Indexing Society of Canada

American Society for Indexing Special Event: Getting Better!

by

Improving the indexing mind, body and business

This special event will be held virtually via Zoom, on Thursday and Friday, December 1 and 2, 2022.

Whether you are a new indexer or have years of experience, you continually strive to improve. This special event features five speakers who are ready to show you techniques for getting better at what you do. On Thursday, we’ll watch a live indexing demonstration from long-time indexer Max McMaster, joining us from Australia. On Friday, four presenters help you learn methods to get better by improving your mind, body and business. Join us as experts from around the globe share their knowledge about Getting Better!

Thursday, December 1

Event Kickoff: Live Indexing Demonstration!

4:00 PM, Pacific / 7:00 PM, Eastern (60-minute session)
In this session, Max McMaster will index two genres that are not often demonstrated: cookbooks and children’s books! He will spend approximately 20 minutes on a sample of each. These PDFs will be made available on Max’s website for download. Attendees will watch the indexes come to life in real time via screen sharing. The final 10 minutes of the session will be devoted to questions.

Max McMaster is an Australian freelance book indexer who has compiled over 2,750 indexes in a range of disciplines including the sciences, environment, business, cooking, travel, and government reporting. He has been awarded the ANZSI Medal for book indexing on three occasions. Until recently, he has been an instructor for the University of California, Berkeley Extension indexing course, a role he held for the past 12 years. Full details available at masterindexing.com.

Friday, December 2

Best Practices and Rookie Mistakes (that even experienced indexers can make)

10:00 AM, Pacific / 1:00 PM, Eastern (60-minute session)
As an indexer, questions of how to handle specific challenges can often be answered by referencing the Best Practices guidelines. But how do you move through the day-to-day choices without making rookie mistakes? Pilar will guide you through some of the most common errors and offer insight on how to keep them from tripping you up. Having judged and reviewed countless indexes in her ongoing career as an index educator and trainer and remembering what it was like when she started indexing in the late 80s, Pilar will review typical mistakes and trends, how to prevent them, and how to align your index work with indexing best practices.

Pilar Wyman chief indexer and consultant, Wyman Indexing, has been writing indexes and providing related services for over 32 years. Currently, she is the leader of the ASI Digital Publications Indexing Special Interest Group (DPI-SIG) and Regional Sales Manager, USA/Canada for Index-Manager. She is a past president of ASI and a founding member of the Institute of Certified Indexers (ICI). Pilar works in English, Spanish and French in clinical medicine, health, technology, and other areas of personal interest. She has published numerous articles and other works on indexing and gives presentations and training workshops as time allows. More on Pilar at wymanindexing.com

Indexing Repackaged: Expanding Your Business in New Directions

11:15 AM, Pacific / 2:15 PM, Eastern (45-minute session)

You have worked hard to develop your indexing skills and grow your business. Now what? This presentation looks at different ways to repackage your indexing skills into new services and products, creating new possibilities for business growth.

Stephen Ullstrom is an indexer and writer living in Edmonton, Alberta. He started his freelance business in 2012 and, in addition to indexing, enjoys experimenting with content creation and thinking about what it means to run a one-person business. His forthcoming book is Book Indexing: A Step-by-Step Guide. More on Stephen at stephenullstrom.com

Soft Wear

12:15 PM, Pacific / 3:15 PM, Eastern (30-minute session)

A book indexer’s most significant tool isn’t their software. It’s their own body. We’ll learn a few simple ways to support our wrists, hands, backs, and hips, and a calming breath to help with stress.

Yoga instructor (and indexer), Anna-Marie Larsen, has taught yoga to soccer players in West Africa, to medical doctors in Cuba, and to victims of acid attacks in Cambodia. At home in Canada, Anna-Marie teaches mindfulness and yoga to urban-dwellers. Anna-Marie had the pleasure of presenting two “Cricks and Kinks” sessions at ASI’s 2018 conference. More on Anna-Marie at alarsenyoga.com.

Crafting Your Online Professional Profile: Marketing Made Easy

1:00 PM, Pacific / 4:00 PM, Eastern (45-minute session)

Indexing society websites (ANZSI, ASAIB, ASI, CSI, DNI, ISC/SCI, NIN, SI), LinkedIn, EFA, subject-specific professional organizations, and all the social media sites – so many places for potential clients to find you! This fast-paced session will cover specific tips for crafting each component of your online professional profile to attract the clients you want. Detailed handouts will be provided.

Connie Binder is generally acknowledged to be the laziest person in the world. The freelance life suits her well, allowing her to index while relaxing in her backyard hammock. Having a well-crafted and consistent online presence allows her to sit back and let clients come to her. More on Connie at conniebinder.com.

Your registration includes all five presentations (4 hours of programming plus 45 minutes of break). Each session will be followed by a 15-minute break or networking time. The program is subject to change without notice.

