1. technology and computing
2. internet technology
3. web search

Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI)
ANZSI NEWSLETTER
Volume 6, number 1, January–February 2010
ANZSI news
Council Minutes on the web
T
he ANZSI Council has met a
couple of times since the last
Newsletter. So what does Council
do and discuss? Well you can now find
out! Starting with the October Council
Minutes all Council papers will be placed
in the Members area of the website. Draft
Minutes are circulated after the meeting
and then approved at the next Council meeting. It is the
approved Minutes that will be placed in the Members area. This
development follows a suggestion made to me at the 2009
Conference.
As you read these documents I’m sure you will have
questions or comments. While you are most welcome to
contact the Council Secretary, me or other Council members, I
suggest in the first instance you contact your Branch President
or State/Territory Contacts.
Council workings
Council members usually meet monthly to discuss items and
table papers for discussion at following meetings. Branch
Presidents discuss items with Branch Committee members and
this is a chance for the views of the Branches to be expressed to
Council. All Council members can place comments on the
Minutes and tabled papers on a Council Discussion on the
website.
Council projects for 2009–10
One of the first tasks of Council was to plan what Council will
work on during 2009–10. The list will be finalised at the
February Council meeting, but at this stage projects listed for
2009–10 include the following:
• Review the recommended rate for indexing.
• Review education/mentoring/training program.
• Encourage members to apply for Registration.
• Investigate management liability insurance.
• Investigate the option of registration for database indexers.
• Modifications to the ANZSI website, including
investigating costing for shopping cart facility and special
interest groups as well as improvements to Indexers
Available.
• Review membership dues and consider the possibility of
different categories of membership.
ISSN 1832-3855
• Promote ANZSI, indexing and indexers.
• Update guideline documents listed under ANZSI
Documents on the website.
• Sort out the ANZSI archives
Newsletter changes
Relax – we are not planning to stop the Newsletter nor stop
printing it. Council has given Peter Judge (the Editor) more
freedom to lengthen the Newsletter to 12 pages, if the need
arises, and we plan to produce a December issue. You may also
notice more advertisements in the Newsletter.
‘From the President’ column has become ‘ANZSI News’
with a change in focus from the President’s thoughts to
explaining what ANZSI is doing. This gives other members a
chance to write the column when appropriate.
It is with regret that I announce that Glenda Browne has
decided not to continue with her regular ‘From the Literature
and Other Thoughts’ column. I would like to thank Glenda
for her dedicated effort to produce an interesting column over
many years. I do hope we will continue to hear from Glenda
on an ad hoc basis. A column examining indexing literature
and other news will continue and be written by Nikki Davis
and Jane Purton.
I remind members that this is your Newsletter and you are
ALL welcome to contribute. You don’t need to ask permission,
just send your material to the Editor Peter Judge.
Happy New Year and best wishes to you all for 2010.
Mary Russell
WHAT’S
INSIDE
Newsletter, Web Manager and Registration details
2
The Indexer’s editor writes
2
New Zealand Branch news
3
Branch events
3
From the literature and other thoughts
4
Google Book Settlement
4
ANZSI Conference report from the sponsored member 6
Indexing in the Frozen North – a Canadian view
7
PDF ‘Index’ Generator — a review
8
Different indexes: no page numbers!
9
'Nuggets of Indexing' seminar, Ballarat 4–6 June
9
ACT Branch AGM and annual BBQ
10
ANZSI and Branch Committee contacts
12
Deadline for the March issue: 26 February
PO Box 5062, Glenferrie South VIC 3122, Australia
Newsletter,
Web Manager and
Registration contacts
Editor: Peter Judge
<peter.judge@bigpond.com>
Web Manager: Mary Russell
<russellmf025@ozemail.com.au>
Website: <www.anzsi.org>
ISSN 1832-3855
This newsletter is published monthly 11 times
per year, with combined issues for January/
February. It is sent free to all members of the
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers.
Opinions expressed in the newsletter are those of
the individual contributors, and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of the Society.
It is your newsletter, and we are totally
dependent on contributions, both large and
small, from members. Please contact the editor if
you have any questions about the suitability of
items for publication. The editor reserves the
right to edit or abridge contributions.
Please send files via email in MS Word, .doc
files or .rtf, but NOT .html or .pdf. And please,
no images or footnotes embedded in Word files.
Next deadline
26 February for the March 2010 issue.
Graphics
Image files can be accepted in most common
formats. Do not embed images in text files.
Camera-ready art and photos can be scanned
by the editor. Note that photos need to be
clear, sharp and contrasty if they are to copy
well in black and white.
Advertising charges
Full page A$175; half page A$90; quarter page
A$35; full year 10 for the price of 8.
Membership charges
A$70 per year from 1 Jul 2009.
Institutional membership $95.
Subscriptions to the Newsletter A$55 p.a.
The Indexer
(international indexing journal)
Maureen MacGlashan, Executive Editor
<editor@theindexer.org>.
ANZSI Corresponding Member
Glenda Browne <world@theindexer.org>
To subscribe at the special rate for indexing society
members, go to <www.theindexer.org> and click
on the subscriptions link.
Registration
Shirley Campbell
Ph +61 2 6248 8297
<shirley.campbell4@bigpond.com> or
<www.anzsi.org/site/registration.asp>
Indexers Available
<www.anzsi.org/site/Indexers_available.asp>
2
The Indexer’s Editor writes
I
have just reached that happy point
in a journal’s cycle when I get the
proof of the next issue (March 2010)
in more or less its final form and can for
the first time see it as a whole. Yes, of
course I read (and edit, sometimes
heavily) the contributions as they arrive,
and I suggest the order in which they
might appear, but that doesn’t really give
me much of a sense as to how it’s all
going to come out, not least when (as
with the March issue) the line-up of
articles a month ahead of copy deadline
bears no more than a 50% resemblance
to what I have securely on my desk two
weeks after the deadline. Such are the
trials and tribulations of a journal editor,
but also – if you don’t mind living
dangerously – the joys.
