Courtesy
Back
Words
Indexing
NOVICE NOTES
|
Novice Notes Let me Talk You Out of Indexing Martha Osgood To find these Novice Notes again, you can: |
RESOURCES FOR PROSPECTIVE INDEXERS
When I was just starting out, I could have used some general guidance, but it wasn't available and everyone seemed so intimidating. So here are some resources for more info about indexing, including discussion lists to lurk on, sites to visit, preparations to consider if you are looking into becoming an indexer.
Table of Contents of All Six Novice Notes pages:
|
The first thing to recognize is this that YOU are in charge:
Freelance income is dependent upon the number of books contracted, hours worked per week, speed and experience levels. It takes marketing (=it's a numbers game), experience (=speed, accuracy), repeat business (= quality work), and time (=2-5 years) to build up to the good income levels . This is honest, skilled work, not a scheme to get rich quick.
The second thing is that there is a lot more to indexing than meets the eye. Following all the rules is easy (with a lot of practice and feedback); it is the art of indexing that is hard. Don't forget this as you read on.
And the third thing is to re-read the second thing and think about it. I had to learn - through 6-8 in depth indexes and peer reviews - how to pay attention at that level, and I STILL find in reviews the IndexPeers do for me that I can improve. The level of detail was a real surprise to me.
How to get started:
1. Some library schools teach indexing (but their courses may not be open to auditors).
2. Find someone to mentor you. And google "novicenotes" and find the pages referring to the behind-the-scenes and process of book indexing. YOU ARE HERE.
3. Practice on your own and then find someone to critique your work; and if you pay that person for her or his time, just think of it as the cost of your education. You don't have to have every sample critiqued. Do several practice indexes first, until you get one you're ready to show somebody. Beginners can certainly critique each other's indexes as well (peer review). Practice ideas: here
4. Take local, day-long workshops, if your ASI chapter has them. Invent workshops that you need and get the chapter to help you find folks - even local folks - to teach them.
5. Take other workshops (Kari Kells, Sherry Smith) that give a lot of homework and a lot more feedback in at least 5-6 sessions over 10-12 weeks. The issue is learning to THINK like an indexer in how you *organize* the index you write.
6. Go to the ASI annual conference and take as many workshops as you can pack in. On all sorts of subjects, so you get lots of exposure to different areas of indexing and different issues.
7. Check the ASI Web site for info on training: www.asindexing.org
8. Read Smith and Kells' Inside Indexing, DoMi Stauber's Facing the Text, Mulvaney's Indexing Books, Wellisch's Indexing from A to Z, and the indexing chapter in the Chicago Manual of Style.
10. Get hold of a few Before and After indexes (before peer review and after peer review). They can show you a decent enough index, then the same index with the commentary of several Peer Reviewers which shows you how much better it can become.
11. Design your business forms. Some ideas are on the Business page of these novicenotes: here
12. Practice sending attachments to your friends with different computer systems. Verify that all spaces, diacritics and indention survive email transmission. Learn how to merge addresses in Word or WordPerfect.
13. Begin collecting items (graphics, phrasing, quotes) for your own indexing business website.
14. Lurk on all the indexing lists you can find.
15. Begin a list of non-profit organizations who might need an index of back issues of their journal, of their meeting records, of their clipping file, of <insert other things you discover that they would appreciate having indexed>
16. For the practical details, get "Running an Indexing Business", ASI's publication, edited by Janet Perlman, includes a chapter on "Managing your Moonlighting Business", as well as Pilar Wyman's overview of "The Business of Being in Business". It's available from Information Today, Inc. http://www.infotoday.com
17. Life will be easier later on if you take a good course with lots of homework now, if you prepare yourself well, if you use the professional software, if you avoid getting into bad habits, if you give yourself time to do a good job and to develop a business (it won't happen overnight), and if you find yourself a network of other indexers. One of the best ways to do the latter is to volunteer in your regional chapter, either on a committee or on the Board.
