Fwd: Re: [SAC-FAST] broader questions

[Stephen Hearn]

Working from sentences rather than items would be fine with me. I agree 
with Arlene that that would remove one source of variance from the exercise.

I'm less bothered by different perspectives on what an item is about than 
by different formulations of the same idea of what an item is about. For 
example, for a book about selling watches, would both "Marketing" and 
"Wrist watches" and "Wrist watches--Marketing" be considered appropriate 
FAST heading treatments? They're all valid. The FAST authority for 
"Marketing" no longer includes the 360 from the LCSH authority which points 
to the subdivision practice; does that mean the subdivision practice is not 
advised?

Would legal FAST practice in this area be bound by the extent of existing 
headings? LCSH has established headings for the marketing of many goods, 
but not all; and even the additions beyond LCSH found in OCLC bib records 
and established as FAST authorities do not include all possibilities. LCSH 
does not include "Pottery--Marketing," but OCLC does, so FAST does. But 
neither include "Buffalo meat--Marketing." So in that case, is the only 
legal FAST treatment "Marketing" and "Buffalo meat" (both are established), 
where for so many other products it's "[product]--Marketing"?

How can we explain all this to untrained metadata builders? The more FAST 
relies on strings and pre-coordinated expressions containing multiple 
concepts, the more involved and difficult it is to use and to govern, and 
the more it risks defeating its own stated purpose.

Stephen

>X-From_: sac-fast-bounces at mailman.yale.edu Tue Jun 28 15:55:52 2005
>X-Umn-Remote-Mta: [N] mtain-w.tc.umn.edu [160.94.160.20] #+LO+NM
>X-Umn-Remote-Mta: [N] studentcomputing.its.yale.edu [130.132.52.22] 
>#+NR+UF+CU (A,-)
>X-Umn-Report-As-Spam: 
><http://umn.edu/mc/s?DIFgdUnCyBQuUEKhdN@M3$e9m2anu9iHHtXWuG1e8q1$kGy@WbBEkpvrCNeN8PD6934yjuEFw$bs>
>X-Original-To: sac-fast at mailman.yale.edu
>Delivered-To: sac-fast_mm at studentcomputing.its.yale.edu
>Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 16:48:14 -0400 (EDT)
>From: Arlene Taylor <ataylor at mail.sis.pitt.edu>
>X-X-Sender: ataylor at paradox.sis.pitt.edu
>To: Stephen Hearn <s-hear at umn.edu>
>Subject: Re: [SAC-FAST] broader questions
>X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 130.132.50.9
>X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.51 on 136.142.116.22
>X-YaleITSMailFilter: Version 1.2b (attachment(s) not renamed)
>X-Yale-Not-Spam: For more info see: 
>http://www.yale.edu/email/spam/content.html
>X-Yale-Spam-Score: (0)
>Cc: sac-fast at mailman.yale.edu
>X-BeenThere: sac-fast at mailman.yale.edu
>X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
>List-Id: ALA SAC Subcommittee on FAST Project <sac-fast.mailman.yale.edu>
>List-Unsubscribe: <http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/sac-fast>,
>         <mailto:sac-fast-request at mailman.yale.edu?subject=unsubscribe>
>List-Archive: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/sac-fast>
>List-Post: <mailto:sac-fast at mailman.yale.edu>
>List-Help: <mailto:sac-fast-request at mailman.yale.edu?subject=help>
>List-Subscribe: <http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/sac-fast>,
>         <mailto:sac-fast-request at mailman.yale.edu?subject=subscribe>
>Sender: sac-fast-bounces at mailman.yale.edu
>
>So given your concerns, Stephen, what would you like to see the committee 
>do besides report that the FAST headings are "too articulated, too 
>complicated, and there are too many of them"?  Should we all try to apply 
>them to some resources?  If so, I still have a problem with comparing 
>results of applying controlled vocabulary to items for which we do not 
>first have agreement as to what they are "about."  I have several years of 
>"aboutness sentences" from my subject analysis classes (the classes were 
>assigned items for which to provide LCSH, DDC, and LCC, and their first 
>chore was to agree as a class on what the items were about - sometimes 
>almost coming to blows in this process).  Here are examples from this year:
>
>This website is about the nature of the solar system and the history of 
>its exploration, with considerable information about individual planets, 
>and includes photographs, multimedia, statistical information, databases 
>and other resources.
>
>This book is about women jazz instrumentalists of the 20th century, 
>including biographical information on each musician listed, as well as a 
>bibliography of additional printed material, Web sites, and recordings.
>
>
>Stephen, if I were to compile a set of such sentences, would you see any 
>value in having committee members try to assign FAST terminology to them?
>
>--Arlene