I am sometimes asked if I decide
themes for issues in advance. Sometimes,
yes, and obviously if an issue is guestedited that in itself will determine the
theme. But in general I regard choosing a
theme and then finding the articles as
neither necessary nor indeed desirable.
Much more rewarding, I think, for me
and the reader alike, is to rise to the
challenge of extracting a theme from the
material I eventually use. So if there is a
theme for March, it is perhaps ‘term
selection’ (one of the most difficult parts
of the indexing task), never actually used
in any of the articles but in a sense what
at least three of them – Julie Johnstone
on indexing poetry, Glenda Browne on
the uses and abuses of classification, and
Mohammad Fumani on indexer
consistency in a Persian context – are
about. A thread which I try to keep
running through every issue is index
usability. I’m always looking for evidence
– the harder the better – of what users
find usable about an index rather than
just what our manuals tell us is usable.
Most issues have something on the
subject.
And because of my concern for what
others think about us as much as what
we think about ourselves I’m always
trying to attract contributions from
outside the tried, tested and much
appreciated quarters. Unless they are
clearly part of a series of for some other
good reason, I try not to have an article
by the same person in consecutive issues.
I am always on the lookout for the
possibility of an article from somebody
outside the indexing fraternity, am brave
about asking, and am rewarded, more
often than not, with a ‘yes, of course’.
And I am acutely aware of The Indexer’s
status as the international journal of
indexing. At least 75% of the material
now comes from outside the UK, most
issues contain at least one article by
somebody whose mother tongue is not
English, and/or an article by somebody
who is not an indexer or at least not a
member of an indexing society.
And as an ‘international’ journal, it
needs
also
to
be
promoting
communication between indexers across
the world, letting us know what we are all
up to, and passing on good ideas and best
practice. Around the World (ATW),
brilliantly edited over the last 4 years or
so by Glenda Browne, is, in my view, one
of the strongest sections of the journal.
Indexing is a profession which knows no
bounds – let’s keep it that way.
It’s obvious that I think The Indexer’s
a pretty good journal: a good read and a
good tool for advancing our professional
skills. Why then are we finding it so
difficult to increase our subscriber base
or, to put it bluntly, why is it that we only
have about 40 ANZSI subscribers (i.e.
about 1 in 5 of the ANZSI membership)?
Is it that you simply don’t find the
journal appealing? Have you seen one
recently? Are you aware that, apart from
Glenda, there is a very significant input
from ANZSI members with most issues
carrying an ‘ANZSI’ article? Or perhaps
you think it too expensive? At £28 (or 50
Australian Dollars at time of writing) for
four issues, including postage and online
access to current issues, it doesn’t seem
excessive even in these hard times. Or
you don’t know how to subscribe/can’t be
bothered? It really is pretty easy via The
Indexer Website, <www.theindexer.org>
where you will find other good things as
well.
Maureen MacGlashan,
<editor@theindexer.org>
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
New Zealand Branch
T
he New Zealand Branch has launched its mentoring
scheme to offer the semi-formal assistance new indexers
are keen on having. Applicants must have done a
recognised indexing course or have approved experience. Our
scheme coordinator, Susan Brookes, has sent information to
potential mentees, but any interested Branch member who has
missed out may contact Susan at <s.brookes@auckland.ac.nz>.
The Branch is also about to send its directory of available
indexers to New Zealand publishers. This is a pdf file suitable for
printing as an A5 booklet. Besides an informative introduction, it
contains CVs and contact details for 11 of our freelance members
(and a pointer to the ANZSI website).
Our membership is too scattered for a Christmas party, but
several new indexers and one of our experienced members did get
together over coffee in the Kapiti area north of Wellington before
the holidays.
Robin Briggs
Different indexes: no page numbers
Max McMaster found this
elegant ladies fashion shop
when visiting Hong Kong
last December. He says,
‘... but none of the items
was in alphabetical order.
Definitely a new slant on
our perception of an
index.’
(But now turn to page 9 for
a proper example of a
‘different index: no page
numbers’!)
Branch events
Date & time
Organiser
Name of activity
Tues 16 Feb
6.00 for 7.00 pm
Qld Branch
Talk by Elisabeth Carindale
Wheeler
Library
details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=131>
Wed 3 Mar
6.00 pm
Vic Branch
The VIC:
indexing quilts
Kew
Holy Trinity
Anglican
Church
details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=125>
Thurs –Fri
11–22 Mar
9:30-4
NSW
Branch
NSW Book
Indexing Course
NSW Writers
Centre, Rozelle
details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=130>
Mon 12 April
Vic Branch
Basic Book
Indexing Pt 1
Holmesglen
TAFE
details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=128>
Tues 13 April
Vic Branch
Basic Book
Indexing Pt 2
Holmesglen
TAFE
details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=129>
Fri–Sun
4-6 June
Vic Branch
Nuggets of
Indexing
Seminar
Sovereign Hill
Ballarat
Details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=118>
Vol. 6, No. 1, January–February 2010
Venue
Contact details
3
From the literature and other thoughts
Society of Editors (Victoria) Inc.
The Society of Editors (Victoria) Inc.
Newsletter (August 2009) contained
Liz Steele’s President’s Report. She
noted: ‘I decided to focus on a few
things that I think are our most
important achievements as a group this
year and leave the finer details to the
rest of the committee. First, I think the
establishing, at last, of a paid
administration officer is a most important step forward for the
Society. I believe if we had not done so this year, the committee
would have imploded! We just couldn’t keep up with the
commitments and plans we had and that’s the bottom line.’
