News
2024 Conference: Save the Date
Posted on: 03/05/2024
Save the date for the Society of Indexers 2024 online conference, ‘Human Indexing in a Digital World’. This will take place via Zoom on Wednesday 18th to Thursday 19th September. We’re compiling a programme that should offer something for everyone, whatever stage in your indexing career, including: The rate for the two-day conference is £50 for
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Indexing and AI
Posted on: 27/03/2024
There’s rampant speculation about the impact of AI on many aspects of publishing. Here, indexer Tanya Izzard looks at the possible implications of AI for indexing. Definitions and how it works Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be defined as technology that can mimic cognitive functions associated with human intelligence. Generative AI is a type of AI
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National Indexing Day 2024
Posted on: 05/02/2024
National Indexing Day 2024 took place on Thursday 28th March. We celebrated online with #indexday. In addition we hosted a half day in-person workshop for professionals in the publishing industry to help them improve their understanding of the indexing process. It was held at the Publishers Association in London and the session ran twice so that
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Becoming an indexer 4: the pre-qualification indexing assignment (PIA)
Posted on: 01/12/2023
Once you’ve completed the training course modules and tutorials, and passed the necessary assessments, the final stage before you start your professional indexing career is to complete the pre-qualification indexing assignment, known as the PIA. What is the PIA? The PIA is an index to a complete book or document of your choice, of about
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Becoming an indexer 3: tutorials, workshops and other support
Posted on: 24/11/2023
This post follows on from the overview of the training course modules and explains how the other aspects of the SI training course – online tutorials, workshops, practice exercises and advice and support – will help you prepare for a career as an indexer. Support available throughout the course The training course website includes quizzes
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New Honorary Life Members, November 2023
Posted on: 21/11/2023
At its AGM on 14 November 2023, the Society of Indexers was delighted to award three new Honorary Life Memberships. Honorary Life Memberships are limited to ten at any one time, and are awarded for having rendered exceptional service to the Society or to the advancement of good indexing. The awards were made to three
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Becoming an indexer 2: the Society of Indexers training course modules
Posted on: 17/11/2023
Are you thinking about training as an indexer? This is the first of three blog posts that give an overview of the Society of Indexers training course. It gives an overview of the different elements of the course and describes the modules that deliver the theoretical content of the course. About the training course The
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Becoming an indexer: what makes a good indexer?
Posted on: 10/11/2023
This is the first of a series of posts discussing how to become an indexer. In this post, Tanya Izzard discusses the attributes of a good indexer. Background Many indexers come from a library and information science background, but almost any previous career will give you knowledge and experience that will help you find your
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Qualities of a Bad Index
Posted on: 27/10/2023
In this post, Ruth Martin outlines the things that shouldn’t appear in an index. Write a bad index… us?! Surely members of the Society of Indexers couldn’t write a bad index? Well, they could, but only in fun. In 2022, Society members took part in a peer review, indexing the same piece of text and
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Qualities of a Good Index
Posted on: 20/10/2023
In this blog post, Lyndsay Marshall looks at the qualities of a good index and identifies resources which discuss the topic in more depth. The post covers international standards, best practice guidelines and competition judging criteria. International Standards In order to define the qualities of a good index we can turn to the international standards
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Conference 2023: Bringing the outside in: expand your indexing horizons
Posted on: 03/07/2023
We are pleased to be able to return to an in-person conference event for the first time in some years. This will take place in Leeds on Tuesday 26th September. A mix of plenary and parallel sessions will focus on expanding indexing skills. Opportunities to interact with other indexers and learn from each other will
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Commissioning an indexer (Part 3)
Posted on: 24/03/2023
How to evaluate an index: guidance for authors and editors When you have commissioned an index for your book, either directly or via your publisher, there should be a moment towards the end of the book production process where you are asked to review the index. In the third and final post in this series,
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