I fell in love with indexing after taking courses on it in the Master of Library and Information Studies program at Dalhousie University. I promptly started indexing my personal recipe collection, well-used reference books that lacked indexes, and my diaries, as I realized indexes are an incredibly useful tool and a lot of fun to make.

A few years later I started professionally indexing books for publishers and authors in a range of subject areas, from shipwrecks to Canadian history to indigenous sovereignty to reproductive justice. I delight in learning about all kinds of topics and doing the detailed and analytical reading and thinking that is required for effective indexing.

Alongside freelance indexing, I work as a taxonomy and information management consultant, creating controlled vocabularies that are used to guide selection of terminology for indexing and cataloguing and designing organizational systems. This experience and my library studies background gives me a deeper understanding of how different people search for information and how to improve discoverability and accessibility of information with thorough and thoughtful indexing.

While my information management background gives me a core set of skills that can be applied to most subject areas, I have particular experience and interest in radical and social justice-related topics and work that centres marginalized communities and voices, such as gender and women’s studies, sexuality, LGBTQ+ and queer studies, indigenous studies, disability, and racial justice. Selecting the right terminology for this content can be complex, as it must be intuitive for diverse readers, true to the author’s vision, and respectful towards the communities that the content is about. I have developed these skills through leading cataloguing and indexing projects on these topics and with these communities.

In addition to making book indexes for publishers and authors, I index personal collections and archives for individuals, such as recipe collections, artworks, diaries, letters, personal records, music, and images. I will work with you to understand your goals and create an organizational system for your collection that will allow you to easily find the information you need at any time.

I have excellent communication and project management skills that allow me to effectively manage multiple projects and deliver them within deadlines and specifications.

• Listing ID: 9713
• Arts and Humanities: Art and architecture, History, Language and linguistics, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Religion and spirituality, Media studies
• Economy, politics and law: General, Business, Government and politics
• Health and medicine: Alternative health, Psychology and mental health, Health Care
• Industry and technology: Agriculture, Horticulture, Communications, Construction and real estate, Energy, Information services and technology, Natural resources, Transportation
• International studies: Africa, Asia, Canadian studies, Europe, Developing countries, Australia and Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean, United States, International relations
• Lifestyle and Leisure: Fashion, Food and drink, Gardening, Crafts, Animals and pets, Interior design and decorating, Sports, fitness, and recreation, Travel and tourism, Personal development
• Sciences: Ecology and environment, Information science
• Society: Anthropology, Indigenous peoples, Culture, Education, Family, Gender studies, Senior studies, Child studies, Social activism, Sociology and social services, Urban studies
• Materials - Books: Scholarly books, Trade monographs, Biographies and memoirs, Art and photography, Children and young adult, Cookbooks, Guidebooks, Textbooks, Manuals and how-to books, Software and technical manuals, Catalogues and directories, Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and glossaries
• Materials - Other: Academic papers and essays, Government materials, Reports, Policies and procedures, Periodicals and almanacs, Websites, Databases, Artifacts, Atlases/maps/plans, Multimedia, Personal files and correspondence, Pictures and illustrations, Transcripts and minutes
• Other Skills: Abstracting, Taxonomies and thesaurus construction, Metadata, Information management, Consulting, Teaching/training, Editing, Proofreading, Research and fact-checking, Writing