The Society of Editors (Victoria) Inc. Newsletter (December
2009) noted that Kerry Biram (an ANZSI member) received
the Outstanding Service Award for making a ‘major
contribution to the works of the society and the editing
profession in general’ including her work with the Occasional
Series on Australian Editors working group.
It also reported that ‘Following the IPEd plenary session at
the national conference in Adelaide in October 2009,
participants were asked to prioritise and comment on seven
activities ... that had been identified by the IPEd Council as
areas of potential activity for the Institute.’ IPEd is the national
body for Australian editors. The activity ‘Fostering
relationships with other like-minded groups – editors, writers,
publishers, indexers, illustrators etc.’ ranked last, a long way
below the top three which related to marketing, professional
development and standards development.
Helen wrote to ‘Dear Ed’ ‘I do like a good typo. Does that
make me a bad person?’ Ed replied with a number of juicy
typos he had collected including ‘They may experience
irregular patterns of sleep ranging from insomnia to deep
comma-like sleep’. I relish the one on a local restaurant menu
which offers ‘Chinese bacilli’.
Complementary jobs for indexers
While sheltering from the rain on Stradbroke Island,
Queensland, I spoke to someone who works as a meteorology
reporter. He takes readings a few times a day, and the rest of his
time is his own. He thought surfing, I thought indexing.
Jobs in which there is a lot of waiting time could also slot in
with indexing work – weekend security desk minding jobs and
B&B hosting come to mind.
Quite a few indexers also work one or two days a week in a
library, and there are other more unusual activities such as film
classification and prison visiting. I find it important to have at
least one job that takes me away from my own computer.
The flexibility of indexing also leaves indexers free to take
on voluntary positions including sports activities such as
swimming umpiring, political party involvement and school
committees and activities.
Friday File Fling
During National Recycling Week people are being encouraged
to reuse, rather than discard, unwanted items. Specifically, it
has been suggested that workers should ‘de-clutter their filing
4
cabinets and give unused paper another life’ by reusing singlesided paper, and recycling paper that has already been printed
on both sides <www.gympietimes.com.au/story/2009/11/07/
friday-fling-is-the-new-way-to-recycle>.
These well-meaning suggestions have caused angst to
members of the Records Management Association (RMAA)
and the Archives Association (ASA), as there are legal
requirements for the retention of records, and documents
should only be disposed of in accordance with records
management policies.
After discussions with ASA and RMAA, Planet Ark
reinforced the message of sensible disposition of records to all
those who registered for the Fling via their website. A copy of
the ASA/RMAA media release is available at <https://
www.archivists.org.au/planet-ark-friday-file-fling<.
Military blog index
Milblogging.com is the world’s largest index of military blogs.
Advanced search allows refinement by country, language,
gender of blogger, branch (e.g. U.S. Navy; Foreign National
(Civilian)), and, a new one to me, ‘Favorited’ which allows you
to select number ranges from 0-99 to 900-999. This ranking is
based on the number of registered users who have added the
blog to their favorites.
Indexing by colour
At the ASAIB AGM in November 2009 the speaker was
Sheenagh Harris, President of the World Federation of Roses.
She spoke on ‘Indexing by Colour: My Life with Roses’.
Reliability of evidence – unstapled and
unindexed
In questioning the reliability of the evidence given by Mr
Hurst (specifically, printouts from ‘40 different electronic
links’) point number 5 notes ‘The documents were not stapled
and there was no index.’ (But perhaps they mean table of
contents?)
‘Shorten v David Hurst Constructions Pty Ltd’ in Building
and Construction Law June 2009.
Retainability of documents – paper-clipped, not
bound
W. David Mason wrote to inCite (‘Your voice: Binding trumps
content’, p7 vol 30, issue 1/2 Jan/Feb 2009) to say that he had
spent months indexing an oral history of the dairying industry
in South East Queensland, and that when he sent a copy to the
National Library Legal Deposit Section it was returned
because it was held together by a paper clip, and not bound
with glue and a soft or hard cover.
The National Library replied in the next issue (Mar 2009)
stating that decisions were based on their Collection
Development Policy <www.nla.gov.au/policy/cdp> and that a
basic consideration is whether the item is, in fact, published
(i.e. if reproductions have been made available to the general
public).
The policy does not appear to have a section on legal
deposit, but does have an index to the policy <www.nla.gov.au/
policy/cdp/toc.html> with 18 locators for ‘legal deposit’.
(continued on next page)
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
Deep web indexing
Facebook Fan Page and Ning
DeepDyve <www.deepdyve.com<, now in beta testing, <http:/
/blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=26586> is ‘the largest online rental
service for scientific, technical and medical research’, and aims
to bring ‘deep web’ content to the mainstream. It is a Netflixlike service that allows users to ‘rent’ documents such as
medical journal articles on a per-use basis. (Thanks to
Elisabeth Thomas).
You can find similar snippets of information on the Facebook
page for my workbook <tiny.cc/IndCompFB> and on Ning
<indexing.ning.com> where the fledgling Australian indexers
group currently has 7 members. You could be the 8th!
Dictionary of Sydney
Take some time to explore the Dictionary of Sydney
<www.dictionaryofsydney.org>. A lot of attention has been
paid to access via a variety of paths, including factoids (birth,
death, marriage), time lines, ‘mentioned in’ links, and external
links.
This is my last ‘From the Literature’ column. I have
decided that it is time for me to take a break, and for someone
else to have the opportunity to share their thoughts on
indexing and related topics. I have enjoyed writing this
column. Thank you Peter for publishing it, and thank you all
for your support in sending me content, and in reading and
commenting on what I have written.
