FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology) Users: Summary and Case Studies, written by Research Assistant Jeff Mixter and Consulting Project Manager Eric Childress, includes case studies of sixteen parties (nine adopters, seven non-adopters) in six countries that have expressed interest in FAST, as well as a profile of OCLC’s own use of FAST.

Key highlights from the report include:

• Most cited FAST attributes: ease of use, simple syntax, and suitability for non-cataloger application
• Top three FAST facets used (of eight facets total): Topic, Geographic Names, Form/Genre
• Publishing FAST as linked data under an open license has favorably advanced its adoption

FAST is an enumerative faceted subject heading schema derived from Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). Development was initiated in 1998 by OCLC Research with the Library of Congress to work together on a research project aimed at developing a faceted controlled vocabularly based on LCSH. Over the period of the project, FAST has been built out into an eight-facet vocabulary with a universe of approximately 1.7 million headings across all facets and has been made available as Linked Open Data and integrated into a number of metadata workflows and discovery systems.”