Optimal Indexing

This series of blog postings continues the discussion on ethics in indexing.  On March 25, 2015, Heather Ebbs presented an American Society for Indexing webinar on “Ethics in Indexing.”  She focused on a number of scenarios highlighting ethical issues that indexers might face.

Strong Beliefs

A friend of a sibling asks if you would index her book on child health in a few months once she has finished writing.  Normally you would ask to see a few sample chapters, but she catches you in a good mood on a busy day and after you negotiate prices and timelines, you push it to the back of your mind.  A few months later the pages arrive, and as you begin indexing, you notice two things.  First, the book is rife with typos.  She is self-publishing and appears not to have the book edited.  Second, you are dismayed to discover that she feels very differently about child health from the way you do.  In fact, you consider that much of her book contains misinformation.

Ms. Ebbs said that the indexer should let the author know early on that she may want to get the book edited.  The indexer may include information about typos that might need to be corrected.  She said that the indexer could approach the author about misinformation by saying, “By the way, you may want to check this fact.”  When she has done this, she said it worked out very well.

She said that if due to strong beliefs, “If you do not honestly feel you can take on this project, excuse yourself from indexing.”

I will wrap up our discussion of ethics in indexing 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

This series of blog postings focuses on ethics in indexing.  On March 25, 2015, Heather Ebbs presented an American Society for Indexing webinar on “Ethics in Indexing.”  She discussed a number of scenarios highlighting ethical issues that indexers might face.

Censorship

An editor sends you the pages of an educational text that includes information on the creation myths of different cultures, including various aboriginal peoples, Christians, Muslims, and many others.  The editor asks you to be sure to index every single mention of each Australian aboriginal group, no matter how trivial the reference.  However, he instructs you just to touch broadly on aboriginal people from other countries.  He tells you not to include any references to evolution, even though the author does describe it in relation to different world views in a few places in the book.

Ms. Ebbs said that it is best to base the index on the text and use cross-references.  The language used in the text might be offensive, and indexers may have to weigh political correctness.  The index should be an accurate representation of what’s in the text.    Despite this, she said that indexers are ethically obliged to work to the client’s specifications.

• Censorship in indexing ranges from selection or deliberate exclusion of entries in the index to having no index at all.
• Some of the reasons for censoring an index include economic grounds, marketing strategy, cultural beliefs, and author requests and errors.

In future blog postings, I will discuss other ethical indexing scenarios.  For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com