to be filled with these headings. What are other libraries doing about these?

Thanks!

Jeanette Navia
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeanette Navia
Technical Services Professional
Williamsburg Regional Library
7770 Croaker Road
Williamsburg, VA 23188-7064
(757)259-7742          www.wrl.org
(757)259-7798 (fax)    jnavia@wrl.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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