Indexing and… a diverse portfolio career
Posted on: 06/01/2025
Indexing is sometimes regarded as a niche career reserved for librarians and information specialists. In this post, professional indexer Susie Marques-Jones discusses the changes in global working practices in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Age and highlights her own eclectic career path to being a professional indexer and ‘multipotentialite’. Jobs in the AI Age According to
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Indexing and… bookselling
Posted on: 19/12/2024
Many of the Society of Indexers’ members combine indexing with other work. In this post, professional indexer Sue Penny discusses combining indexing with librarianship. My background 10 years ago, I was a full-time school librarian in a small school in a small community. Although I was the only library professional in the school, I was
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Ask the Indexers: on client feedback
Posted on: 16/12/2024
In this Ask the Indexers blog post, our panel of indexers reflects on client feedback. What is the best piece of feedback they’ve ever had, positive or negative? And did it change how they approached their work? Nic Nicholas, Fellow “The index is splendid. Nic’s work is of such a high standard that she has
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Ask the Indexers: What aspects of indexing as a career turned out to be very different from your expectations?
Posted on: 14/11/2024
Our panel reflects on what an indexing career can be like, compared to what they imagined it might be while training. Rohan Bolton, Fellow Starting indexing nearly twenty years ago I had not realised how important computer and IT skills are in order to be efficient and how quickly things are changing: learning how to
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Ask the Indexers: can’t a computer do that?
Posted on: 29/10/2024
This is the first in a series of blog posts that ask a panel of experienced indexers questions about indexing practice and life as an indexer. These will be appearing regularly over the next few months as our indexers share their expertise and experiences. For this post, we tackle the question indexers field most often
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Indexing names: wrestling with the nobiliary particle
Posted on: 25/06/2024
Some names have that little bit extra, the nobiliary particle – a preposition or article in a name. The image above shows Alexandra, Freifrau von und zu Bodman, born Alexandra Offensandt von Berckholtz, who provides a good example of the form. How do indexers deal with names like this? Firstly, W. Stephen Gilbert sets out
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Passing Mentions
Posted on: 11/06/2024
One of the most frequent queries indexers get from clients is “Why is this term not in the index?” In this post, indexer Tanya Izzard explains what passing mentions are, why we sometimes leave them out, and how we make that decision. Definitions Passing mentions (sometimes called passing references or minor mentions) are usually defined
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Indexing Biographies
Posted on: 28/05/2024
In this post indexer W. Stephen Gilbert discusses one of the trickiest aspects of indexing biographical books: how to deal with index entries for the biographical subject, their works and activities. Most indexers will be called upon to index a volume that is more or less biographical. Such tasks pose particular and often quite ticklish
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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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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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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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