Glenda Browne
Poor usability
The form you get back from a pharmacist when you have
repeat prescriptions is a marvel of un-usability. It provides two
numbers – the number of repeats prescribed, and the number
of times the item has already been issued. To find the number
of repeats left (which is the number most people will want to
know) you have to take the number of repeats and add 1 (the
original – to give the total number available), then subtract the
number of times already issued.
Green indexers
I was told by a client that having ‘green credentials’ is one of
the things they take into account when choosing service
providers. I started collecting ideas about the ways my
indexing business is environmentally friendly (with help from
Sherrey Quinn and Kerry Biram via Ning). The list is at
<www.webindexing.biz/glendas-articles-mainmenu-117/
indexing-mainmenu-108/729-green-indexers>. Let me know
if you think of other points that belong.
Google Book Settlement
J
ohn Simkin went to the CAL (Copyright Agency
Limited) seminar on the Google Book Settlement
recently, and found it rather complicated and not easy to
explain. Google wants to scan all books and make them
available on the web. The ‘Settlement’ aims to determine
the terms under which they can do this.
John writes, ‘Some of our members may be affected as
authors, and it may affect some indexers under the section
listing ‘participating rights holders’ as ‘full-text indexing’.
Some of the arrangements are still being worked out.
‘Members who may be interested should go to the
website <http://books.google.com/> so that they can see
whether or how it affects them.’
Slides of the presentation are available from CAL at
<www.copyright.com.au>.
THE INDEXER
The International Journal of Indexing
Indexer as poet, poet as indexer? Poem as index, index as poem? Want to know more?
Or do you need an index to Sarah Palin’s Going rogue?
Then the March 2010 issue of
The Indexer is just what you need.
SUBSCRIBE ONLINE NOW!
www.theindexer.org
•
•
•
Four issues a year (March, June, September and December)
Online access to current issues for subscribers in addition to print copies sent by priority mail
Online subscription and payment via The Indexer website (www.theindexer.org)
Annual subscription rate for ANZSI members for 2010 only: £28.00
Vol. 6, No. 1, January–February 2010
5
The Practice of Indexing
ANZSI Conference, Sydney, 15–17 October 2009
Report by Shelley Campbell, ANZSI Conference Committee sponsored delegate
F
irst of all, I would like to offer my thanks to those
responsible for organising and offering this sponsorship. I
was thrilled and excited to receive the sponsorship, and with
it the opportunity to attend the conference and meet so many
indexers. Coming from Western Australia, where there are just
two ANZSI members (and we managed 100% attendance at the
conference!), the chance to meet so many of ‘our kind’ was great. I
really enjoyed being with so many like-minded people and soaked
up a lot of information just from talking to other indexers, and
that was in addition to all the valuable insights I gained from the
informative sessions I attended.
Rather than give a complete rundown of the sessions (which
can be gained from the proceedings), I have decided to give a brief
overview of the sessions I attended, and what I gained from them
as a relatively inexperienced indexer and first-time ANZSI
conference attendee.
Day 1
The first morning started with the official welcome from
conference convenor, Madeleine Davis. This was followed by the
whirlwind that was Mal Booth from the University of
Technology, Sydney. He took us on a virtual tour of his
experiences as curator of the Lawrence of Arabia exhibition at the
Australian War Memorial, during which he extolled the virtues of
a good index such as Hazel Bell’s Wheatley Medal-winning index
to Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom which was very helpful in his
curatorial work. He then moved on to the challenges of indexing
the huge volume of pictorial images in the AWM collection,
namely, trying to apply physical rules to the digital environment,
which doesn’t really work because it is too cumbersome, slow,
costly and restrictive. In the end, they developed their own system.
The next part of his session explored whether you could index
the web and its content. He concluded that it would be quite
impossible as he pointed out that it is constantly changing (and
showed us how often through Gary Hayes’ Social Media Count).
Basically, it would be akin to indexing something while someone
was still writing it!
He finished his session explaining the wide variety of sites and
software available to access material on the web, such as Flickr,
other sharing software, and blogs. He was keen that institutions
such as governments and libraries embrace such initiatives to
ensure that their institutional content is accessible to all. It was
very interesting, and I have to admit I felt quite exhausted
listening and taking in all that is out there! Fortunately, the session
was followed by a sumptuous morning tea to revive us.
Noeline Bridge from Canada spoke about indexing names
and the problems that arise. I found this session extremely helpful
and practical. I guess I had never realised that there were so many
variations, but I found the examples Noeline gave us very useful in
clarifying the issues surrounding particularly types of name, and
the sources she suggested for checking were also very helpful. I was
also very pleased that she welcomes queries from indexers as to the
correct form of names!
6
After a delicious lunch, I took the opportunity to attend one of
the indexing clinics, organised for inexperienced indexers, to get
some feedback on an index I had produced. I found this a helpful
session, although the time allocated was fairly short.
After lunch, I attended the most enjoyable session of the
conference for me. Richard Shrout from Potomac Indexing in
USA attempted to categorise the indexers present into groups
based on working styles, using a short questionnaire. (What! An
indexer categorising!) He was testing the theory that the type of
indexer you are is related to your learning style – visual, auditory
or kinaesthetic. The groups ranged from ‘full markers’ who mark
or highlight index terms in the text before entering into software,
to ‘non-markers’ who never mark-up but enter terms straight into
software, with the ‘flexible/versatile markers’ and ‘situational
markers’ (of which I was one) who sometimes mark-up, in
between. Each group then had to come up with a list of
characteristics that defined their style. This was a fascinating
insight into how other indexers work, and reinforced the idea that
there is no right or wrong way, just what works for you.
