How does a book indexing project work? What should I expect as a client? How do I find the right indexer for my project? Our blog series on index commissioning takes you through the process in helpful detail buff.ly/jbK0VxQ
To be in the Guiness Book of Records for 'Book with the longest index' (currently nearly 3000 song titles for The Reckless History of the 21st Century).
"If authors are rock stars, which in my mind they are, the acknowledgements are the part of the concert where they take a moment to shout out the names of the band members."
lithub.com/an-ode-to-ac...
In our latest blog post, we asked our panel of expert indexers what has changed in the profession, and what has stayed the same #IndexSky buff.ly/6JN6aux
Libreria Acqua Alta, a bookstore in Venice that contains a set of steps made entirely out of books. Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash.
Our training course will prepare you to start work as a professional indexer as soon as you complete it. You'll create indexes for two book-length works before you become an Accredited Indexer. You'll get support and feedback from experienced indexers. Find out more at buff.ly/KIf3uHP
A photo of a page from "Berlioz and the Romantic Century" by Jacques Barzun, showing the "Index to Misconceptions about Berlioz and to Their Corrections," including detailed page listings for: BERLIOZ generally misknown 1. His ACCURACY and truthfulness in musical and personal affairs 2. His thorough understanding of BEETHOVEN See also General Index: Beethoven, B. his disciple 3. His appreciation of CHAMBER MUSIC 4. His CHARACTER AND INTELLECT worthy of uncommon respect 5. His gift for COMPOSING spontaneous as well as controlled 6. His grand CONCEPTIONS fully carried out 7. His CONDUCTING, like that required for his works, precise not volcanic 8. His COSMOPOLITAN mind, unbound by chauvinism, "French ideas," or ignorance of foreign tongues 9. His knowledge of, and sound views upon, COUNTERPOINT 10. His integrity as a CRITIC and acceptance of others' CRITICISM of himself
11. His DOMESTIC LIFE marked by affection and a sense of responsibility 12. His music not invariably FANTASTIC 13. His FOLLOWING numerous, though not doctrinaire 14. His sense of FORM acute and inventive 15. His lifelong capacity for FRIENDSHIP 16. His frequent use and reasoned estimate of FUGUE 17. His travesty in the incomplete GERMAN EDITION 18. His GRATITUDE to List, Paganini, and other admirers 19. His HARMONY subtle and expressive 20. His first symphony not about HARRIET SMITHSON 21. His INFLUENCE on the course of music unmistakable 22. His INVENTIVENESS neither anarchical nor ignorant 23. His use of LARGE ORCHESTRAS not extravagant or habitual 24. His music intelligible apart from any LITERARY IDEAS
25. His LOVE OF MUSIC not limited to his own works 26. His creation of a characteristic MELODY 27. His MEMOIRS reliable about himself and his times 28. His life a MONUMENT OF COMPLETENESS 29. His admiration for MOZART, based on a real affinity 30. His hatred of NOISE, and sparing use of timpani and brass 31. His ORCHESTRAL EFFECTS meaningful and structural, not laid on 32. His knowledge of PIANO MUSIC and sound judgment of PIANISTS 33. His grasp of POLITICS, ECONOMICS, and PHILOSOPHY 34. His PRACTICALITY in adjusting to available means 35. His early rejection of PROGRAM and his composing of movements before choosing titles 36. His significance RECOGNIZED BY HIS PEERS in his lifetime and since 37. His REFUSAL TO TAMPER with masterpieces of music and his denunciation of tinkers 38. His life and his works marked by true RELIGIOUS FEELING 39. His mature style no REPUDIATION OF ROMANTICISM
40. His uncommon SANITY (even while composing LÉLIO) 41. His career free of SELF-SEEKING AND VINDICTIVENESS 42. His STATEMENTS OF BELIEF about his art explicit and consistent from early youth to maturity 43. His disbelief in music's power to TELL STORIES AND PAINT PICTURES 44. His poised TEMPERAMENT, Dionysiac and Apollonian 45. His many-sided musical TRADITION 46. His long and thorough TRAINING, supplemented by self-discipline 47. His preference for calm and contemplative subjects to the VIOLENT AND BLOODCURDLING 48. His impeccable behavior toward WAGNER 49. His passion or "romanticism," after adolescence, never WILD 50. His WILL POWER and singleness of purpose
I guess every biographer becomes obsessed with setting the record straight about their subject, but I have never seen a book include a detailed "Index to Misconceptions" like this!
