Indexing Society of Canada

ASI Special Event: Indexing Life Hacks

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December 5, 2023

Life hacks are simple and clever tips or techniques for accomplishing a familiar task more easily and efficiently. Indexing life hacks are all about working smarter at the job of indexing. Four experts share the hacks they use to save time, minimize stress, and increase efficiency. Whether you’re wrestling with PDFs or footnotes, tracking clients and projects, or searching for a more comfortable office setup, we’ve got you covered. Join us December 5 for Indexing Life Hacks, a three-hour program crafted just for you.

Show Those PDFs Who’s Boss

Your client sends you a PDF with two-page spreads. Now what? Whip your PDFs in shape, that’s what. Learn how to break apart a spread, work around secured files, and renumber pages so that the PDF page 1 matches the book page 1. Hear various other hacks you can use when working with PDFs.

Kendra Millis began indexing in 2008, after completing the UC-Berkeley indexing course. She left a career in international education and chose to become a freelancer so she could return to her home state of Maine to raise her daughter. Her educational background is in Russian literature and social philosophy, although her indexing work spans a broad range of topics. She is currently one of the UC-Berkeley instructors and also owns a small fiber-arts business. She has chaired numerous ASI committees, served on the Board of Directors and was president of ASI in 2017–2018.

Project Tracking Like a Pro

Marilyn Augst figured out after her first few indexes years ago that she needed an organizational system to keep track of projects, clients, and payments. She uses the same system today. Hear her insights on organizing info on clients, projects, and statistics. Tracking when projects are coming in, planning how you need to allocate your time, and scheduling time for administrative work improves efficiency. Learn from a pro her system for handling project tracking.

Marilyn Augst has been a member of ASI since 1996, writing indexes for textbooks and trade books in math, engineering, physics, environmental sciences, education, service learning, and history. She was active in the Heartland Chapter, holding every committee chair and office at some point, and some offices twice, from 1998 thru 2009, and as one member said, “You were president for two centuries!” During Covid (2020), she and her tech support (aka husband) moved from Indiana back to her home state of Minnesota. Without in-person meetings, she has not yet met all the Upper Midwest Chapter folks, but hopes to in the coming years.

Making Work Feel Less Like Work

Your office setup plays a big role in how you feel at the end of the day, and it shouldn’t feel like you’ve been doing manual labor. Dr. Lindsay McGraw, expert on office ergonomics, reveals how you can achieve ergonomic health by properly setting up your office, noticing what hurts and discovering why, and establishing healthy habits for long-term wellness.

Dr. Lindsay McGraw, physical therapist, ergonomic expert, orthopedic certified specialist, and wellness enthusiast, started Marka Health in 2016 after recognizing that many of the injuries she was treating were preventable. Today she consults with top tech companies to keep their employees pain free and productive.

And Furthermore…: Tips for Indexing Notes

Often a bane in indexers’ lives, especially for those working in scholarly indexing, footnotes and endnotes need special attention. This session will provide some general guidelines for indexing notes, as well as tips to help speed your notes indexing. We’ll look at a number of different examples of types of notes and will discuss them as examples of what one often encounters in the thicket of notes.

Since 1995, Fred Leise has been indexing a broad variety of texts, specializing in scholarly works in international relations, cultural and political history, film studies, music, and contemporary social issues. His index to Art and Affection: A Life of Virginia Woolf was shortlisted for the 1997 Excellence in Indexing Award, the only time that a shortlist has been announced for that honor. Fred also works as a freelance taxonomy consultant, having completed projects for several Fortune 500 companies, as well as a number of clients in the hospitality and travel industry.

Get more details and register at
https://www.asindexing.org/news/special-event-indexing-life-hacks/
ISC/SCI members can register at the member rate using the coupon code available in the Member Dashboard.

Appel aux candidatures : Prix d’excellence en indexation Ewart-Daveluy 2024 de la SCI/ISC  

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Date limite de dépôt des candidatures : vendredi le 15 mars 2024

L’appel aux candidatures est lancé ! Il n’a jamais été plus facile de postuler.

  • Vous pouvez tout faire en ligne.
  • Il n’est pas nécessaire d’avoir une copie imprimée – il suffit de nous envoyer un PDF du livre avec l’index ou le PDF reçu de l’éditeur et votre index en format Word/RTF.
  • Les frais de candidature sont de 30 $ seulement.

Les avantages :

  • La lauréate/le lauréat recevra deux billets pour le banquet lors du prochain congrès en personne.
  • Nous offrons une rétroaction à un maximum de trois finalistes, de la part d’indexeurs expérimentés.

Aucune restriction n’est imposée en matière de sujets ou de genres : nous évaluerons les index de toutes sortes de livres, que ce soient des livres de cuisine, des guides, des autobiographies, des livres d’art, des guides pratiques, des livres de voyage… c’est votre index qui nous intéresse.

Montrez-nous comment vous avez surmonté les défis avec créativité et créé un guide exceptionnel, bien structuré, convivial, clair et détaillé pour tous les utilisateurs.

Vous n’avez rien à perdre et tout à gagner. Vous gagnerez peut-être le prix (ce qui ne sera pas possible si vous ne posez pas votre candidature). Et même si vous ne gagnez pas, vous recevrez très probablement la rétroaction confidentielle d’indexeurs expérimentés. Cela en vaut la peine.

