|
September 2007: The National Library's Indexing Team has recently completed a trial of OCLC's Faceted Application of Subject Terminology (FAST) in the Index New Zealand database. The results of the trial and the feedback from Index New Zealand users was extremely positive, therefore we are pleased to announce that we will begin using FAST instead of the current Index New Zealand thesaurus immediately. We will continue to use Ngā Ūpoko Tukutuku, which describes material in or about Māori.
The widened scope of Index New Zealand, in particular our expansion into indexing science material, and the growth of the database (now over 500,000 records and growing by 2,500 per month) emphasised the limitations of our APAIS-based Index New Zealand thesaurus and prompted our search for a suitable replacement.
Planning has commenced for mapping of the superseded terms to FAST and conversion will be undertaken on an ongoing basis.
Our aims
Index New Zealand aims to provide representative coverage across all subjects, to scholarly and professional articles as well as those that reflect popular culture. In response to our clients' requests, we continue to increase the range of topics indexed and place an increased emphasis on providing full text access to digital material.
Our previous thesaurus
Until September 2007 subject terms used in Index New Zealand were from the Index New Zealand Thesaurus, which is based on the APAIS thesaurus, created by the National Library of Australia.
About FAST
FAST is a joint project from OCLC and Library of Congress and is based on the Library of Congress Subject Headings used in many New Zealand libraries, including most public libraries. It has approximately 9500 headings and is designed to retain the "rich vocabulary of LCSH" while being easier to understand, control, apply, and use [FAST, 2006]. For more information please visit the OCLC website
FAST: Faceted Application of Subject Terminology (2006) OCLC. Retrieved January 9th, 2007, from http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/fast
Heading comparison - some examples
| Topic |
APAIS |
FAST |
 |
Livestock |
Alpaca |
| Breeding |
Alpaca $x Breeding |
| - |
Alpaca $x Economic aspects |
| Topic |
APAIS |
FAST |
 |
Beverages |
Tea |
| Health |
Tea $x Health aspects |
| - |
Tea $x Physiological effect |
| - |
Herbal Teas |
| Topic |
APAIS |
FAST |
 |
Communications |
Wireless communication systems $x Equipment and supplies |
| Internet |
Wireless Internet |
| Personal computers |
Portable computers |
|
