Posts Tagged ‘e-books’

ASI 2023 Virtual Conference: E-book Indexes–More than Meets the Eye

Saturday, December 2nd, 2023

The American Society for Indexing held its 2023 Virtual Conference, “The Eyes Have It: The Indexer Perspective–Past, Present & Future,” on Friday, April 28, 2023, and Saturday, April 29, 2023.  Four sessions were held virtually on Zoom each day.

The last session on Saturday, E-book Indexes: More than Meets the Eye, was presented by Dr. Mary Coe.  Dr. Coe took audience members in the mind’s eye of the reader when presenting her research on how people find information in e-books, then shared her recommendations on how to make e-book indexes better.

She addressed the question of what is used for index locators when there are no page numbers in an e-book with active indexes, which take the reader directly to the location of the term on which they clicked.  Should an index entry target land on a paragraph, line, or word?   Readers can get frustrated if they don’t find exactly what they want when clicking on a term in an active index.

She said that very little research has been done on the use of indexes in e-books, with studies only asking participants if they found answers to questions and not how they found their answers.  For her research, she set up a digital usability lab and gave participants tasks to explore e-book indexes.

As a result of her research, she made the following recommendations for active e-book indexes:

• make index scanning and navigating easier

• provide a link to the index from TOC or alpha navigation bars at the top to facilitate moving around the index

• match page number locators to print books if possible

• add an index icon to the toolbar or at least link the index to the TOC

• recognize how readers use an index with other tools, such as search

This concludes the blog series on the ASI 2023 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.

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Digital Trends Task Force Update

Saturday, June 1st, 2013

During the annual conference for the American Society for Indexing (ASI), held in San Antonio, Texas, on Friday, April 19, 2013, a Digital Trends Task Force (DTTF) Update was given as part of the Plenary Session.  The co-chairs are David Ream and Jan Wright.

The mission of the ASI DTTF is to gather information about changes in digital publishing practices as they affect indexes.  Also, members of the DTTF strive to interface with leading digital publishing companies, e-Reader hardware and software suppliers, standards developers, and industry partners to find solutions to ensure inclusion of usable indexes in nonfiction digital book formats and e-books.  Another mission of the DTTF is to inform ASI members regarding digital trands in a timely manner so that indexers can prepare for and participate in technology-driven and process changes.

Members of the DTTF have been working to develop EPUB 3 Indexing Standards, as covered in the last blog posting.  Noting that functionality for indexes for e-Books was broken, members of the DTTF worked with leading software developers such as Adobe in digital publishing.  The next version of Adobe InDesign, Creative Cloud, currently available by subscription, will offer embedded linked indexes for e-Books.

The DTTF used four keywords to describe the approach to the development of e-Book indexes: monetization, discovery, navigation, and metadata or aboutness.

Future blog postings will cover other sessions at the ASI conference.  For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com

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Indexing in the Age of e-Books

Monday, May 6th, 2013

A Plenary Session, held on Thursday, April 18th at the Hotel Contessa during the annual conference for the American Society for Indexing focused on “Indexing in the Age of e-Books.”  Joshua Tallent, chief e-Book Architect for Firebrand Technologies, gave the presentation.

“Indexes are at a crossroads,” he said. “The worst thing you can do is keep on doing the same thing.  The time is ripe for change, and you are uniquely suited for the challenges ahead.”

As an e-Book Architect, Tallent has developed indexes for e-Books.

He explained how embedded indexes work, describing their HTML structure.  This moves in only one direction, however.  Eventually, we will get to the point where linking does not just move in one direction.

He described EPUB 3 Indexing Specifications, which are gaining prominence.  These are the indexing standards which give the specifications that govern the indexes for e-Books.

He said that that there is no good e-Book development software currently available.  “InDesign ePub export is broken. Word HTML export is broken,” he said.

The index needs to be linked deeper than the page level, to the paragraph.  With InDesign, it is possible to create ID’s for every page by numbering every paragraph in the book.  It is hard to link the index to the exact spot and requires lots of manual labor.  This cannot be completely automated, he said.

He concluded by saying that print books are not dead.  Publishers are selling more print books than e-Books.  There is a lack of support for the functionality of indexes in e-Books.

Other workshops held during the American Society for Indexing Conference will be highlighted in future blog postings.  For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com

 

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Solutions for the Index Locator Problem with e-Book Indexes

Wednesday, August 29th, 2012

A paragraph-numbering system for locators, such as the one the Chicago Manual of Style uses, might possibly work for linking all e-book version of indexes the same way.  But this might happen only if all e-reader devices would use a paragraph-based system, a standardized method of numbering screen pages/locations, and consistent placement of the index anchor links on their screen “pages.”

If we want both quick and precise post-coordinate indexing for finding information in e-books, we have to find a way to combine machine-based indexing with the kind of pre-coordinate indexing that indexers do for print books even if whole indexes in e-books are not visible to the reader.  We need a semi-pre-coordinated, post-coordinate system that can sift through a large amount of data while at the same time be able to find a relevant, precise, piece of data.

This kind of indexing is “latticed” indexing.  We need to develop a “latticed” indexing system for sifting through large quantities of data and at the same time connecting a lot of related bits of data together in an organized way.  The use of the flat, one-dimensional alphabetical index, separate from the text in the print book, is both tedious to implement and antiquated in dynamic digital space.  We need a multi-dimensional system of information storage and retrieval that’s appropriate for cyberspace.  A place to begin to envision what a “latticed” index on the Web might look like would be a “faceted” classification system, and would offer e-book readers a way to search more effectively.