The use of all-caps makes it even more hilarious.
from "Berlioz and the Romantic Century" by Jacques Barzun (1950)
This was an interesting discussion. I normally say that I "write" indexes but after today I may switch to "create" instead #IndexSky
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You can explore the idea of indexing as professional and creative work on our website: buff.ly/filOA71
If you make indexes as part of your work, do you write, compile or create? And what does professionalism mean to your indexing work?
The variety of texts, authors, readers and publishers means that we are always acting creatively to accommodate the meaning of the text, the needs of the reader and the requirements of the publisher.
There was a happy consensus that we could describe ourselves as ‘creating’ indexes. Indexing is a creative act that produces something that didn’t exist before we did our work.
We talked around the idea of the index as a work of art, and whether this idea brings a paradox. If the index asserts its own status as a work of art, rather than as an effective guide to the book, have we experienced loss of impartiality and imposed our own ego onto the book?
‘Writing’ implies a more personal and creative act, and fits well with the sort of discursive indexes made for certain types of books, like biographies. ‘Compiling’ implies a more technical and impersonal approach.
We then considered how we describe the act of indexing itself. Do we write or compile indexes?
We discussed what professionalism means in our daily work, and found that it underpins how we do our job – we uphold the standards of good indexing practice, we train and develop our skills, our interactions with clients reflect both our skills and our professional standards.
Firstly, we talked about the term ‘professional’. SI is “the professional body for indexers in the UK”; through our work, we inform and promote standards and quality in indexing, train and develop indexers, and develop indexing practice.
At our April coffee morning, seventeen SI members, from retired to student indexers, met to discuss what we say when we talk among ourselves about indexing.
A laptop, an open book and a cup of tea on a desk. Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash.
Book indexing attracts people from diverse backgrounds. Many of our members also work in proofreading, editing, librarianship or teaching. Explore our training course pages to learn about adding indexing to your career - you can study online at your own pace: buff.ly/KIf3uHP
Thanks very much to @indexerscanada.bsky.social for an excellent conference over the weekend. I'm now itching to try indexing in LaTeX and it was great to hear about @asindexing.bsky.social's research in to AI and indexing (it doesn't do a good job) from Elizabeth Bartmess #IndexSky
More great talks at @indexerscanada.bsky.social conference today. After the latest review by Elizabeth Bartmess on generative AI attempts at creating book indexes, compared with how ‘good’ the chatbots say they are, the bots could do with much more imposter syndrome. #IndexSky
Cool! Someone went to check if they were in a book by looking at the index.
Enjoying my first day of @indexerscanada.bsky.social online conference. I loved the brilliant keynote by @dannybate.bsky.social on ‘Who Ordered the Alphabet’. Surely several more copies of his ‘Why Q Needs U’ book now sold, including to the UK @indexers.bsky.social and me. #IndexSky
Look, a reader uses and index and finds what they were looking for.
A woman holding a magnifying glass sits at a desk, an open book in front of her. By Houcine Ncib on Unsplash.
Are you a publishing professional who’s new to working with book indexers? Our guide to commissioning an index takes you through the whole process and helps you foster good working relationships and great indexes buff.ly/SE42N6l
Often a good idea to promote your non-fiction book with a glimpse of the index, especially if it is a good one. Not one of mine I have to say.
Thousands of non-fiction books are published every year; we can’t index them all! Help us out by joining the Society of Indexers. Our training course will prepare you for a stimulating career in book indexing. Find out more at buff.ly/KIf3uHP
A variation on a theme: author disappointed by the lack of an index #IndexSky
A screenshot of an index reading: globalization, 149 Glück, Louise, 115 God, 89 G/O Media, 31, 45
A screenshot of the index reading, in part: internet. See also specific elements control of, 35 as finite, 10-11 fragility of, 4 function of, 108-9 as human, 35 library metaphor for, 22-23 as Library of Alexandria, 36-37 as magic, 81-84 physicality of, 83, 91 as transporter, 57-58
A screenshot of the index, reading: Macbeth (Shakespeare), 100 machine learning, 18. See also artificial intelligence (AI); large language models maggots, 59-60 malleability, 29-30 Marisopa Battalion, 62 Marx, Karl, 163 masking, 123-24 mass media. conspiracy theories and, 128
From the index for my book THE INTERNET WILL DIE, AND SO WILL YOU (out in Sept. 10).
Here are some accidental poems:
globalization
Glück, Louise
God
G/O Media
control of
fragility of
function of
as human
as magic
as transporter
Macbeth
machine learning
maggots
Certainly nearer that than an algorithmic process that can be safely handed over to an automated tool!