Members

What practices will help me with good index term selection?

par

Term selection is a key factor that determines the quality and usability of an index. Good index terms are clear, concise, intuitive, meaningful, and accurate. But what practices will help you achieve these qualities in your indexing work?

In his article for The Indexer, Zhang Qiyu (indexer consultant and information management professor, Nanjing Institute of Politics Shanghai) dives deep into term selection, exploring what term selection means, how to identify what is and what is not indexable, and matters such as structure and design of the index. In the article, he identifies several key practices that will help you select terms for a useful and effective index.

1. Always keep user needs top of mind

Consider what is relevant to the text’s audience and how they might search for what they need. For example, does the term reflect current usage? Would a synonym or variant form be more intuitive for index users?

2. Be familiar with the subject area

Understanding the text and its purpose helps you select terms that appropriately reflect the contents and are suitable for the audience.

3. Reflect topics from the text alone

Do not add information to the index that is not in the text. Where possible, index terms should be identical to the text’s terms. However, at times you may need to use variants or alternative terms if more useful to index users.

4. Include both explicit and implicit topics

Consider the text from different angles. Are there significant unspoken meanings and relationships within the text that would be useful or illuminating for index users?

5. Make connections within the index structure

Using double-postings and cross-references among the terms creates multiple access points to information. These elements can assist a wider variety of users and reveal meaningful interconnections.

6. Eliminate clutter

The greater the range of items in the index, the more useful it will be for different users. However, index terms must lead to information that is substantive and relevant to the text’s subject, purpose, and audience. Indexing topics that are irrelevant or only mentioned in passing will obstruct efficient searching.

Read Zhang Qiyu’s full article for free in The Indexer: The International Journal of Indexing (Vol. 27, No. 3) at liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/indexer.2009.32

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

par

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.

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 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 ouen 2023. C’est le moment idéal pour vous lancer, si vous êtes citoyen(ne) canadien(ne) ou résident(e) permanent(e). Si vous n’êtes pas citoyen(ne) ou résident(e) permanant(e), vous pouvez soumettre un index si vous étiez membre de la SCI/ISC au moment où vous l’avez réalisé.

La date limite de dépôt des candidatures est le 15 mars 2024.  Les lignes directrices, les critères et le formulaire de candidature se trouvent ici.

La Société canadienne d’indexation dévoile les récipiendaires du prix 2023 Diversité dans l’édition au Canada de l’ISC/SCI

par

La Société canadienne d’indexation/Indexing Society of Canada (ISC/SCI) est heureuse d’annoncer deux récipiendaires cette année! Pascale Hutton et Sade Cooke reçoivent le prix 2023 Diversité dans l’édition au Canada de l’ISC/SCI.


Pascale Hutton est de Winnipeg (Manitoba). Elle est d’ascendance métisse (familles Charrette, Lagimodière et McDonald) et canadienne-française. Elle se considère comme une personne asexuée. Elle complète son dernier semestre au programme de maîtrise de l’Université de l’Alberta en bibliothéconomie et sciences de l’information (Master of Library and Information Sciences) et travaille comme technicienne en archivistique aux Archives du Manitoba. Pascale espère que, grâce à l’indexation, davantage de lecteurs autochtones ou queers comme elle se retrouveront au fil des pages. Elle est remplie de gratitude pour cette opportunité et a hâte de commencer son parcours en indexation début 2024.


Sade Cooke (iel) travaille à l’information critique à Kjipuktuk (Mi’kma’ki). Iel détient une maîtrise en bibliothéconomie et sciences de l’information et une maîtrise en études sur le genre et a travaillé au sein de bibliothèques et d’archives locales. Sade est avide d’intégrer sa passion de l’analyse anti-opressive à sa nouvelle carrière en indexation.

Avec ce prix, la Société vise à promouvoir l’égalité des chances pour les aspirants indexeurs appartenant à un groupe sous-représenté ou marginalisé. Ce prix couvre le coût pour la formation à un programme reconnu d’indexation, pour deux ans de cotisation à la Société avec inscription sur le registre des indexeurs et pour une participation au programme de mentorat de Mary Newberry.


Félicitations, Sade et Pascale!

Winner of 2023 Purple Pen Contest for New Indexers

par

The Institute of Certified Indexes (ICI) is pleased to announce that Elizabeth Bartmess has won the 2023 award in this contest for new indexers.

Elizabeth is a San Francisco Bay Area indexer with a background in the social and information sciences. Her formal indexing training includes American Society for Indexing’s Module A and the UC Berkeley’s extension course. She holds an MS in Information, an MS in Psychology, and a Certificate in Culture and Cognition from the University of Michigan, and a BA in Psychology from Rice University. Her previous work experience includes data management and statistical programming, project management, and writing and editing.

She discovered indexing in 2022 while exploring freelance editing as a potential career.
Elizabeth is a member of American Society for Indexing (ASI) and Indexing Society of Canada / Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI) and serves as the Program Co-Chair and Co-Webmaster for ASI’s Pacific Northwest Chapter.

Her award-winning index can be found in the book “Immanent Critiques: The Frankfurt School Under Pressure” by Martin Jay, published in 2023 by Verso. This book is a collection of essays applying the Frankfurt School’s tradition of immanent critique as established by the philosophers Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, and Max Horkheimer. The focus concerns their analyses of anti-Semitism and Zionism, in addition to Marxist themes: the meaning of alienation, the alleged damages of abstraction, and the advocacy of a politics based on a singular notion of the truth. A very difficult book targeted at scholars already familiar with this School.

The judges found that Elizabeth had met this challenge by setting up a solid structure to her index. Through a network of cross-references she linked the various discussions of the main themes. She also produced accurate and thorough work, all commendable for a new indexer.
Elizabeth was commissioned for this job as a subcontractor of Potomac Indexing, LLC. The managing partner of Potomac, Estalita Slivoskey, wrote that there was no guidance from the publisher and author on how to approach the indexing. She said, “Elizabeth should be very proud of this index, and of winning this award, as she did a wonderful job.”
The submissions in the contest are reviewed anonymously by a panel of three judges. Each indexer receives detailed feedback on the index with examples of areas in which to improve. Entrants who compete come from the UK, US, and Canada, and have completed indexing training in the previous five years.

In addition to a cash award of $100 USD, the winner participates in a Zoom session with the judges to get individualized guidance on indexing techniques and business tips.

This year, 2023, is the tenth and final year of ICI conducting the contest. A list of winners for the ten years can be found on the ICI website: www.certifiedindexers.com.

ASI Special Event: Indexing Life Hacks

par

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.