Glenda Browne’s session titled What we Say and What we Do
was a very practical look at indexing rules that are not always
followed. I found this a useful session as it made me think about
the rules we are taught and how to apply or not apply them in
certain situations. She covered three rules in her discussion. Firstly,
not indexing chapter headings – the topic of the heading should
be indexed not the heading itself. Secondly, not writing the book
in the index – the index should be a pointer to the content, not
the content itself. We should be aware, however, that sometimes
we may need to flesh out the index a bit to make it clearer for the
user, or even to add humour. Thirdly, create a specific not a
classified index. This may need to be tempered a little into the
‘Goldilocks’ index, that is, one that is not too classified and not
too specific, but one that is ‘just right’ for the user.
The last paper by Kay Schlembach, which was presented in
her absence by Mary Coe, related to metatopics (the main topic of
a document) and their use in indexing. She stressed the need to
keep in mind that indexes are for users, and the level of the user
makes a difference to the type of index required. Children, for
instance, are only likely to look in two places in the index and then
give up if they don’t find what they are looking for, whereas search
engines require the use of very literal terms. Kay described two
different approaches to indexing – the traditional approach, which
assumes the user has a knowledge of the metatopic, and the table
of contents approach, which documents all major facets of a topic
to give an overview of it. Apparently, research shows the table of
contents approach is much more user-friendly. This was a session
that really broadened my ideas about how and why we index.
The first day concluded with reports from international
delegates and ANZSI branches. We then retired to the foyer for
drinks and the launch of Glenda Browne’s new book The Indexing
Companion Workbook: Book Indexing, which is subtitled Your
indexing mentor in a book. This looks to be a very useful
companion volume to The Indexing Companion, and I am looking
forward to knuckling down and working through it.
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
The Conference Dinner was very enjoyable, with delicious
food and drink, good company, lots of laughter, and highlighted
by presentations of the ANZSI Medal for the best index to Frances
Paterson, and Honorary Life Member Awards to Alan Walker and
Max McMaster.
Day 2
The day began with an entertaining DVD presentation of a
session by Hazel Bell from the UK, who was unable to attend in
person. It detailed her experience of working as an indexer
through the 1960s and beyond to the present day, the changing
technology, and the history of the Society of Indexers, which was
all fascinating. I really enjoyed her presentation and very much
identified with the challenges of working with your children
around – I am very grateful we have moved on from trays of cards!
Frances Lennie spoke about the visual appeal of indexes and
how the appearance of an index can affect the viability of it. The
indexer only has control of some aspects of the appearance. She
showed us the difference formatting made to an index, and how to
deal with those elements out of the indexer’s control. This session
reinforced to me that there are many different opinions as to how
an index should be constructed, and the decisions made can help
to achieve what the index aims to do – to guide the user to the
information they need. She summed up my response to this
session perfectly when she said ‘Any indexing question can be
answered with three words – it all depends’!
Max McMaster challenged us to consider the subject of
illustrative material and when and how to deal with it. This was a
very practical session, and I found it a useful refresher. Max
outlined the general rules for indexing materials such as photos,
tables, graphs, maps and cartoons that are included in the work
you are indexing. He pointed out the difference between material
included as fillers or padding, and the material that needs to be
indexed. He also showed us how to deal with challenging
illustrative material such as drop-in photos with no page numbers.
After lunch, Dr Robin Derricourt from UNSW Press spoke
on myths of publishing. It was interesting to get a publisher’s
perspective on the industry we are essentially working within. He
discussed myths such as: the book is dead, e-books are the future,
the Google monster, the multinational juggernaut, the efficiency
of capitalism, and the death of Australian culture as a result of
parallel importation. He concluded by impressing upon us that it
is the content of books that is important, and books are still the
most convenient way to access that content. After initially feeling
a little alarmed, I felt quite optimistic by the end of his session!
I attended the Genealogy, Family History and Local History
round table session and picked up some tips on indexing names,
places, and some possible sources of work/advertising in this area
of indexing.
The final session was presented by Jan Wright from the USA.
She spoke about the future of indexing in relation to indexing ebooks and tagging. She feels the future of indexing revolves
around the trend of helping users to find what they are looking for
through the use of traditional indexes, online indexes, search
facilities, and especially controlled vocabularies, taxonomies and
tagging because they add precision for searchers. I guess I was
relieved to see that there would be a future for indexers in the
‘brave new world’ when it arrives!
Vol. 6, No. 1, January–February 2010
The conference was rounded off nicely for me by a very
enjoyable and entertaining informal dinner at the Diethnes Greek
Restaurant. It was a great atmosphere with much joviality, good
food and wine, and the good company of colleagues. (I’m not sure
I have ever eaten so much food in such a short space of time,
thanks to the ‘encouragement’ of our waiter!)
I would like to pass on my thanks to the Conference
Committee and all the delegates who shared their knowledge,
insights and experience with me throughout the course of the
conference. I found the conference a very rewarding experience,
and I have returned to the other side of this great continent with
renewed enthusiasm for increasing my indexing expertise and
furthering my indexing career. I hope that other ‘remote’ indexers
have this wonderful opportunity presented to them in the future.
Shelley Campbell
Indexing in the Frozen North
I
n October, before the ANZSI Conference, Vic Branch
encouraged Noeline Bridge to visit Melbourne and present
a talk on Indexing in the Frozen North. Noeline raised
some interesting points that highlight the differences
experienced by Canadian indexers.
• Canadian indexers have both UK and US clients and as a
result they need to be familiar with the difference in
indexing styles, punctuation and, of course, spelling.
• Not many publishers follow a specific style, so Canadian
indexers tend to use Chicago with some variations.
• US indexing tends to use gloss (qualifiers) more.
• There are no specific Canadian indexing training courses.
• Sometimes they have to produce bilingual indexes. These
tend to be done in English and then translated into French.
It is not a simple process. French indexes require more
space; the flow is different, and there are different page
numbers. So this makes them like two separate indexing
jobs.
