Announcements

New Monthly Chat Schedule

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The members’ nation-wide monthly video chats have a new schedule. We will be meeting on EITHER the second Saturday of the month OR the second Wednesday of the month in the evening (ish).

Here’s the schedule for the next three months:
Wednesday, February 10, 2021, 6pm Eastern
Saturday, March 13, 2021, 1pm Eastern
Wednesday, April 14, 2021, 6 pm Eastern

We are changing up the timing of the chats in order to allow people with busy Saturdays to attend.

Watch the calendar for exact dates of future events. Learn more about the monthly chats.

Hope to see you there!

Débutez 2021 par une candidature au prix d’excellence en indexation Ewart-Daveluy

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Faites de 2021 l’année du changement ; choisissez votre meilleur index et soumettez-le pour le prix Ewart-Daveluy.  L’année 2020 ne vous laissera pas que de mauvais souvenirs ! Date limite de dépôt de candidatures : lundi 22 février 2021.

Nous avons, en 2020, reçu un nombre record de candidatures de grande qualité ; nous en avons reçu tellement que nous avons choisi deux gagnants. N’hésitez donc pas à nous envoyer votre candidature. 

Nous vous encourageons à réfléchir à l’index qui vous a le plus inspiré, pas nécessairement l’index qui traite du contenu le plus compliqué, mais l’index d’un livre qui vous a posé un défi particulièrement difficile. Un index qui vous a obligé à analyser le contenu d’un livre en tenant compte de contraintes en matière d’espace,  ou dans une optique de simplicité extrême, car vous saviez que les recherches de contenu se feraient en situation de stress ou encore avec créativité, car la présentation de l’auteur était plutôt inhabituelle. Ou encore, un index qui vous a donné l’impression d’avoir vraiment fait un très bon travail.

Nous avons, l’année dernière, inauguré un système de candidatures en ligne. Le processus est extrêmement facile. Il n’est plus nécessaire de nous envoyer une copie imprimée : un PDF du livre contenant l’index suffit. Et cela ne vous coûtera que 30 $. Trois indexeurs expérimentés donneront une rétroaction sur les index aux trois finalistes.

Montrez-nous comment vous avez surmonté les défis avec créativité et créé un guide exceptionnel, bien structuré, convivial, clair et détaillé destiné à tous les utilisateurs. Vous pensez certainement : « Pas question, je n’ai pas suffisamment d’expérience ! » Je voudrais mettre l’accent sur le fait que Carla DeSantis, l’une des gagnantes du prix 2020, n’avait rédigé qu’un seul autre index auparavant. Elle espérait tout simplement recevoir la rétroaction d’indexeurs plus expérimentés. Anna Olivier, l’autre gagnante, indexeure depuis 2009, a soumis un texte en français. C’était également une première dans le cadre du prix Ewart-Daveluy.  

Donnez-nous un défi à relever. 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.

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.

Diversity in Canadian Publishing Bursary Award for 2020: 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.