EMAIL DISCUSSION LISTS
| groups.yahoo.com/group/indexersdiscussionlist the archives for this list are there for all to see subscribe-index-l@listserv.unc.edu A list where indexers volunteer to review for each other (offlist) prior to submitting indexes to the publisher - www.yahoogroups.com/group/IndexPeers www.yahoogroups.com/group/IndexBar (for off-topic chit-chat that doesn't worry about taste or decorum) www.yahoogroups.com/group/WordIndexers These and others are also mentioned at http://www.asindexing.org You can see even more by going to yahoogroups.com and asking to see all lists having to do with "index" - many of the ASI SIGs (Special Interest Groups) and regional lists are shown there. The Freelancers list is composed of "editors, indexers, proofreaders, writers, typesetters, designers, researchers, and others who work in the industry. List topics include publisher comparisons, job searches, and types of work; rates and (non)payments; insurance and taxes; home offices and equipment; and any other work-related issues. " It's 100% freelancing, 100% of the time. To subscribe to the Pacific Northwest regional discussion list The New England Chapter of the American Society of Indexers website is very useful: http://www.newenglandindexers.org |
The ASI website at http://www.ASIndexing.org/
This site gives a WEALTH of indexing information and other resources to follow up. Membership in ASI is $120 a year (less for students, I think), but visiting most of the web page is free. You might also visit some chapter websites from the ASI site - there is often a lot of very good information there - http://www.pnwasi.org/
ASI Annual Meeting - ASI holds a big (300-400 indexers) annual meeting with many useful workshops somewhere in the country every year, and each regional chapter holds at least one annual and sometimes monthly social gatherings or workshops or peer-reviews of varying formality and cost each year.
And then there are also an American periodical, KeyWords, and a British journal, The Indexer.
Chapters of ASI
http://www.asindexing.org/site/chapters.shtml
There are also SIGs (Special Interest Groups) to join. Each of these offers different benefits to their members, from a regularly updated list to whom referrals can be made, to snailmailed directories to publishers, to e-discussion lists. To join these, go to the ASI website and follow the links for:
|
Scholarly SIG
Business SIG History/Archaeology SIG Gardening and Environmental Studies SIG Psychology/Sociology SIG Science/Medical SIG Sports/Travel SIG Web Indexing SIG - And you can start your own topical SIG |
QUALITIES OF SUCCESSFUL INDEXERS
It is said that Successful Indexers -
|
Have good pattern recognition skills In addition: Subject expertise is helpful. Indexing coursework with a LOT of feedback is helpful, and Peer Reviews are VERY helpful |
A 2000 survey of ASI members shows that 12% hold doctorates, 50% have earned Masters Degrees, 14% have some postgraduate study, and 20% have a Bachelor's degree. Only 29% hold library degrees. 90% are freelance, back of the book indexers, and 60% of those work part-time. But if you don't have a degree, don't let that limit you. A degree means you have had the time/$ to make yourself noticed to a certain part of the world; the lack thereof does NOT mean you can't do the work.
DID I MENTION THAT SUCCESSFUL INDEXERS ARE SELF-MOTIVATED?
A similar list of indexer skills appears in a brochure put out by the Australian Society of Indexers. You can find an online version at http://www.aussi.org/profissues/guide_to_indexing_services.htm
BOOKS AND COURSES
Books
Indexing Books by Nancy Mulvany (the HOW of indexing, get the 2nd edition)
Chicago Manual of Style (15th Edition)
Inside Indexing by Sherry Smith and Kari Kells, the behind the scenes "WHYs" of indexing
A unique and right-on book dealing with the interior decisionmaking in indexing is Inside Indexing by Sherry Smith and Kari Kells. Highly recommended. A book to develop one's thinking as an indexer.
An excellent book on indexing is Facing the Text: Content and Structure in Book Indexing by Do Mi Stauber, based on 9 years of her one day course by the same name. In-depth How-To. A reference book
Seth Maislin's online course for writing indexes for books and websites
Nancy Mulvany, author of Indexing Books (get the SECOND EDITION), offers a subscription e-magazine of issues related to indexing. Look at the options here: http://www.i-torque.us
Pat Booth's Indexing: the Manual of Good Practice (Saur, 2001)
Indexing Specialties: History - occasional papers (Information Today, pub.)
Handbook of Indexing Techniques by Linda Fetters (the HOW of indexing)
Indexing from A to Z by Wellisch (the HOW of indexing in encyclopedia format)
Indexing, the Art of by Knight (a pre-computer collector's item now , 1910?)
The ASI/ITI publication, Genealogy and Indexing, ed. by Kathleen Spaltro. See description at http://www.asindexing.org/site/asipub.shtml.
Indexing Newspapers, Magazines, and other Periodicals
Anything written by Hazel Bell, especially on genealogy, names, etc
Society of Indexers occasional papers on indexing biographies, genealogies, fiction, etc.
