IGBIS endeavours through its webinars to put a spotlight on the ways South African metadata and cataloguing practitioners can empower themselves and effect change in their practice. In March, Violet Fox spoke about instigating change in systems like Sears, and in June Dr Hester Marais discussed identity and authority control with NACO in Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH).

On the afternoon of Tuesday 11 July, we continue this focus as guest speaker Dean Seeman introduces the OCLC-hosted subject vocabulary, FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology).

FAST is composed of nine modular, complementary vocabularies built to support faceted subject retrieval. It is mostly derived from LCSH and other Library of Congress vocabularies but diverges in key ways. This session will outline what FAST is, what each of the faceted vocabularies are, why you may want to use FAST, the usage of FAST at University of Victoria, and discuss practical considerations related to the adoption of FAST.

Dean Seeman is Head of Collection Management Services at the University of Victoria Libraries in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He has worked for over 15 years in cataloguing and digital collections metadata. He has used FAST extensively in his metadata work. He is currently co-chair of the FAST Policy and Outreach Committee (FPOC), member of the PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloguing) Policy Committee, and FPOC liaison to the PCC Policy Committee. He is co-author of the FAST Quick Start Guide and written and presented widely on FAST.