The Indexing Society of Canada / Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI) is Canada’s national association of indexers.
We invite you to find an indexer for your project, read our publications, discover our conferences, events, and resources for indexers, find out about membership, and learn about the Society.
Find an indexer
Find an indexer who works in the subject area of your project.
Find resources
Find information about indexes, indexing practices, and training in indexing.
Attend an event
Attend a local meeting of indexers or attend the annual conference.
Become a member
Join the Society and enjoy the benefits of membership.
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What practices will help me with good index term selection?
Conference Registration Now Open
Indexing Society of Canada
Registration for the ISC/SCI Annual Conference is now open.
Take advantage of these early bird rates for the three-day virtual conference:
- Members (including ASI, ANSZI, SI, all other affiliates and Editors Canada): $60
- Non-members: $100
- Special rate for eligible full-time students: $35
- Optional Fireside Chat for new indexers: $10
All prices are in Canadian Dollars.
The conference speakers cover a variety of topics to help you improve your indexing practice, make your business thrive, and expand your knowledge of issues pertinent to our industry. Visit the conference page for the list of speakers and topics.
There will also be opportunities to meet up with old friends and chat with new ones.
Register now before Early Bird pricing ends April 30.
Save the Date for the ISC Virtual Conference May 27- 29, 2021
Indexing Society of Canada
The ISC/SCI is thrilled to announce that our next annual conference is taking place from the comfort of your home from May 27 to 29, 2021. The theme is “Indexing Unlimited”.
The conference sessions will cover a variety of topics to help you improve your indexing practice and make your business thrive.

One new feature is designed especially for new indexers. The online Fireside Chat will give you the opportunity to talk in a group setting with an experienced indexer on your transition from student to practicing indexer.
Of course, networking has always been an important component of the annual conference. The Conference Committee wants you to know that this year will be no different. Plans are in the works for activities that will help you meet new friends and catch with up with old ones.
Conference registration opens soon. Visit the conference page for details.
New Monthly Chat Schedule
Indexing Society of Canada
The members’ nation-wide monthly video chats have a new schedule. We will be meeting on EITHER the second Saturday of the month OR the second Wednesday of the month in the evening (ish).
Here’s the schedule for the next three months:
Wednesday, February 10, 2021, 6pm Eastern
Saturday, March 13, 2021, 1pm Eastern
Wednesday, April 14, 2021, 6 pm Eastern
We are changing up the timing of the chats in order to allow people with busy Saturdays to attend.
Watch the calendar for exact dates of future events. Learn more about the monthly chats.
Hope to see you there!
2020 Word on the Street (WOTS) Toronto
Indexing Society of Canada

ISC Member Gillian Watts was interviewed on the Instagram Digital Soapbox at the Word on the Street (Toronto) virtual event in September.
ISC/SCI member wins the Purple Pen award
Indexing Society of Canada
The Institute of Certified Indexers has announced that Jess Klaassen-Wright has won the 2020 Purple Pen Competition. Jess’s index appears in the book Deep Knowledge: Ways of Knowing in Sufism and Ifa, Two West African Intellectual Traditions by Oludamini Ogunnaike (to be published in October 2020 by Pennsylvania State University Press).
Jess created an index for this 450-page book which deals with interdisciplinary practice combining the fields of religion and philosophy, a most challenging text for a newer indexer. The judges noted Jess’s work for its attention to detail in a book with many non-English terms and diacritics, and for the web of connections she built through many helpful cross-references, especially linking the foreign phrases to their English synonyms.

In response to the news of Jess’s award, the author, Oludamini Ogunnaike, wrote: “Jess was amazing. While doing the indexing, she caught several typos and mistakes in the text that the copyeditor and I had missed, and did a remarkable job tracing the arguments and concepts across the book, which is quite long and complicated—involving terms in Arabic, Yoruba, French, and English, and multiple conceptual traditions. Her index has made the book much easier to navigate and provided a sympathetic and insightful guide for readers. I was particularly impressed by the way she tracked distinct, but related concepts across the different traditions discussed, and represented both these distinctions and relations in the index. Ms. Klaasen-Wright was also incredibly professional and worked remarkably swiftly and carefully, I cannot recommend her work highly enough.”
With her undergraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan (major in English and minors in Spanish and psychology), Jess completed her indexing training at Simon Fraser University and then participated in the Mary Newberry Mentorship Program of the Indexing Society of Canada / Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI). In particular, Jess has appreciated the guidance of such well-known indexers as Noeline Bridge and Audrey McClelland.
Jess completed her first index in 2019 for a scholarly monograph on the history of magic in Elizabethan England. Since then, she has indexed books in local and oral history, biography, Black feminism and feminist theory, English literature, biblical studies, international relations, and agrarian politics and economics. In addition to indexing, she works as a freelance copy editor and proofreader. An active member of the ISC/SCI, she serves on the Society’s Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Committee (TIDE).
This is the seventh year that the international contest has been held by ICI, and the fifth time that a Canadian indexer has won the prize. For a list of previous winners, please see certifiedindexers.com.