[SAC-FAST] FAST group 4621-5000

[Noelle Van Pulis]

SAC-FAST group,

I am sorry I will be unable to attend the Friday night meeting.  I have 
missed most SAC meetings, being a recent volunteer (nor have I re-read the 
FAST literature recently...), so apologize if I am noting things previously 
discussed.

--Noelle Van Pulis

1) Most headings do seem to cover the 'aboutness" (when 
post-coordinate).  Some headings, when de-constructed, seem very generic 
and so the meaning could be lost.  In this example, a search on United 
States history would pull this one, which is very different from the actual 
work.  Example:

Record # 4986:
Education ?z United States ?x History ?v Periodicals.
650 Education
651 United States
655 History
655 Periodicals

In this case, the order of the elements gives the meaning.  An obvious 
example and I didn't find many for which I thought this was true.

2) Topicals with topical subdivisions

I had expected all headings to be de-constructed.  Example:

#4621
650 Art #x Philosophy
but
655 History

I observe that this #x History became a 655 but #x History and criticism 
did not (4625);both are coded 180 #x in the LC/NACO AF.

Others not de-constructed (because they match a 650 exactly?)
#4626
Liver #x Wounds and injuries
and
#4637
Finance, Public #x Accounting

3) Geographic

Nothing struck me as a major problem with the geographics.  I think the 
indirect order is preferable, depending on display options in the system -- 
it collocates geographic entities.  We use a rotated display of subjects in 
our Innovative Interfaces system, excluding common terms like History and 
Periodicals.  So you can find a locale regardless if you go in with the 
city or state name, for example.  What is not obvious is that some 
geographic places are not subdivisions, e.g. Wall Street (New York, N.Y.), 
or neighborhood names such as German Village (Columbus, Ohio), where the 
indirect hierarchy is not applied.

Record 4659 had this:
651 England #z London #z Greenwich
from
Greenwich, London ?x History.

which is wrong, since the correct heading is Greenwich (London, England), 
and is not to be used as a subdivision.  But it converted to an indirect 
subdivision.

**Should neighborhood/area names be constructed indirectly in FAST, even if 
not done so in LCSH?**

4) Personal and corporate names as topics
These seemed OK.

5) Form / genre
These were mostly OK, except for what seemed like inconsistencies.

6) Chronology
The date ranges would be very useful in a 'pick list' (or suggested format) 
since they are not intuitive for users to think of and sometimes cover a 
single century and sometimes multiple centuries.   I don't think I had an 
example that was not a whole century, except for the name of a war that 
included a date (Spanish-American War, 1898).  I don't think users know to 
key in "19th century" being more likely to think of "1800s" or even 
something more specific like "1890s."



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Noelle Van Pulis
Associate Professor and
Coordinator, Catalog Quality Control
         and Enrichment
Cataloging Dept.
The Ohio State University Libraries
030 Main Library
1858 Neil Ave.
Columbus, OH 43210
phone: 614-247-7453
fax:    614-292-7859
email: vanpulis.1 at osu.edu
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