Diversity in Canadian Publishing Bursary 2025

The Indexing Society of Canada (ISC/SCI) is pleased to announce the opening of the application period for its Diversity in Canadian Publishing Bursary. This bursary is part of ISC/SCI’s special program to contribute to filling a proven lack of diverse voices and the demand for them in the Canadian publishing industry to help achieve equality of opportunity for aspiring indexers belonging to underrepresented and/or marginalized groups.

Indexing is a specialized field, involving close reading, analysis, and organization. Beyond writing back-of-book indexes, indexers use their skills in areas as diverse as embedded (digital) indexing, metadata and database maintenance, cataloguing, glossary writing, thesaurus construction, and project management, to name only a few! Indexing provides endless opportunities for learning, professional exploration, and growth, aided by offerings of the Indexing Society of Canada and other societies worldwide, welcoming individuals from a wide range of educational and professional backgrounds.

The application deadline for the 2025 bursary is 30 September 2025. It will be granted to one person and will cover fees for an approved indexing program, two years of ISC/SCI membership with listing, and entry into the Mentorship program. Please refer to the bursary application for more information, including eligibility requirements.

In the third week of  September we will be holding an open info session for anyone interested in applying to the bursary. You can ask questions about the bursary, ISC/SCI, and indexing in general. Please check the bursary application website for the ZOOM url closer to the date.

The ISC/SCI and the TIDE (The Inclusion, Diversity and Equity) committee look forward to fostering connections within and outside of the publishing industry while working toward diversification, cultural education, and inclusion. Please share this information with your contacts and join us on this exciting and necessary path—one forged by many thoughtful and hardworking people and organizations before us—toward embracing diversity and expanding our knowledge and understanding together.

LEARN MORE: https://indexers.ca/volunteer/tide/

APPLY HERE: https://indexers.ca/tide-application/

CONTACT US: tide@indexers.ca

2025 Ewart-Daveluy Indexing Award

The award committee did not present the Ewart-Daveluy Award in 2025.

The indexes submitted did some things well and tackled the challenges of complex texts. Nonetheless, we agreed that none reached the level of consistent excellence that merits the award.

The committee does not expect perfect indexes, but meeting most of the criteria is essential. All of these criteria are best practices that we should be applying in our indexing work. You can find them on the ISC/SCI’s website.

We encourage you to review the criteria and make use of them in your upcoming projects. Then you’ll be well on your way to submit an index for the 2026 Ewart-Daveluy award.

The call for submissions for the 2026 award will be announced in the fall. There are no restrictions to the subject matter or genre you can submit – we look at all kinds of books: textbooks, cookbooks, art books, how-to books, memoirs and more.

Show us how you have creatively overcome challenges, resulting in a well-structured, easy-to-navigate, clear, and comprehensive guide for all users.

Stephen Ullstrom, coordinator 2025 ISC/SCI Ewart-Daveluy Indexing Award 

Heather Ebbs and Margaret de Boer

Conference Scholarship

ISC/SCI is offering scholarships to three ISC/SCI members to help them attend the conference in Vancouver at the end of May. The scholarship will pay the two-day early-bird conference fee plus banquet ticket. You are eligible to apply if you meet both of these conditions:

  • You live at least 1000 km from Vancouver.
  • You will contribute to the conference by performing just one of these tasks (you choose the task):
    • Write an article about the conference.
    • Generate a list of five questions that can be asked of the general audience at the conference.
    • Help at the registration desk.

Preference will be given to new indexers, then those who have never attended a conference, then everyone else. See the Conference Scholarship form for more information and the application form. The deadline for applying is April 15, 2025.