Please note: This virtual event will be presented live via Zoom, and the sessions will be recorded. However, in order to encourage open participation, the Q&A at the end of each session will not be recorded. Just as with an in-person event, attendees will be able to ask questions by (electronically) raising their hands or by asking questions in the chat box. Please understand that the quality of the live presentation may be lower for viewers with slower internet connections. Recordings will be available for one year following the event for those who register.

 

Registration

Thursday, December 1

Pacific Time: 4 PM to 5 PM | Mountain Time: 5 PM to 6 PM
Central Time: 6 PM to 7 PM | Eastern Time: 7 PM to 8 PM

Friday, December 2

Pacific Time: 10 AM to 1:45 PM | Mountain Time: 11 AM to 2:45 PM
Central Time: 12 PM to 3:45 PM | Eastern Time: 1 PM to 4:45 PM

Please register no later than 5 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, November 30. No refunds can be given after November 28.

To register, visit https://www.asindexing.org/news/special-event-getting-better/

ISC/SCI Conference 2023. See also Newfoundland

by

Save the Date!

June 9–10, 2023

Get your calendar out and mark the dates June 9 and 10, 2023, for the ISC/SCI’s annual conference (some pre- and post-conference events are also in the works, so you’ll want to consider saving some extra days too). The program team is pulling together great speakers and invaluable content—you’ll be hearing more on that. But you’ll want to be sure to register for Conference 2023. Because we’re going to Newfoundland!

Picture this: St. John’s, the capital city of Canada’s easternmost province, with its storied history and steep streets lined with rows of art-inspiring brightly coloured maritime houses. There’s more: a historic harbour, a world-class university, and incredible things to do and see. You can take a wine tour, see Signal Hill, visit Quidi Vidi Village, or go whale watching. And these are just a few of the activities available. Farther afield there’s a fabled bird sanctuary and opportunities for hiking along the ocean coast.

For our venue we’ve booked the Murray Premises Hotel, situated in a National Historic Site on the St. John’s harbourfront. Featuring nineteenth-century exposed masonry walls and wood beams, this charming hotel will be our conference host and your centre of activities in the city and beyond.

This is going to be an unforgettable opportunity, and we want as many of you to come as possible. So mark your calendar—June 9 and 10, 2023. And start dreaming.

ASI Webinar: An Introduction to Abstracting

by

A Way to Enhance Your Indexing with Lisa Ryan

Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Abstracting is an indexing specialty that adds value to a document by providing a summary and bibliographic detail of the work. Abstracts are formal summaries, giving a brief objective summary of the essential content of a book, article, speech, report, dissertation, or other work. Abstracts are important tools for information users, assisting readers in deciding whether or not to read the full text. Since abstracts contain complete bibliographic citations, they are useful when writing up research. Knowing how to write abstracts can enhance your indexing.

In this webinar, you will:

  • discover what abstracting is
  • review the skills needed to compose abstracts
  • understand how to add bibliographic detail
  • learn how to write abstracts
  • explore abstracting opportunities

Lisa Ryan, founder and developer of Stellar Searches LLC, has 24 years of searching, writing, indexing, and abstracting experience beginning as a graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill’s Master of Science program from the School of Information and Library Science and continuing with employment at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Library in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. She also worked at the Center for Transportation and the Environment at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and the National Association of Home Builders and U.S. Department of Transportation, both in Washington, D.C. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts in English and from Emerson College with a Master of Arts in Writing and Publishing.

If you are a member of ISC/SCI, you can receive the member discount using the coupon code on the Member Benefits page.

Get more information at https://www.asindexing.org/webinars/abstracting-ryan/

Society News

by

For your information, Tere Mullin, co-president since March, has had to step down from the position. We are grateful for her hard work and wish her the best as she continues her indexing career. Make sure to thank Tere as you see her in the regional and national meetings.

Jolanta Komornicka has agreed to stand as co-president. She, along with the rest of the executive committee, will stand for election at the next AGM in 2023.

Jolanta has previous academic experience in history, particularly medieval European history. She holds a PhD and has both taught and published at the university level for several years. Jolanta studied indexing at Toronto Metropolitan University (previously Ryerson).

Previous to accepting this position as co-president, Jolanta was co-regional
representative for the Central (Ontario) region.

Conference 2023: See also Newfoundland. Come share with us!

by

Call for Proposals

The Conference Committee invites your proposals for ISC/SCI Conference 2023.
Proposals are being accepted until October 3, 2022.

The committee is seeking proposals in the following areas:
▪ aspects of running an indexing business (social media for marketing, profitability, project scheduling, websites, etc.)
▪ technology related to indexing such as devices or equipment, non-indexing software, or apps
▪ improving/assessing index quality or usability from broad topics such as improving your speed to niche topics on specific languages, communities, or subjects
▪ non-back-of-book indexing such as taxonomy, controlled vocabularies, thesaurus development
▪ any niche or specialty topics you feel passionate about

This is an in-person conference taking place in St. John’s in early June. Attendance is expected unless conference plans need to be changed closer to the date. Sessions will be 50 minutes in total (35–40 minutes for presentation followed by a 10–15 minute question-and-answer session).

Application form and more information can be found here.