Indexing: the Manual of Good Practice by Pat Booth (British conventions)
Indexing for Editors and Editing Records for Publication by Hunnisett (British conventions)
Articles (not exhaustive)
(With thanks to Kari Kells)
• Coates, Sylvia "Term Selection: Putting Humpty Dumpty Together, At Last" Key Words v.9 n.5 (Sept/Oct 2001) p.145-147.
• Cohen, Barbara E. "A Less Than Useful Index" Key Words v.6 n.5 p.15-18. This article takes apart an index and talks about why the structure & the access points chosen are NOT useful. Exploring why some entries aren't well phrased is a great learning tactic partly because it builds your confidence in your own abilities to do better than whatever awful index that's in front of you.
• Fetters, Linda K.. Handbook of Indexing Techniques, FimCo Books, 1999. ISBN 0-929599-04-7. Chapter 3, "Writing the Index," is especially useful.
• Lancaster, F. W. Indexing and Abstracting in Theory and Practice, University of Illinois, 1991. ISBN 0-87845-083-1. Section "Factors affecting the quality of indexing" (pages 79-85)
• Langridge, D. W. Subject Analysis: Principles and Procedures, Bowker-Saur, 1989. ISBN 0-408-03031-3. (Because this book is written for librarians and folks working in knowledge management in general, its perspective is a blend of theory and practice. It is a wonderful work if you enjoy reading more about the applied theory of subject/content analysis!)
• Weinberg, Bella Hass "Exhaustivity of Indexes: Books, Journals, and Electronic Full Text" Key Words v.7 n.5 p.1+. This scholarly article is jam-packed with Weinberg's brilliant ideas.
• Wellisch, Hans H. "Aboutness and Selection of Topics" Key Words v.4 n.2 p.7-9. (This is perhaps the most useful article on this topic.)
AACR2 and the British, Canadian & American Indexing Standards
NCA Names Rules at http://www.hmc.gov.uk/nca/rules1.htm
and others...but don't stock up on general reference books until you need them specifically.
Indexing/Indexer Blogs
http://sethearley.wordpress.com/2006/06/08/a-very-bad-index/
Courses
Regarding courses: ANY course can give you the basics, but indexing takes a certain kind of thinking and organization too. While one can read about it and think one understands how to structure an index well, it is only a talent for that kind of thinking AND PRACTICE that will give you a strong enough foundation to go out there into the cold world as a professional.
The USDA Course. The Graduate School, USDA self study course is one way indexers get training in the US. The courses were developed and are taught by professional indexers, and allow students to progress at their own speed (or slower, but seldom faster), working at home. Tuition: (includes all materials)
|
Graduate School, USDA email or look here for the specific indexing courses offered about $400.00—Basic Indexing (beginning, takes 6-12 months) |
• Berkeley Distance Learning Course
Sylvia Coates teaches an on-line basic indexing course through UC Berkeley. Also offered by Jan Wright. This three-unit credit course features:
1. Email delivery and return of assignments.
2. Students are expected to complete course in 6 months or less.
3. Indexing exercises and assignments will be completed using course provided indexing software versions of Cindex, Macrex, and SKY. The provided software will not include full versions of these software programs but will be sufficient to complete all exercises and indexing assignments.
4. Course is designed using a hands-on approach to both BOB (back of the book) and embedded indexing techniques using indexing software.
Sylvia Coates has also written the article: Five Fatal Myths of Indexing and on the same site are other useful articles, especially Heather Hall's Ten Common Mistakes of Indexing.
• There may also be courses with plenty of homework* offered at local colleges, by experienced indexers in your area, and brush-ups or courses focussing on one in depth aspect of indexing at regional and national indexing meetings and conferences (courses by Kari Kells, Sherry Smith and Do Mi Stauber are a few to watch for). If you can, do take a local, in-person course with a lot of homework, feedback, discussion and time to learn all the myriad details of indexing, instead of a correspondence course.
Then in your preparation include the of writing three/four practice indexes where you compare your work to the already-indexed book's index, keep on doing practice indexes, getting strongly peer reviewed (by other indexers) as you market yourself. (I discuss this more in the Process Page of these five Novice Notes webpages). Peer Reviewed practice MATTERS.
Websites
• http://www.anindexer.com/about/book/bookindex.html
• The ASI website includes award winning indexes that also break some obvious rules, though for good reasons.
• http://www.aboutindexing.info/pmwiki.php
• Another good resource is Fred Brown's article at www.allegrotechindexing.com/article03.htm .
