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Back to Fall 2006 Conference Summary page
Fall 2006 Conference Panel
Book Indexing Specific Materials Panel
Moderated by NEASI Chair of Continuing Studies, May Hasso
Three experienced indexers shared thoughts and helpful instructions on their specialties.
Encyclopedia Indexing - presented by Pauline Sholtys
Children's Book Indexing - presented by Heather Hedden
Computer Manual Indexing - presented by Seth Maislin
Encyclopedia Indexing, presented by Pauline Sholtys
There are different kinds of encyclopedias, and Pauline spoke of her experience as a member of a managed team of in-house indexers working on the the multi-volume children's encyclopedia, Grolier's, published by Scholastic Inc.
The time limit for indexing such a large work necessitates having multiple indexers and also having indexing begin before the entire encyclopedia is finished. These are both challenges, especially considering that in Pauline's experience no controlled vocabulary was used. Furthermore, the encyclopedia articles are written by multiple authors who use different vocabulary. Therefore, to ensure consistency of the indexing, the indexers need to keep in contact with each other and to accept the fact that some of their indexing will inevitably get changed by other indexers. If no controlled vocabulary is available, at least style specifications usually are.
Article titles are obvious main entries in encyclopedia indexers, but other topics are present, too. Pagination might be consecutive for all volumes or it might be a combination of volume + page. Some multi-volume encyclopedias, such as Grolier's, also have an an annual "yearbook" volume. The indexing of the yearbook is more similar to back-of-the-book indexing, because it is a relatively small work. Nevertheless, the articles of the yearbook are indexed as they come in over the course of several months.
Most multi-volume encyclopedia indexing has been done in-house, although that may not be the case any more.
Children's Book Indexing, presented by Heather Hedden
Heather has indexed over 15 children's books, although all for the same publisher. The issues in indexing children's books can vary greatly by publisher and also whether indexing trade books or textbooks. In 2004 Barbara DeGennaro gave an ASI conference presentation on indexing children's books that dealt more with textbooks. In textbook indexing, state educational standards must be followed resulting in stricter indexing guidelines and the requirement to use publisher-provided lists of words or phrases in the index.
Children's book indexing has the advantage of requiring no subject expertise and involving shorter, easier texts. A disadvantage is that the space for the index is often restricted, necessitating sometimes difficult indexing decisions. Therefore, indexing children's books is not necessarily for beginners. Children's book indexing also does not pay that well. Although a rate of $2.50/page is fair for pages with far fewer words than adult books, the administrative time an indexer spends is the same no matter the length of the book. As such, children's book indexing is not as lucrative as other genres.
The market for indexing children's trade books is sporadic. Many publishers handle indexing in-house, since it may not seem with the effort to contract out a small project that will take only a few hours. The market for information books, such as classroom curriculum support books and books for school libraries is growing, and textbook indexing remains a big market.
When indexing children's books, the indexer must consider two audiences: the children readers who require an easy-to-use index, and the parents and teachers who look at the index when considering whether to purchase the book. The keep the index simple, Heather recommended using simple terms, following the author's language, avoiding prepositions in subentries, and avoiding undifferentiated locators at a main entry that also has subentries unless the subentries are clearly narrower terms. See and See also references should be used sparingly, so as to avoid confusion, but should still be included as educational examples.
Computer Manual Indexing, presented by Seth Maislin
Seth, who started his indexing career as an in-house indexer of computer books for the publisher O'Reilly, began by explaining the special role of computer manual indexes. The index is the "tool of last resort" to which the computer user turns when experiencing problems with a computer or software. The index user is thus already frustrated, so the index should be as helpful as possible.
Computer manuals and their indexes serve a dual audience of expert users and novices and rarely anyone in between. Expert users seek specific, precise information, and therefore prefer indexes with many subentries and specific page references. Novice users prefer indexers with more categories, fewer subentries, and larger page entries. As a result, the indexer must make comprises and the resulting index tends to have many subentries and large page ranges.
According to Seth, a computer book indexer does not need to be an expert in all fields. While being an expert in a subject is definitely an advantage, if you are not familiar the topic of a book you can still get the indexing job by explaining to the client that you can better understand the needs of the novice user. For indexing computer manuals in general, there is a learning curve, but then the books appear similar and it becomes easier and faster to index manuals on many topics.
The market for indexing computer manuals remains strong. Although deadlines tend to be harsh, the pay is good, around $4.00/page on average. There is also an endless supply of computer books being published. Although many software manuals are also indexed by their authors, technical writers, the freelance indexer can serve these clients as well, in the role of a consultant or trainer.
Pauline Sholtys holds a B.A. in Spanish and an M.L.S., both from Southern Connecticut State University. She began her indexing career in 1979, working full time on a daily newspaper index, and in 1984 started indexing encyclopedias. An ASI member since 1982, she has been indexing on a freelance basis since 2003.
Heather Hedden worked as an in-house periodical database indexer and editor of controlled vocabulary at Thomson's Gale Group for 11 years prior to becoming a freelance back-of-the-book indexer in 2004. Among other projects at Gale she created the vocabulary for a children's reference database. Heather conducts continuing education workshops in how to teach children to use indexes and how to create web site indexes through Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Heather has a B.A. from Cornell University and an M.A. from Princeton University.
Seth Maislin is the current national president of the American Society of Indexers, a path that started in 1996 when he served as our chapter's Chair of Continuing Studies. He's an indexing and information architecture instructor and consultant, with clients and teaching credits from around the world, but his bread-and-butter is still the back-of-the-book index. His specialties are in computers and technology subjects, and yet he always finds himself indexing books on other subjects, including the Southwest, forensics, nursing homes, terrorism, and giving birth.