Members

2021 Tamarack Award: Siusan Moffat

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Toronto: The Indexing Society of Canada / Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI) is pleased to announce the 2021 recipient of the Tamarack Award. Siusan Moffat (Toronto) is being recognized for her contribution and commitment to the society.

Siusan was chosen for her drive to help ISC/SCI be more representative of the diversity present in Canada. Siusan’s colleagues had the following to say about her:

She took the Truth and Reconciliation Commission work to heart, and used her passionate energy to found The Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Committee (TIDE). She has consistently looked for ways to get the word out about indexing to people from marginalized or otherwise underrepresented groups who might be interested.

The TIDE committee is accomplishing something wonderful, and this is thanks in large part to Siusan—from Bulletin articles to webinars to the Diversity in Canadian Publishing Bursary, now seeing its second year. Thank you, Siusan, for your hard work that is affecting real people. And thank you for so positively affecting me, as a colleague, team member, and friend.

She was additionally a hard-working and diligent member of the Executive Committee, and in every instance, I found her to be a kind and compassionate colleague to work with.

“I am thrilled to present this award to Siusan, and we are honoured to have her as a member of our society,” said Alexandra Peace, President. “Thank you, Siusan, for all you have given to the society and its membership.”

The Tamarack Award was instituted to recognize members who go “above and beyond the call of duty” in their volunteer work for the Society.

2021 Diversity in Canadian Publishing Bursary Award: Nicole Riguidel

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Today the Indexing Society of Canada / Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI) announced that Nicole Riguidel is the winner of the 2021 ISC/SCI Diversity in Canadian Publishing Bursary Award.

Nicole Riguidel is a Métis woman from Paradise Hill, Saskatchewan. Growing up on a farm in rural Saskatchewan fed her love for animals and the outdoors, leading her to complete a Bachelor of Science in Animal Bioscience and to work as a veterinary technician. Hoping to expand into a career involving books, Nicole recently graduated with a diploma in Library and Information Technology and currently works as a library technician in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

As an aspiring indexer, Nicole looks forward to the opportunity to combine her background in the sciences with her library and information technology skills. Outside of work, she can be found crafting, reading, spending time outside exploring new hiking trails, or at the dog park with her Greyhound–Border Collie cross, Daisy.

Congratulations, Nicole!

Announcing Magpie Kudos

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It was suggested by a member that the Tamarack Award for Volunteer of the Year and the president’s Certificates of Recognition are well and good, but they don’t provide an opportunity for the membership to have a say in thanking people.

And so we created the Magpie Kudos award. It’s a fun, easy, and distinctive way for a member to thank another member who has made a difference to them. As an award giver, you simply fill out the short form with the name of the recipient and a few sentences on what you would like to thank them for. The more specific, the more effective the award. You can even express your gratitude anonymously.

The award recipient will receive an attractive, archive-worthy thank-you email, and recognition in an upcoming issue of the Bulletin.

To give a Magpie Kudos, visit the Member Dashboard at any time and look for the Magpie Kudos link. Or follow the link here.

ISC/SCI member wins the Purple Pen award

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The Institute of Certified Indexers has announced that Jess Klaassen-Wright has won the 2020 Purple Pen Competition. Jess’s index appears in the book Deep Knowledge: Ways of Knowing in Sufism and Ifa, Two West African Intellectual Traditions by Oludamini Ogunnaike (to be published in October 2020 by Pennsylvania State University Press).

Jess created an index for this 450-page book which deals with interdisciplinary practice combining the fields of religion and philosophy, a most challenging text for a newer indexer. The judges noted Jess’s work for its attention to detail in a book with many non-English terms and diacritics, and for the web of connections she built through many helpful cross-references, especially linking the foreign phrases to their English synonyms.

Jess Klaassen-Wright

In response to the news of Jess’s award, the author, Oludamini Ogunnaike, wrote: “Jess was amazing. While doing the indexing, she caught several typos and mistakes in the text that the copyeditor and I had missed, and did a remarkable job tracing the arguments and concepts across the book, which is quite long and complicated—involving terms in Arabic, Yoruba, French, and English, and multiple conceptual traditions. Her index has made the book much easier to navigate and provided a sympathetic and insightful guide for readers. I was particularly impressed by the way she tracked distinct, but related concepts across the different traditions discussed, and represented both these distinctions and relations in the index. Ms. Klaasen-Wright was also incredibly professional and worked remarkably swiftly and carefully, I cannot recommend her work highly enough.”

With her undergraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan (major in English and minors in Spanish and psychology), Jess completed her indexing training at Simon Fraser University and then participated in the Mary Newberry Mentorship Program of the Indexing Society of Canada / Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI).  In particular, Jess has appreciated the guidance of such well-known indexers as Noeline Bridge and Audrey McClelland. 

Jess completed her first index in 2019 for a scholarly monograph on the history of magic in Elizabethan England. Since then, she has indexed books in local and oral history, biography, Black feminism and feminist theory, English literature, biblical studies, international relations, and agrarian politics and economics. In addition to indexing, she works as a freelance copy editor and proofreader. An active member of the ISC/SCI, she serves on the Society’s Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Committee (TIDE).

This is the seventh year that the international contest has been held by ICI, and the fifth time that a Canadian indexer has won the prize. For a list of previous winners, please see certifiedindexers.com.

2020 Diversity in Canadian Publishing Bursary Award: Sandra Muchekeza

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August 31, 2020, Toronto: The Indexing Society of Canada / Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI) is pleased to announce that Sandra Muchekeza is the 2020 ISC/SCI Diversity in Canadian Publishing Bursary Award recipient. The selection committee received ten applications, from which four applicants were shortlisted.

Sandra Muchekeza was born and raised in Kenya before moving to Australia for her Bachelor studies in Psychology. After completing her studies, she joined her family in Toronto, Canada where she started a career in Project Management in the not for profit sector. Over time, Sandra developed a keen interest in Diversity, Equality and Inclusion and works hard to ensure the voices of the marginalized are heard.

Sandra is currently the Executive Director at the Council of Canadians of African and Caribbean Heritage (CCACH) based in Edmonton, Alberta. CCACH supports activities that enhance the social, economic and educational life of African and Caribbean heritage communities in Edmonton. Passionate about the rights of women in every aspect of their lives, Sandra sits on the Board of YWCA Edmonton an organization that fights for the right to equal economic opportunities for women and girls and works towards ending gender-based violence.

Sandra loves the world of books so it is hardly a surprise that she and her sister founded a children’s books publishing company called Asili Kids. The company produces and distributes books which have content and characters that children of African heritage can identify with and introduces children from all over the world to African stories.

Married with two young boys Sandra loves spending quality time with her family, dabbling with photography, trying out new food recipes and of course, reading.

About the award

Since 2014, when the hashtag #weneeddiversebooks appeared, the Canadian publishing industry has slowly been waking up to both the lack of diverse voices and the demand for them. 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.