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indexing
• Take a look at Dawn's site - many useful articles on indexing: http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/indexing or try http://journals.aol.com/indexlady/IndexLady/
• There are video courses (though not as useful or thorough - by far - as any other kind of course, in *my* opinion) - for the latter look at the ASI web page at http://www.ASIndexing.org/
• The British "distance learning" course http://www.socind.demon.co.uk is offered in modules for which you pay as you go, but they teach the British conventions (e.g., don't capitalize all the words in the title, place punctuation outside all quotes, etc.), not the American ones. ASI is also offering (controversial certification [e.g., what does certification really mean? are you certified as having completed a course? or certified as a professional indexer?]), an American version of this course, on their website at http://www.asindexing.org/site/certification.shtml and http://www.asindexing.org/site/certificationcourse.html
• For website indexing, take a look at these links:
For online course in webindexing,
http://www.hedden-information.com/courses.htm
http://www.optusnet.com.au/~webindexing/webindexingglossary.htm and
http://www.optusnet.com.au/~webindexing/webindexingbooklinkspage.htm - and see the HTML Indexer site too with its reasons to create a website index. Dan Connolly also runs the IndexStudents list at yahoogroups.com and http://www.wfwbooks.com/articles.htm Here is a wonderful collection of articles, many about indexing, many by Hazel Bell: http://www.aidanbell.com/html/hkbell/samplearticles.htm .
• More and more current courses on the ASI website.
• A long list of useful web sites created by indexers can be found at:
http://www.slais.ubc.ca/courses/arstlibr512/00-01-wt2/indexing.htm
This is not the complete list of all course possibilities. Library schools, some corporations, some publishers and other indexers also offer local courses, and regional and national meetings of ASI offer very useful workshops.
What you want to look for in a course should be: a LOT of practice indexes with heavy feedback and as much discussion with others as possible. The Pacific Northwest offers Peer Review gatherings in different cities, attended by indexers ("peers") in those cities. You actually can start your own Peer Review gatherings if there are any other indexers near enough to meet once a month or so. And you can do peer reviews by email on IndexPeers (at yahoogroups.com) or with other indexers who agree to do it with you.
* NOTE: I was a very good student in college but was still quite surprised at how much practice it took me to "recognize" the instances where I should apply an indexing rule, or instances where I would have to decide *which* rule to apply. One needs to learn to think in the sense of "what the next reader will want to find" -- instead of in terms of "taking notes" or "recognizing nouns." Much more organized detail is necessary in indexing than one finds in everyday life.Mentored practice (="homework") is the key to getting this experience. |
GRAMMAR
At least one useful copyeditors' list (heavy traffic - maybe 85-125 messages a day - worthwhile and very, very funny, but plan to use a filter and your delete key often), exists. To join, send a message to:
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU and say:
(There are also other lists for editing that you could join...these are useful because as you index you may discover copyediting errors that proofreaders miss and that your editor may ask you to point out in a "query sheet" when you submit your index - although as the indexer you are NOT intended to copyedit the book).
SOFTWARE
Take a look at the web pages for the three main indexing software programs. For basic info and downloadable demos for these three main programs, go to:
|
For Cindex: http://www.indexres.com For Sky: http://www.sky-software.com Note: All these software programs have users who consistently report excellent email and phone support for the software. The ASI publication, Software for Indexing, offers an excellent comparison of the features of all the major programs. See http://www.asindexing.org/site/asipub.shtml for details and order links to ITI. The name Macrex does not refer to it being available for Mac computers. Macrex stands for "macro index" and is PC native. Only Cindex has a Mac-native program that does not need a conversion program to work on a Mac. To decide which program to use, I suggest you try out the programs themselves with the free, downloadable test versions and decide which seems more intuitive FOR YOU. ANY other so-called indexing software will not have the features of these three, specifically the "grouping" functions which gather onto one screen all references in the index to the root characters you ask for, which then allows you to compare the appropriate page references to see that all the information on that topic is accessible from one main entry (See the Process page for more info on this. Remember, the indexer does the gathering for the reader so the reader doesn't have to read the whole index to find all mentions of the topic. plus an auxiliary site that supports Cindex: http://www.LevTechInc.com
plus a very useful html (web site) indexing program for PCs only:
plus instructions for How to Index in WORD (but only if you really, really have to - the process is not pretty and the benefits of the other, real indexing programs are not available to you in Word) http://taxonomist.tripod.com/articles/wordflags.html Martin Tulic's site talks to you about the benefits of the professional indexing software programs, and emphasizes that you can download small trial versions of each software to see what it looks like and how YOU respond to it. I've seen also seen good articles about software comparisons published in the STC Indexing SIG newsletter - available at http://www.stcsig.org/idx/ and in ASI's KeyWords. |
TYPES OF INDEXING
There are many kinds of indexing - recordings, software and other manuals, embedded indexing (using Quark, Framemaker, Word), multimedia, thesaurus building, government documents, textbooks, abstracting, and online help (etc). The more technical kinds of indexing (science, physics, medicine, legal) can command more $ per indexable page than ordinary stuff. Software manuals can command rush fees since they need a Very Quick Turnaround.
