Members

The Indexing Society of Canada / Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI) is excited to announce the Mary Newberry Mentorship Program.

The proposal for this new initiative was developed over this past year by the mentorship committee, composed of Stephen Ullstrom (chair), Margaret de Boer, and Pierre Joyal. The proposal was accepted by the executive at their May 5, 2018 meeting. The first coordinators for the program are Stephen Ullstrom and Linda Christian (pictured), who were appointed last week at the June executive meeting and conference.

Currently, the program is a proposal on paper. The first task for the coordinators is to turn the proposal into a functioning program. We hope to begin the first mentorships by January 2019.

Highlights of the proposal include the following:

• Mentorship will be available to all ISC/SCI members, regardless of level of indexing experience. We firmly believe that mentorship can be valuable at all stages of a career.
• Mentorship will be one-on-one, and will take place in two-month blocks, with the option for renewal.
• A small fee will be charged, most of which will be an honorarium for the mentor. We want to make the program accessible for all, while also acknowledging the commitment needed from both parties for mentorship to be a success.

The program is  named  after  our  own  Mary Newberry,  in  recognition  of     her many years  of  mentorship  and teaching.  We are  thrilled to  be able  to honour Mary in this way.

The coordinators and executive are excited for the potential of this new initiative. We hope that it will be of great benefit to all ISC/SCI members. Stay tuned in the coming months for more details as the program takes shape. We look forward to sharing those details with you.

April 19, 2018

The Indexing Society of Canada / Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI) is announcing the launch of its redesigned website indexers.ca. The new design provides more functionality, friendlier navigation, and improved readibility for visitors on desktops and mobile devices.

The Register of Indexers Available (“Find an Indexer” page) was completely rewritten. Visitors in need of an indexer can search by subject area or a keyword. Searches can also be made for specialization in types of materials (such as databases, multimedia) and related information skills (for example abstracting, thesaurus construction).

Visitors looking for information on indexing courses, tools, and practices will have an easier time finding what they need with the expanded layout.

For greater engagement with the community, we added a calendar to announce our local meetings and annual national conference.

Visit indexers.ca today and consider telling us what you think by sending us an email or posting a comment on our Facebook page.

About the Indexing Society of Canada / Société canadienne d’indexation

The ISC/SCI is Canada’s national association of indexers. Founded in 1977 as the Indexing and Abstracting Society of Canada / Société canadienne pour l’analyse de documents (IASC/SCAD), its mission is to encourage the production and use of indexes, promote the recognition of indexers, improve indexing techniques, and provide a means of communication among individual indexers across Canada. ISC/SCI is affiliated with indexing societies around the world through an international agreement. Learn more at indexers.ca

Sergey Lobachev has won the 2017 Purple Pen Competition sponsored by the Institute of Certified Indexers.  His index will appear in the book The Magnificent Nahanni: The Struggle to Protect a Wild Place by Gordon and Shirley Nelson (published by the University of Regina Press).  The judges praised his index for its strong treatment of the book’s main topics which would especially aid a re-reader trying to find material.  Moreover, he provided useful conceptual analysis, for entries like “wilderness” that a word search would not catch; it takes intellectual analysis of the text to recognize these, and the index showed he had put real thought into compiling and structuring these entries.

Sergey said that this was his first project for the University of Regina Press whom he had solicited for work by sending a letter to the Press.  He found the book a challenge to index as it involved distinguishing among the Nahanni ecosystem, Nahanni National Park Reserve, Nahanni people, Nahanni River, and Nahanni Valley.  He also had to carefully input the diacritics which he did accurately and showed his attention to detail.

Sergey completed the University of California, Berkeley, course “Indexing: Theory and Application” in 2013, and shortly after had launched his indexing business.  A Board member of the Indexing Society of Canada/Société canadienne d’indexation, he lives in London, Ontario.  Prior to becoming an indexer, he worked in academic and public libraries, and he holds a Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Western Ontario. He also retains a membership in the American Society for Indexing (ASI).

This is the fourth year that the contest has been held by ICI, and it is interesting to note what a strong showing the Canadian indexers have made in the contest, winning three out of four years! The competition was stiff for the winner, with several people entering again and using prior feedback from earlier years’ entries to improve their work.  The judges noted especially that the newbies were doing a better job in handling the metatopic in their work.  All entrants receive a detailed feedback scoresheet.

The judging is done anonymously by three members of the Institute of Certified Indexers (ICI).  The winner receives a check for $100 as well as the publicity of appearing on the ICI website: www.certifiedindexers.com and notification of the book’s publisher and authors.  This honor also helps the new indexer in terms of building confidence and gaining career satisfaction.