No worries. I would ultimately prefer to use LCSH, but the API for FAST seems to have better functionality. In particular, I like that it will take a search term (i.e. "bugs") and suggest authority-based words that match it (i.e. Hemiptera, Scaled insects, etc). The LC Suggest API seems to require a direct match on the authority words, which IMO is less friendly towards patrons who in 90% of cases have no idea what the authority words are. Josh Welker -----Original Message----- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ross Singer Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2013 6:30 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LOC Subject Headings API Yeah, sorry, I was just asking if it actually worked with your search as expected, given the differences in syntax. I wasn't trying imply that it's hopeless. I can imagine it probably would only matter for phrase searching. -Ross. On Thursday, June 6, 2013, Roy Tennant wrote: > It is my understanding that the vast majority of searches will work, > but it's complicated. If you want the complicated explanation you > might want to take a look at this PowerPoint and/or some of the > resources listed on the page that you identified: > > <http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/activities/fast/ala06-taylor > .ppt > > > > Roy > > On Thu, Jun 6, 2013 at 3:26 PM, Joshua Welker > <[log in to unmask]<javascript:;>> > wrote: > > To my understanding, FAST is a simplified subset of LCSH that is > compatible with the LCSH dictionary. > http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/fast.html > > > > Am I wrong? If so, please let me know. It will take me about 10 > > minutes > to change my app from FAST back to the official LOC API. > > > > Josh Welker > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask] > > <javascript:;>] > On Behalf Of Ross Singer > > Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2013 5:14 PM > > To: [log in to unmask] <javascript:;> > > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LOC Subject Headings API > > > > Do FAST headings match anything? > > > > I guess what I mean is, do you have data that uses FAST headings? > > If > not, what is it matching? > > > > -Ross. > > > > On Thursday, June 6, 2013, Joshua Welker wrote: > > > >> I finished the project. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions! > >> > >> I ended up using the OCLC Fast API > >> (fast.oclc.org/searchfast/fastsuggest) > >> rather than saving everything locally. Tracking down the entire > >> LCSH authority listing and parsing it into a simple data format was > >> just unwieldy. > >> > >> The search box I built suggests the LCSH terms from OCLC as well as > >> LibGuides and LibraryH3lp FAQ links. jQuery UI Autocomplete is used > >> for the suggestion functionality. The search box send actual > >> searches to EBSCO Discovery Service. You can see it below on our homepage: > >> > >> https://library.sbuniv.edu > >> > >> > >> Josh Welker > >> >