Catalogs - similar to back of the book indexes but simpler. Some catalog clients want very detailed indexes and want multiple access points. They see the index as a tool for selling their products. With up to a dozen products on a page, the number of entries per page can be very high. That said, this work is clearly not as challenging or interesting as scholarly indexing, but it pays the bills. In addition, catalogs are updated on a regular basis – at least every year but generally more often – resulting in regular repeat business.
Raw image indexing involves the creation of a hierarchy of information (i.e., medium; dates; inside/outside; black and white/color; subject matter [people, transportation, animals etc] and then those broken down into number of people or type of transportation etc) that will be applied to the images and then sticking to it to create an index/database of the images. Most of this work is done using established formats and it's used by any image library or image archive. There are even indexes being created for fine art.
Database indexing involves a fairly strict vocabulary and the material are added to the index using this vocabulary. Medline is an example of a database index which takes articles and fits them into the plan so searching is easier. The actual page by page content of the articles are not indexed, but the existence of the article and its location information is captured.
There are indexes of CD-ROM materials. They normally use track information as the locator but work like normal indexes, although when they are included on the CD, hot links can move the searcher to the area of the disk in question.
Legal/Medical/Science indexes are quite different from cookbook, anthropology, fine art, and scholarly book indexes.
There are meta-indexes which cover the materials in collections and multiple volumes of works.
There are indexes to journals and newspapers and newsletters. Again, the principles are the same, the format of the subheads and locators may/will differ. http://www.asindexing.org/site/keypast.shtml
There are indexes for Web sites.
There are indexes for Intranets so that searchers can find corporate documents and people or projects of interest. These include indexes of annotated bookmarks to the Internet to aid research.
There are indexes to works of fiction. See the Index-L archives for more on this.
There are genealogical indexes which cover church records, cemeteries, old newspapers, etc. These are sometimes compiled on spec, and sold by the indexer to genealogists.
There are indexes to encyclopedias, which is back of the book indexing on a much larger scale.
To find more information on any of these you could do a Google search; check the ASI web site; check Index-L archives; look at Information Today catalogs; or even check the Indexer Locator and if you find someone in a field of interest, write to them and ask if you can pick their brains.
More at http://www.pnwasi.org/indexkinds.htm
~ Initial information courtesy: Sharon Hughes
---
There is also the option of After-Market indexing (also called Stand-Alone) where the indexer chooses to index a book and sell the index separately.
A business niche you could start on your own and in your own state could be writing indexes for timed, open-book exams for government certification, such as agriculture, electrical, permit, and food service, beauty shop, and public safety inspectors. You would need to understand what the tests involve, read and index the government sections for the specific audience of Those Taking the Exam. You would have to keep up on the legal changes, and market your indexes to test-takers through industry publications. The key point is that you KEEP UP with the changes, thereby making pirating/theft of your work soon worthless.
Check out other indexer's web pages for more info:
INCOME EXPECTATIONS
A survey from mid-2000 indicates that the average income for all indexers ranges from $25,000-$29,000 US. For in-house, salaried indexers, it is $45,000-$49,900 US. Those with Doctorates often specialize but the presence of Doctorates does not seem to be the main factor which affects income levels (although living in the Northeast U.S. may be). The average hourly rate for freelancers was about $30-$40 US.
See the more current ASI salary survey here:
http://www.asindexing.org/site/SalarySurvey.shtml
Another unofficial survey suggests it takes and average of 1-9 months to get your first paid indexing job, and 2-9 months to get a second index. Average means that for some new indexers, it took 18 months! The same survey reveals that those who marketed a lot and made cold calls were more successful, faster.
REMINDER:
|
Consider your own personality
In relation to the details of indexing, what would your ideal work-day look like:
|
• Is it solitude - or is it loneliness? |
**
Table of Contents of All Six Novice Notes pages:
|