Please join the CORE Faceted Subject Access Interest Group (FSAIG) virtual meeting at the CORE Interest Group Week 2024 for three presentations:
Date: March 5, 2024 (Tuesday)
Time: 2:00-3:00 pm (EST)/1:00-2:00 pm (CST)/11:00 am-12:00 pm (PST)
Location: Online
Registration link: https://ala-events.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bOD0pDxfS4muS1P0CPSc_Q#/registration
Converting our digital collections' legacy non-faceted subjects; or, how we learned to stop worrying and love the facets
By Rebecca Saunders, Cataloging and Metadata Librarian, Western Carolina University
The Southern Appalachian Digital Collections (SADC) platform, a shared digital collections platform formed from a partnership between Western Carolina University (WCU) and the University of North Carolina Asheville (UNCA), was launched in 2022. Our two institutions' legacy data had different levels of vocabulary control, and we began planning vocabulary remediation projects soon after the migration to our shared platform. Both institutions' legacy data use pre-coordinated, subdivided subject vocabularies. Our subject metadata specialists were committed to retaining pre-coordinated subject strings until we began to explore ways to use filters for faceted searching in our new system. With the understanding that subdivisions can inhibit discovery in systems that rely heavily on search filters, our long-standing dedication to non-faceted subjects faded. In 2023, we initiated a large-scale project to convert our extensive non-faceted vocabularies into faceted vocabularies. One of our primary concerns when first considering a transition to faceted vocabularies was the potential loss of the information invested in our non-faceted vocabularies' subdivisions. This presentation will provide an overview of the methods we use to separate geographic and form subdivisions from pre-coordinated subjects and add them as new values to other elements of our metadata records to enable faceted searching without any loss of data. Many aspects of our procedure are predicated on tools available in our content management system (CMS) Qi, which was developed by the independent company Keep thinking and is unique in the library world. While our specific workflow and CMS are distinctive, general principles for the procedure to convert non-faceted subjects will be shared that will be applicable to attendees using other systems. The presentation will also touch on the improvements in discovery that our progress in converting to faceted vocabularies is yielding.
Conducting a Pilot for Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms
By Elizabeth Hobart, Interim Head of Cataloging and Metadata Services, Penn State
The MARC field 386 allows catalogers to record demographic group terms for creators and contributors. Catalogers may use terms from various controlled vocabularies in this field, including the Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms (LCDGT). As both the MARC field 386 and LCDGT are relatively new, so far, only a few libraries have begun adding this field to catalog records. The MARC field 386 shows promise for improving discovery of works by diverse creators but also has some potential problems, including risk of privacy violations, outing, and othering. To better explore possible applications for this field, Penn State conducted a pilot to add demographic group terms to 500 catalog records for materials by diverse creators. The pilot highlighted both the potential for improving discovery but also problems that will need to be addressed before implementing more broadly. This presentation will discuss the process for conducting the pilot and summarize outcomes and next steps.
Looking for Literature in the Library
By Kelley McGrath, Metadata Management Librarian, University of Oregon
The SAC Subcommittee on Faceted Vocabularies has embarked on a project to develop logic and a mapping for identifying bibliographic records for literary works and either automatically adding or suggesting appropriate Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms (LCGFT). This presentation will describe the initial process of creating a list of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) used to describe literature. It will also examine some of the issues encountered so far, as well as some bigger picture challenges facing the project.
We look forward to seeing you at the meeting.
Co-chairs of FSAIG
Su Hyeon Kang (skang@atla.com)
Lucas Mak (makw@msu.edu)
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Lucas Mak
Metadata & Catalog Librarian
Michigan State University
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