If a change is made to a Library of Congress subject heading in a bibliographic record, will the corresponding FAST heading be corrected via automation?

Answer

OCLC adds FAST headings to WorldCat bibliographic records that have no current FAST headings based on the Library of Congress subject headings present in the record. After the initial loading of FAST headings to the record, the FAST headings are treated as an independent subject heading set. OCLC does not update the FAST headings to strictly follow changes to the LC headings present in the bibliographic record. If an LC heading is added, the corresponding FAST heading may also be added by OCLC after periodic evaluation of the FAST headings present in bibliographic records. FAST headings are seldom deleted based on the deletion of an LC heading, allowing FAST headings entered by another cataloger to be maintained even if they did not add a corresponding LC heading. If the text of an individual FAST heading changes, the text is replaced to keep it current. If the FAST headings seem to be inconsistent after modifying the LC headings in a bibliographic record, the entire set of FAST headings may be deleted manually by the cataloger. This allows them to be completely regenerated by automated means in about a month.

For more information about OCLC FAST, see the OCLC FAST website.