Alyssa Graybeal, MLIS | indexmatters.xyz

Soon after earning my BA from McGill University in 2005, I wrote my first index for an accounting textbook from Queen’s University Press. It was love at first index. I immediately signed up for professional training, and indexing became my portal into the broader worlds of editing and librarianship.

In 2025, after 20 years on a winding path through academic libraries; digital archives; and several editing specialities, from proofreading to copyediting to developmental editing, I’m thrilled to have returned to indexing full time.

I index trade books, scholarly publications, and textbooks in a broad range of subject areas, from humanities to social sciences to biomedical sciences. The indexes I write can be submitted to the publisher in whatever format you need, separate or embedded.

I’ve undertaken specialized training in medical indexing and medical terminology. I also have a personal interest in fiber arts and DIY, biography and memoir, horticulture, psychology, history, linguistics, disability studies, Indigenous studies, and French-language materials.

I have a BA from McGill University (2005) and an MLIS from Dalhousie University (2011), and I’m a dedicated volunteer for the PNW chapter of the American Society for Indexing. When I’m not indexing, I’m probably writing, drawing comics, or trying to identify lichen in the forest near my home in Astoria, Oregon.

“An index! It’s like Alyssa decoded my brain and organized it in a way that I could never in a million years see from the inside of the chaos. She is professional, responsive, deadline oriented, and an absolute delight.” –Laura Stanfill, Publisher, Forest Avenue Press