Members

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

2025 Diversity in Canadian Publishing Bursary Recipient: Rhonda Kronyk

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The Indexing Society of Canada / Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI) is pleased to announce that Rhonda Kronyk is the 2025 ISC/SCI Diversity in Canadian Publishing Bursary recipient.

Rhonda Kronyk has been editing since 2013, building “a career that combines technical skill with advocacy for more equitable publishing practices.” She goes on to say, “In 2017, I attended the Indigenous Editors Circle, led by Gregory Younging. As a member of the Tsay Keh Dene Nation, this experience profoundly shaped my professional and personal life. On the final day, I became a founding member of the Indigenous Editors Association (IEA). From that point forward, my work has focused on Indigenous authors and stories, and I have committed myself to learning Canada’s true history with Indigenous Peoples so that I can edit with respect and accuracy.” Rhonda views indexing as a continuation of this journey.

With this bursary, ISC/SCI aims to help achieve equality of opportunity for aspiring indexers belonging to underrepresented and/or marginalized groups. The bursary covers fees for an approved indexing program, two years of ISC membership with listing, and entry into the Mary Newberry Mentorship program.

This year has been an extraordinary year for applicants. Along with the full bursary, ISC/SCI has awarded 5 exceptional runners up with a 6-month membership.

Congratulations, Rhonda! Congratulations all, and welcome!

Professional Development Series

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From the Beginning: Approaching a New Index

Saturday, October 18th, 2025 @ 2:00-3:30 p.m. Eastern Time

As indexers, we share a common goal: creating a quality index for each project. But our approaches to new indexes vary widely and evolve over time.

Join us to hear how our panel of established indexers – Alex Peace, Mary Newberry and Pierke Bosschieter, with input from Marta Steele – approach a new index, and see where their methods correspond and differ. We expect a lively discussion, so come prepared to ask questions and share your approaches.

Please join us for this Zoom meeting, open to all members of ISC/SCI. You can check the meeting start time in your time zone here: https://dateful.com/time-zone-converter.

2025 Ewart-Daveluy Indexing Award

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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