• Terminology for Native Peoples varies. While ‘Native
Peoples’ is preferred, indexers can use Aboriginal people,
Indigenous people, First Nation, Métis peoples (mixed
ancestry), or Inuit (for Eskimos). Always follow the
author’s use of terminology.
• Native Peoples often have both native and English names
and these can be confusing as they are often used
interchangeably. Don’t usually double post, so pick one
name (usually the English name with Native name as gloss)
and refer other names to it.
• The politics of Canada are similar to Australia, with a
colonial past and several levels of government.
• Indexing Society of Canada has about 120 members
(approximately half the membership of ANZSI). They are
mostly librarians and lots do editing as well. They mainly
do back-of-book indexing and not much web or database
indexing.
Mary Russell
7
PDF ‘Index’ Generator — a concordance maker with delusions of grandeur
I
nThe Indexing Companion (CUP, 2007) Glenda Browne
and I reviewed several ‘automated indexing’ programs –
software which attempts to analyse text and extract the
concepts it contains. Programs like this have been on the
market since at least 1996. Some of these have since vanished,
while others have appeared. What they all have in common is
that none can remotely emulate the capacity of a human
indexer. PDF Index Generator, produced by PDF Colony
Software ($US29.95 from <http://www.pdfindexgenerator.com>)
is no exception.
The problem with these applications is usually not the
software, which typically performs according to specifications,
but the claims made by the distributors. The distributors of
PDF Index Generator (which I will resist the temptation to
abbreviate ‘PIG’ and refer to as ‘PDFIG’) claims that it “is a
powerful indexing utility for generating an index from your
book and writing it to your book in (4) easy steps.” If the
words ‘concordance’ and ‘concordance-making’ were
substituted for ‘index’ and ‘indexing’ then this would be a
perfectly accurate and acceptable statement, because this is
what PDFIG does, and for the price it does it very well. But
what it produces bears no more resemblance to a real index
than a random assortment of notes does to a tune.
The site provides a free demo program for download which
can process just ten pages of a PDF file. This is a little
disingenuous in itself, since the problems that arise from an
automated index of ten pages will increase exponentially with
larger documents. Nonetheless, it does allow the user to trial
the process. The installation file is a 6 Mb download, but the
program requires the user to have runtime Java installed, which
will require an additional 9Mb download for users who don’t
have this installed already. Installation went smoothly and
supplies the usual options.
The application takes a step-by-step approach, and the user
can change their mind and step backwards at any time to
change their choices. Screenshots for each step can be viewed
on the application website.
Step 1 – the user selects a PDF file, and specifies the page
number with which to start indexing. If necessary subsets of
pages can be selected; e.g. 1-10, 25-50, and 62-118.
Step 2 – the user selects whether to ‘index’ all the words in
the text or to include or exclude certain words. Words for
inclusion or exclusion are grouped into ‘categories’ which can
saved as XML format text files on disk. Some sample categories
– e.g. ‘Conjunctions’ and ‘Colors’ – are provided with the
program. Users can create and save others to suit their own
requirements. If a category is added to the ‘include’ list, then
all the items in that category will appear by default in the
output, whether they actually occur in the text or not.
Step 3 – the ‘index’ is generated and appears as a long
alphabetical list of words in a table which can be scrolled
through. Each line shows a word, the number of times it
appears in the text, and the pages it appears on. There is a
‘Show’ column where the user can indicate whether to include
that word in the final output. By default the list is broken into
chunks of 100 words at a time, but this can be changed
through the Settings dialog box (see below). The words
8
themselves cannot be altered, but the user can change the page
numbers for a word or the number of times it occurs – rather
an odd choice. Users can add new terms manually and add
comments to any line.
Step 4 – the user nominates whether to add the ‘index’ to
the end of the PDF file, to save it as a separate PDF file, or save
it as a text file. Meta-data such as the number of occurrences of
each word and the date can be selected for inclusion at this
stage too. The output is broken up by letter, and looks like this
(I have turned on case sensitivity and opted to display the
number of occurrences):
able, 3, P[2, 9, 10].
Aboriginal, 1, P[10].
Aborigines, 5, P[3, 10].
academic, 1, P[8].
academics, 2, P[2, 9].
accompanied, 1, P[4].
accuracy, 1, P[2].
accurate, 1, P[7].
action, 1, P[4].
actions, 1, P[4].
actually, 1, P[6].
added, 1, P[5].
addressed, 1, P[8].
adversaries, 1, P[5].
afloat, 1, P[7].
Why the full stops, capital Ps and square brackets are
deemed necessary I have no idea; there appears to be no way to
turn them off.
Some basic settings for PDFIG can be changed through the
Tools menu. The user can turn on case sensitivity, link to new
categories of words to include or exclude, specify default
options for saving the output, and increase the maximum
number of words in a ‘chunk’ of the index display. The
program was quite happy when I set this to 5,000, which
avoided the need for any paging between sections and made
the whole list available as one long scroll. There is also a simple
but comprehensive Help system.
The program is compact, neat and usable. But this doesn’t
change the basic fact that what is being produced here is a
concordance of words rather than an index of concepts. And
attempting to turn this output into a usable index would
involve far more work than actually indexing the book
properly in the first place.
There is a saying that ‘any technology which is twenty years
away is going to remain twenty years away forever’. It’s now
fourteen years since Glenda Browne reviewed Indexicon and
other ‘automatic indexing’ software critically at the AuSSI
Conference in Robertson, but in that time nothing appears to
have changed.
If programs like PDFIG are the best they can do then we
have nothing to fear yet; genuine automatic indexing is still
twenty years away. Wouldn’t if be nice, though, if distributors
who make extravagant claims for their monograph ‘indexing’
software were to spend five minutes looking through an index
at the back of a book, or ten minutes talking to a working
indexer? Is that really too much to ask?
Jon Jermey
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
Different indexes: no page numbers!