Vous pourrez, cette année, soumettre l’index d’un livre qui a été publié en 2022 ou en 2023. Les indexeurs de nationalité canadienne ou résidant en permanence au Canada peuvent soumettre un index. Si vous n’êtes pas citoyen(ne) ou résident(e) permanent(e) canadien(ne) vous pouvez le faire si vous étiez membre de la SCI/ISC au moment ou vous avez réalisé l’index.

Voir la page du prix Ewart-Daveluy pour plus de renseignements.

ASI Online Learning Course: Indexing Art Books

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A three-part course with Theresa Duran. Presented on October 11, 18, and 25, 2023.

Art books represent a thriving segment of the publishing industry. They encompass a variety of book categories—from coffee-table books to exhibition catalogues to academic or technical studies—and an even greater array of subjects. What art books all have in common is an abundance of illustrations. The indexer must understand the conventions pertaining to specific types of artworks and the expectations that clients might have about the indexing of images.

This three-part course offers a comprehensive guide to the glorious world of art books. It begins with an overview of the field, then dives straight into the thicket of artist names, art titles, captions, and illustration locators. It wraps up with practical tips and strategies for avoiding clashes with clients, troubleshooting common problems (particularly index length restrictions), and finding work. Each session is filled with examples from actual art books. Additional examples and resources are included in the handout.

The course is designed to benefit both novice indexers who are interested in breaking into the field and experienced indexers who would like to hone their skills and gain confidence in their approach. Some of the tactics covered can be applied to books in other disciplines.

Course Overview

Session 1
Art Books: The Big Picture
  • My background in art publishing
  • Types of art books and their challenges
  • Types of art publishers and indexing clients
  • Q&A
Session 2
Artworks, Artists, and Locators
  • Common image organization schemes
  • A to Z of art captions
  • Illustration locators
  • Treatment of art titles
  • Treatment of artists
  • Q&A
Session 3
Projects: Getting Started, Troubleshooting, Finding Work
  • Questions to ask at the start of a project
  • Managing length restrictions
  • Setting rates and bidding on projects
  • Getting established in the field
  • Resources
  • Q&A

Please note: Attendance at the live sessions is not required. Registration entitles you to “on demand” access to the course and unlimited repeat viewings after the initial sessions have aired.

About our Presenter
Theresa Duran, PhD, is a former staff editor at a publishing house that specialized in art books, calendars, and other products for museum gift shops. She left that position in 2005 to become a full-time freelancer, offering indexing, copyediting, and proofreading services. In the past few years, Theresa has come to focus on the indexing of art books. A resident of Marin County, California, she is the current president of the American Society for Indexing (2023–24).

For more information and to register: https://www.asindexing.org/online-learning/art-duran/. ISC/SCI members have access to a discount code for this course in the Member Dashboard.

The Purple Pen Contest for New Indexers

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The Institute of Certified Indexers (ICI) announces the opening of this year’s Purple Pen competition for newer indexers. The contest information and entry form for 2023 is on the website www.certifiedindexers.com

This is the tenth year of the contest and it will be the final year. Entrants need to have completed indexing training from January 1, 2018 to June 1, 2023.

Contest submissions are being accepted from July 15 to September 15, 2023 (midnight Eastern Time Zone). All entrants will receive detailed feedback from the judges. The entry with the highest score will be deemed the winner, and its indexer will receive $100 in prize money and a one-hour Zoom session with the judges to discuss the index, indexing techniques, the business of indexing, etc.

The entry fee remains at $50 USD again this year.

The judging is done anonymously. Entries and questions should be sent to Connie Binder
Please see more detailed instructions on the ICI website

Conference Success in St. John’s, NL

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Our June 9-10 conference in St. John’s was attended by 40 people from across Canada and US, England, Switzerland, and Australia. We met old friends and made new ones as we laughed, learned, and shared experiences and encouragement.

You can find more photos in our conference album on Flickr.

On Sunday, June 11, many attendees stayed around to attend a Live Indexing workshop given by Stephen Ullstrom, winner of multiple indexing awards, and author of Book Indexing: A Step-By-Step Guide.

For many people, a visit to Newfoundland is a rare treat. To make sure the attendees would get the most from their trip, two pre-conference tours were organized. On June 7, a group took a Bird the Rock tour to the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, home to more than four million breeding seabirds and North America’s largest colony of Atlantic Puffins. Then the next day, an even larger group took an Iceberg Quest tour through the St. John’s harbour out to Cape Spear, North America’s most eastern point.

Thank you to the conference committee headed by Alexandra Peace, with Lisa Fedorak, JoAnne Burek, Maura Blain Brown, Mercedes Brian, Maggie Billard, and Brittany Vesterback for your work in planning and organizing this successful event.

Thank you also to the Executive Committee of the ISC/SCI for setting aside conference scholarship funds for three new indexers.

Thank you, all of you wonderful businesses, for providing give-aways and door prizes.

  • Breakwater Books
  • Claire Wilkshire
  • Murray Premises Hotel
  • Riddle Fence magazine
  • Destination St. John’s

Thank you, attendees, for your enthusiasm and participation. And an extra-big thank you if you filled out the conference survey. Your input and comments will be of enormous help to future conference committees. Look for a full conference report in the next issue of The Bulletin.