Announcements

Befores and Afters: Looking at Usability in Cookbook Indexes

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Saturday, January 24th, 2026, @2:00-3:30 p.m. Eastern Time

Cookbooks are hands-on texts, requiring intelligent, user-friendly indexes. In our first talk of the year, Gillian Watts will share her indexing expertise with a focus on usability in cookbook indexes. Join us as Gillian takes us through examples from unsatisfactory indexes (befores), explaining why they don’t work well, and demonstrating how they can be improved (afters). In preparation for Gillian’s talk, we invite you to look at the indexes in your favourite cookbooks, and bring your comments and questions.

Gillian Watts is a freelance editor and indexer with more than 30 years’ experience in the field. Although well-known as a cookbook indexer (since 2002), she has also produced hundreds of back-of-the-book indexes in a wide variety of disciplines. She is a long-term volunteer with ISC/SCI and served on the executive for several years. 

Members: log in and check Upcoming Events for the Zoom details.

Diversity in Canadian Publishing Bursary 2026

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Application deadline: March 8, 2026

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 2026 bursary is 8 March 2026. 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 February 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 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

Save the Date – ISC/SCI Virtual Conference

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Save the date for the ISC/SCI conference Sorting it Out on April 10-11, 2026.

Over the two days we will have sessions on a variety of topics related to the theory and practice of indexing, improving quality, and growing your business. We’ll also have plenty of opportunity to visit with old friends and make new friends.

Preceding the conference, on April 9, there will be a session of series covering our various indexing software products. At the same time, we are running a session designed for new indexers and those who are thinking about indexing as a career. Get answers to all your burning questions from an experienced indexer.

At the end of each day, we will wrap up with an after-party with the theme “Mixing it up!”

If you can’t attend all the sessions offered on Friday and Saturday, don’t worry. Recordings of the presentations will be available for twelve months after the end of the conference.

Conference registration opens soon. Check for details at conference.indexers.ca.

Call for Submissions: ISC/SCI Ewart-Daveluy Award for Excellence in Indexing 2026

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Submission deadline: Monday, March 16, 2026

Submissions are open! The application has never been easier.

  • It’s all online.
  • You don’t need a hard copy—a PDF of the published book AND/OR the PDF sent to you by the publisher plus your Word/RTF file of the index.
  • The cost is only $30.

The winner will receive two tickets to the conference banquet at the next in-person conference.

No restriction to the subject matter or genre—textbooks, cookbooks, guidebooks, memoirs, art books, how-to books, travel books, all books—it’s your index we will be looking at.

Show us how you creatively overcame challenges, resulting in an outstanding, well-structured, easy-to-navigate, clear, and comprehensive guide for all of its users.

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Maybe you’ll get the prize (which won’t happen if you don’t apply).

This year you can submit indexes published in 2024 and 2025. If you are a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada, this is the time to do it. If you are not a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, you may submit an index if you were a member of ISC/SCI at the time you wrote the index.

The deadline for submissions is March 16, 2026. Please see the Ewart-Daveluy Indexing Award page for guidelines, criteria, and the submission form.

Conference 2026: Call for proposals

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The Conference Committee invites your proposals for ISC/SCI Conference 2026

Proposals are being accepted until November 15, 2025.

The committee is seeking proposals in the following areas:

  • aspects of running an indexing business such as social media for marketing, profitability, project scheduling, website construction and management, connecting with clients and colleagues, etc.
  • technology related to indexing such as devices or equipment, non-indexing software, apps, or AI
  • 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 topic you feel passionate about

This is an online conference taking place over Zoom, April 10–11, 2026. The theme is Sorting It Out. Sessions will be 50 minutes in total (35–40 minutes for presentation followed by a 10–15 minute question-and-answer session).

Your application should include the following:

  • application form
  • description of proposed presentation (one page maximum in PDF format) with the following details
    • working title
    • outline of what will be covered
    • format of presentation (speaker only, accompanying slides, interactive elements, handouts, etc.)

Send your application to conferenceprogram@indexers.ca