O
ne hot January day I was having a leisurely browse of
The Oxford Companion to the Garden (edited by
Patrick Taylor, Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2006) and naturally examined it with an indexer’s eye. The
book is an A to Z of entries related to gardens around the
world, biographies of garden designers and related
terminology. The Note to Readers explains that the alphabetic
arrangement of entries follows ‘letter-by-letter alphabetic order
up to the first punctuation (if any) in the headword with the
exception that St is ordered as though spelt ‘saint’ and Mc is
ordered as though spelt ‘mac.’ Cross-referencing is denoted in
the text by small capitals.
It contains a couple of different indexes. Up the front is
what they call a Thematic Index. This lists the entries under
major topics and ‘offers an alternative means of accessing the
material in the Companion. It allows the reader to see at a
glance all the headwords related to a particular topic.’ The
headings used in the text are the entry point, so no page
numbers. Biographies are listed under professions; gardens are
grouped by regions (e.g. Western Europe) and then listed
under countries; garden features and terms are grouped under
heading such as ‘garden buildings and architectural features’,
‘plant features’ or ‘tools and practical devices’. Then there are
heading for garden styles and types; garden issues; and
overviews.
Vol. 6, No. 1, January–February 2010
At the back is the Select Index. This ‘lists gardens, people,
themes, and features which are mentioned in the course of the
other entries but which do not have an entry of their own.’
‘The reference points the reader to the headword (in bold type)
of the relevant entry. In the case of long subdivided entries, the
subheading is also given in parentheses immediately after the
headword referred to.’ This means the whole index is a list of
see references, with not a page number in sight. For example
‘Australia’s Open Garden Scheme, see Australia’ or ‘Mooleric,
see Guilfoyle, William Robert’. Note the see references are not
in italics.
Mary Russell
Nuggets of Indexing
P
lanning is under way for the Victorian Branch seminar
‘Nuggets of Indexing’, Sovereign Hill, Ballarat 4–6 June.
It will start at lunch time on Friday and finish after lunch on
Sunday. This allows plenty of time to get to and from Ballarat, and
time to catch the Vline Gold Rush special train and coach service
to and from Melbourne’s Southern Cross Station.
A program of at least 12 indexing sessions is being developed
over the three days, with dinner and a show on Friday night, the
seminar dinner on Saturday night and a tour of the mine. There
will be a special ‘partner’ rate to allow them to join in these events.
Further details will be in the March Newsletter.
9
ACT Branch 2008–09 AGM, 20 October 2009
A
group of 14 members and partners gathered on the
MV Southern Cross (moored, unfortunately) for our
2008-09 Annual General Meeting. Our guest was
Richard Shrout, who had come from the U.S.A. for the
ANZSI Sydney Conference and agreed to come on to
Canberra to speak to us. The President’s report was published
in the November 2009 Newsletter, so I do not need to report
further.
After a delicious dinner, Richard Shrout gave us a very
informal talk, mainly about his company, Potomac Indexing
LLC, USA. ( Richard uses Sky Indexing software.) He is also
the Treasurer for the American Society of Indexers, and
trained as an archivist before working as a librarian. His
company has been running for two years and consists of four
co-equal partners, one of whom, Mary Coe, lives in NSW and
is on the NSW Branch Committee.
They all have different skills, contract out work to
independent contractors where necessary, and feel the company
is about community. Mary is working on marketing programs,
and they have a contract indexer in Chicago who is very good at
putting together the work of different individuals. With these
resources, they can work on big projects, and their database will
show
what
is
going
on.
The
website
is
<www.potomacindexing.com>. They also issue a newsletter,
compiled by a professional writer and designer. The company is
unique, as most people work alone, with occasional sharing of
tasks. If one of the company’s indexers had their name on an
index, Richard would like it to be in the form of “indexer’s
name, managed by Potomac Indexing LLC”. He commented
that these days there seem to be more Indian indexers around,
though he doesn’t know where they learn their indexing skills.
Shirley, as incoming President, thanked Richard on behalf
of the group. She had attended his conference talk, on the
many different ways of indexing, and found it fascinating.
Edyth Binkowski
The ACT Branch BBQ
This end-of-the-year celebration was held on 6 December, in perfect weather, in our usual venue down by Lake Burley Griffin.
