Lois Mai Chan (1934–2014)

Pretty great overview, though now that we're moving into RDA, there's a little less relevancy for part of the content here. Chan's pretty great at explaining a lot of the abstract concepts of the cataloging world--as well as can be explained at least--but I did notice a few wholes in her chapters about DDC and LC (and Cutter number) classification.

Chan and O'Neill's books provides an excellent and engaging explanation of the new FAST headings designed to be easier to apply and use than the current LCSH headings. The first two chapters give the reader a solid understanding of the principles of controlled vocabulary, subject access in catalogs, MARC encoding, and Dublin Core. The bulk of the book details the various facets of FAST headings (topical, geographic, chronological, event, proper name, and form/genre headings), including show more plenty of clear examples in both MARC and Dublin Core. Several chapters are also devoted to explaining the processes used to derive the FAST headings from the current Library of Congress headings.
After reading this book from cover-to-cover I'm very eager to apply FAST headings to my library's digital collections in the future. I'm convinced this new vocabulary will have a positive impact on searching while easing the process of subject cataloging for library staff. Another exciting development in cataloging! show less

Kind of dry, but a good introduction to cataloging. My main complaint is that MARC21 format is not well integrated into the text. Cataloging is the convergence of several rule sets, but at this point MARC is integral for actually using them. In that respect, it was not a good resource. The other essential problem is that it is pretty much just a list of different rules, but that is more of a problem with cataloging, rather than a problem with the text.

The only reason I gave this two stars is mainly due to the sad truth that reading about cataloging is fairly tedious. However, it did help with my overall understanding of the subject, which is more vast and complicated than I ever imagined.