For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com

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Still More Problems with e-Book Indexes

Friday, July 6th, 2012

The E-Book Screen Locator Problem

Linked indexes are vital in an e-book because a reader has to “flip” through hundreds of screens of the e-book one at a time to get to a particular page.  The way each type of e-reader divides up an e-book also impacts the text reflow issue for indexes.  Kindle books and iBooks don’t have the same number of “pages,” and, in fact, don’t even use the same word.  While Apple calls its pages “pages,” Kindle calls its pages “locations.”  Amazon numbers the paragraphs in a book and calculates a percentage of the total e-book text to define what the number is for each particular “location” in a Kindle e-book.  Apple uses a different way to create virtual pages and to mark the beginning and end boundaries for an e-book file and to apportion the number of “pages” in its iBooks.

Despite the varying number of either “pages” or “locations” in an e-book, indexers need to be able to drop an anchor into either kind of e-book in order to link a page number in the index to the relevant discussion within the digital text.  In either kind of e-book the hyperlinked print-book page number should be able to take the reader to the right “page” or “location” in the e-book text to begin exploring the topic.

I will offer some suggestions concerning what to do about the index locator problem in the next blog posting.  For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com

 

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More Problems with e-Book Indexes

Wednesday, June 6th, 2012

The E-Reader Device Problem

To distinguish itself from others and to establish its own unique competitive advantage, each e-reader manufacturer uses different methods for displaying an e-book.  These differences include the various size of the physical “frame” for the screen display in the book, as well as the types of navigation methods used, including icons and features that vary, and even the different ways of adding virtual page numbers for each e-reader.

As a result, this variation affects index locators.  Index locators are linked back to the text with a device called an “anchor,” which is a piece of code that is invisible to the reader.  A “page” anchor on an e-book screen corresponds to the beginning of a page in the print version of a book.

Amazon Kindle places anchors in the upper left hand of the e-book screen, while Apple iPad places them in the middle.  Because the iPad has a larger screen, users can rotate the iPad 90 degrees and a two-page image will appear on the screen.  Readers may find the anchor in the middle of the left-hand “page” or in the middle of the right-hand “page” on the iPad screen, and may have to read two e-book pages before finding the beginning of an indexed discussion.

In addition, text in e-books can reflow over a number of pages depending on how large the font is made by the book’s reader.  Consequently, page number ranges in an e-book index are useful only to a very limited extent.  A page range of three pages could become six or even more e-book “pages” if the font size of the e-reader device is changed.

I will discuss another problem with e-book indexes in a future blog posting.  For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com

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Problems with e-Book Indexes

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

E-Book Text-Reflow Problem

Why do the vast majority of e-books today come without indexes?  Primarily, because of implementation challenges.  A reader’s ability to adjust font size plays havoc with page references.  Where, for example, in an e-book should index entries point to?  At certain font sizes, hyperlinked numbers might lead exactly where you want to go.  Or you might have to page ahead – or back – a click or three to find it.  Which direction?  Varying screen sizes will compound matters.

Indexers are familiar with page reflow. That problem is why we warn our clients to make sure the pages they submit for an index are in FINAL form.  This problem is magnified ten times over in e-books.  The reader of an e-book can adjust their font size.  Some readers of e-books like big font; some prefer smaller font.  Now all have many choices of font-size when they use an e-reader device.

Published e-books have a serious text reflow problem.  This problem makes it almost impossible to include hyperlinks to page references that direct the reader to exactly where you want them to go.

I will discuss other problems with e-book indexes in future blog postings.  For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com

 

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Missing the e-Book Index

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

A well-designed index can help facilitate smarter e-books, making it easier for readers to find and retrieve information more efficiently.  Unfortunately, at least for the immediate future, indexes won’t likely be appearing in most e-books on the the main e-reading systems, such as Kindle and Nook.  The companies behind these reading platforms haven’t programmed their reading software in a way that would make indexes easy – or at least easier – to implement.  Amazon comes closest, with the page numbers you now see on some Kindle books appearing courtesy of so-called “page list” data that many publishers provide – essentially lists correlating e-book location with pages in a print book.  That data could, in theory, be used to automate the implementation of indexes and to make them more accurate.  The indexer needs to move beyond taking a digital snapshot of a print index and turning each entry into a hyperlink.  Instead, search tools and indexes need to work in partnership, passing queries from one to the other as different readers arrive with different questions.

In following blog postings, I will explore specific problems with e-book indexes.  For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com

 

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Indexes in E-Books

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Electronic book readers such as the Kindle and the Nook have changed the way people read books. With the electronic book reader, pages are turned electronically and silently, but what happens when the user tries to look up a subject in the index?  The index is static.  It has the same list of subjects and page references as the print version, but requires that the user tediously page through the alphabet to find the subject, then wade through the text to find the referenced page.

The publishing industry has a great opportunity to make indexes dynamic in e-books by adding hyperlinks to index references.  By clicking on an index reference, the reader would be linked to the appropriate section in the book.  Embedded indexing offers this technology, by creating index entries that are inserted electronically into the computer files along with the text of the document.  Instead of creating a separate index file with dedicated indexing software, an embedded index is created in the same software as the rest of the document.

Currently, print documents produced with embedded indexing can be posted online.  When the user clicks on the index entry, the relevant text is displayed because index references have been turned into links.  Adding hyperlinks to index references in e-book indexes would be the next step.

For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com

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