Optimal Indexing

The American Society for Indexing held its 2022 Virtual Conference, “The Future of Indexing: A Mix of Art and Technology,” on Friday, April 29, 2022 and Saturday, April 30, 2022.  Four sessions were held virtually on Zoom each day.

In the first session on Friday, Paula Clarke Bain discussed the index she wrote for Dennis Duncan’s book, Index, A History of the, which was published in the United States by W.W. Norton in February 2022.   The book was first released in the United Kingdom in September 2021.  It contains two indexes: an automated one by computer program and a professional index by Bain.

In her presentation, Bain discussed the following:

• book, writing of
• author-indexer relations
• indexing process of
• indexes: automated, computer
• indexer, personality of
• index wit
• syndrome, imposter
• reception, responses, reviews

In the indexing process, she said that the metaness was creating an index to a book about indexes.  She had to have an awareness of audiences, whether they had index knowledge or not.  There was a dual nature of the text, scholarly and trade, serious and silly.  She includes a letter-by-letter and word-by-word sorting example in the book from its own index.

She includes the indexer’s personality in the index.  She shows humor, snark and wit.  She had to balance neutrality versus subjectivity.  She includes an introductory note and interjections [by PCB].

Some examples of index wit in the index include this entry:

• cross-references
  • broken see if you can find it
  • circular see circular cross-references
  • hanging, 248 see also orphan
  • serial see bootless errand; comic indexes; crying

If a reader looks up “orphan,” she won’t find anything, as it doesn’t have a target.  The references for “serial” go on and on and eventually lead to “tears.”

In an example of crosswordiness, Bain included an acrostic entry for her last name.  The subheadings under the main entry for her name spell out her name.  She takes a hit at automated indexes with a bit of snark, with an entry under “bad indexes” that has a long string of undifferentiated locators, then adds, see also automated indexing.

She added an example of word golf, word play used by Lewis Carroll, of the phrase “heads and tails” which has become her favorite part of the index.  Originating with a start word, one letter is changed in a see cross-reference each time to get to an end word.  These see cross-references are scattered throughout the index and go around in a circle.

She also discussed impostor syndrome, specifically anxieties, peer reviews, time pressure, and pandemic publishing.  She further reviewed issues and errors.  She pointed out the problems with the US version, in which a list of figures were moved for the computer index, giving the wrong locators in that index.

Reception, responses, and reviews to the book and its index were overwhelmingly favorable, she said.

In the next blog posting I will discuss the second Friday session of the ASI 2022 Virtual Conference.  For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com.