Posts Tagged ‘San Antonio’

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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American Society for Indexing Conference

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013

I recently attended the annual conference for the American Society for Indexing (ASI) in San Antonio, Texas.  Held at the Hotel Contessa on the San Antonio’s famed Riverwalk, the keynote address was given on Thursday, April 18th by Judith Pascoe, Professor at the University of Iowa and author of “My Last Index.”  Prof. Pascoe gave an entertaining and humorous speech that detailed “The Secret Lives of Indexers.”  She explored index cards, indexing villainy, indexing artistry, and indexing in Barbara Pym novels.

Prof. Pascoe started out by giving historical background on indexing, in which indexers would index on index cards.  Indexers would write one subject heading on each index card and then sort them alphabetically.

“The index card is a symbol of the neat orderly work that indexers carry out in a world that is neat and opaque,” she said.

Describing the conventional stereotype of an indexer, she pointed out the main character in Barbara Pym’s novel, No Fond Return of Love.  She quoted passages from the novel in giving a picture of the secret life of this indexer.

She eluded to the theme of the ASI annual conference, “The Art and Craft of Indexing,” in portraying indexing as an art and a craft.  More than a technical endeavor, indexing is crafting an artistic work, she emphasized.

“Indexing is a door opening into a new world like Dorothy stepping forth into Oz,” she concluded.

Future blog postings will cover other workshop sessions at the ASI annual 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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