1. The world’s libraries. Connected. Using Authorities to Improve Subject Searches Beyond Libraries – Subject Metadata in the Digital Environment and Semantic Web, 17-18 August 2012, National Library of Estonia, Tallinn Edward T. O’Neill, Rick Bennett & Kerre Kammerer OCLC Research

2. The world’s libraries. Connected. Authorities Are primarily a cataloger’s tool. Improve quality and consistency. Include valuable information and entry points. Are under utilized in the search process. Role in the semantic web will be limited unless re-envisioned.

3. The world’s libraries. Connected. Cataloging Process

4. The world’s libraries. Connected. Search

5. The world’s libraries. Connected. Two Step Indirect Search 1.The authority file is first searched to find the appropriate subject heading. 2.The bibliographic file is then searched to identify the resources with the subject heading.

6. The world’s libraries. Connected. Indirect Searching

7. The world’s libraries. Connected. searchFAST Is a prototype that uses an authority file as the source of subject headings rather than the headings from bibliographic records. Uses the FAST subject headings. Uses the WorldCat.org bibliographic records. Complements other access methods. Is freely available at http://fast.oclc.org/searchfast.http://fast.oclc.org/searchfast

8. The world’s libraries. Connected. FAST F aceted A pplication of S ubject T erminology, Is a faceted subject heading schema derived from the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). Was developed by OCLC in cooperation with the Library of Congress. Establishes all headings. Supports the generation of search trees. Is available as linked data.

9. The world’s libraries. Connected. Sailboats Keyword Search

10. The world’s libraries. Connected. Sailboats

11. The world’s libraries. Connected.

14. searchFAST Phase Indexes In addition to the keyword index, searchFAST supports four phrase indexes: Heading index. Subfield index. Source heading index. See also reference index.

15. The world’s libraries. Connected. Cataloguing Full Heading Search

16. The world’s libraries. Connected. Full heading Searches

17. The world’s libraries. Connected.

18. Education, higher Subfield Search

19. The world’s libraries. Connected.

23. Philosophy Related Term Search

24. The world’s libraries. Connected.

25. Boolean Operators Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT are supported in keyword searches.

26. The world’s libraries. Connected. Cats OR Dogs Boolean Search

27. The world’s libraries. Connected.

29. Special Geographic Searches Most FAST authority records for geographic names—and those for many event records—include a geographic area code (GAC): e-er, for example, is the GAC for Estonia. GACs can be used as keywords. GACs must be prefixed with gac: such as gac:e-er. Keywords can be added to GAC queries to refine the search. Feature types can also be added to limit the search but must be prefixed with feature: such as feature:lake.

30. The world’s libraries. Connected. e-er [Estonia] GAC Search

31. The world’s libraries. Connected. feature:lake

32. The world’s libraries. Connected.

36. Conclusions The searchFAST prototype: Demonstrates the effectiveness and practicality of using an authority file in searching. Leverages authority work to benefit searchers as well catalogers. Generates search trees that are easy to navigate. Simple keyword searches generally produce very satisfactory results. Supports sophisticated searches.

37. The world’s libraries. Connected. Questions? ONEILL@OCLC.ORG Try it http://fast.oclc.org/searchfast/http://fast.oclc.org/searchfast/