(Above) Tucking in to a delicious breakfast are (l to r): Edyth Binkowski, Lynn Farkas, Penny Whitten, Eleanor Whelan, Barry
Howarth, Rob Merrell, Joan Merrell and Walter Lee. (Photo Peter Judge)
(Opposite page) Barry Howarth proving that he is a virtuoso with a banger on a barbecue, and your Editor engaged in his annual
ritual of swan-shooing, to eliminate the competition for the feast. (Photos Geraldine Triffitt)
10
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
Vol. 6, No. 1, January–February 2010
11
ANZSI contacts
ANZSI Council 2009–10
ACT Region Branch
Victorian Branch
ABN 38 610 719 006
PO Box 5062, Glenferrie South VIC 3122
<ANZSIinfo@anzsi.org>
President: Mary Russell
Ph:
<russellmf025@ozemail.com.au>
Vice-President: John Simkin
GPO Box 2069, Canberra ACT 2601
President: Shirley Campbell
ABN 58 867 106 986
PO Box 1006, Caulfield North, VIC 3161
President: Beverley Mills
Secretary: Michael Ramsden
<sherrey.quinn@alianet.alia.org.au>
Committee members:
Edyth Binkowski, Barry Howarth, Geraldine
Triffitt
<eleanor.whelan@bigpond.com>
Treasurer: Sherrey Quinn
New South Wales Branch
Council members: Anne Dowsley, Alan Eddy,
Max McMaster
Branch Presidents (ex officio): Moira Brown,
Robin Briggs, Shirley Campbell, Beverley Mills,
Frances Paterson
ANZSI officials
Registration Committee
Contact: Shirley Campbell
<shirley.campbell4@bigpond.com>
Awards Committee
Contact: Alan Walker
<alan.walker@s054.aone.net.au>
Web Manager: Mary Russell
<russellmf025@ozemail.com.au>
Newsletter Editor: Peter Judge
<peter.judge@bigpond.com>
Membership Secretary:
Joanna McLachlan
<bandoola1@bigpond.com>
President: Frances Paterson
35
<olivegroveindexing@bigpond.com>
Vice-President: Glenda Browne
<webindexing@optusnet.com.au>
Secretary: Mary Coe
<mary.coe@potomacindexing.com>
Treasurer: Sue Flaxman
sueflaxman@optushome.com.au
Committee members: Madeleine Davis,
Lorraine Doyle, Caroline Jones and Elisabeth
Thomas
SA contact
Contact: Jane Oliver
<bookindexing@gmail.com>
Treasurer: Max McMaster
<max.mcmaster@masterindexing.com>
Committee members:
Margaret Findlay, Jane Purton, Mary Russell
Queensland Branch
President: Moira Brown
<brown5moira@yahoo.com.au>
Vice President: Mo (Maureen) Dickson
<mo.dickson@internode.on.net>
Secretary: Vicki Law
<vicki.law4@bigpond.com>
Treasurer: Franz Pinz
; <franzpinz@yahoo.com>
Committee Members: Mei Yen Chua, Jean
Dartnall, Rachael Harrison, Beryl Macdonald,
David Mason.
North Queensland contact:
Jean Dartnall (Townsville)
<jeandartnall@hotmail.com>
<janeoliver@ozemail.com.au>
New Zealand Branch
WA contact
President: Robin Briggs
<rm.briggs@farmside.co.nz>
Vice-President: Tordis Flath
<indexing@paradise.net.nz>
Secretary: Julie Daymond-King
<jaydayking@yahoo.co.nz>
Treasurer: Jill Gallop
<jmgallop@ihug.co.nz>
Committee members: Susan Brookes, Pamela
Strike
Contact: Linda McNamara
NT contact
<linda.mcnamara@bigpond.com>
Contact: Frieda Evans
Tasmanian contact
<Frieda.Evans@nt.gov.au>
<beverley.mills@optusnet.com.au>
Vice President: vacant
Secretary: Nikki Davis
Contact: Vivienne Wallace
<vivienne@accessindexing.com.au>
Australian and New Zealand
Society of Indexers
PO Box 5062 Glenferrie South
VIC 3122 Australia
<rivendell5@westnet.com.au>
Treasurer: Margaret Findlay
<shirley.campbell4@bigpond.com>
Secretary: Eleanor Whelan
Postage
paid
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI)
ANZSI NEWSLETTER
Volume 6, number 2, March 2010
ANZSI news: ANZSI Publications and Promotions Committee
T
he report of the ANZSI Promotion and Publicity (P&P) Committee, compiled
by Max McMaster and Mary Russell, was recently accepted by ANZSI
Council. The following report provides an overview, so that members can be
kept abreast of what the P&P proposes for this year in a three pronged approach:
1. To promote indexing to the broader community
2. To promote indexers as professionally qualified
3. To promote ANZSI
These three prongs are heavily intertwined, but they require different strategies.
Promoting indexing to the broader community
Raising general awareness of indexing, not only produces more
members, but increases awareness in the profession and the
skills required to produce an index.
In 2009 we saw the results of doing this in simple ways:
• The write up of Tordis Flath in the NZ newspaper the
Dominion Post resulted in several new members, some so
keen they travelled to Melbourne to attend training courses.
• The inclusion of the ANZSI Bookmark in the October issue
of Bookseller + Publisher saw a marked increase in visits to
the ANZSI website.
• Offering training in indexing to editing students at RMIT
resulted in six students attending Noelene Bridge’s talk in
Vic Branch’s ‘Indexing in the Frozen North’.
Some suggestions for the future:
• Including bookmarks in other key professional journals.
• Distributing bookmarks to Writers Centres, Writers
Festivals and other places interested clients congregate.
• Insert bookmarks in Conference satchels for key
conferences.
• Offer training courses to other academic editing/
professional writing courses.
• Offer training course to other professionals by working with
their professional bodies, such as publishers, editors,
technical communicators, etc.
• Presenting papers on indexing at other professional
conferences.
• Encouraging publishing and literary awards to include
indexes in their criteria.
Promoting indexers as professionally qualified
It is important to promote indexers. We are highly skilled
individuals and we need to remind people that we are and that
we can’t be replaced by a software package. Some suggestions
for doing this are:
• Develop an ANZSI logo for Registered Indexers to use on
their business cards and stationary.
ISSN 1832-3855
• Develop an ANZSI logo for ANZSI Medal winners to use
on their business cards and stationary.
• Revamp Indexers Available
• Ensure the ANZSI Recommended Rate reflects true worth
of indexers’ skills.
• Encourage more members to apply for Registration.
Promoting ANZSI
ANZSI is a brand and we need to remember to promote it as
well. This is done through ANZSI self promotion in the
following ways:
• ANZSI website
• ANZSI Bookmarks
• ANZSI Medal
• Indexers Available
• ANZSI Registration
• ANZSI Recommended Rate
• ANZSI Publications such as the soon to be written
publications on Indexing Your Annual Report; Producing
and Laying out an Index for Publishers and Typesetters; and
Indexing Your Family History.
(continued on page 2)
WHAT’S
INSIDE
Newsletter, Web Manager and Registration details
The Indexer March 2010, contents
Branch Events
Indexing indaba
ACT Branch visit to the National Sports Centre
To mark or not to mark
Different indexing: the largest book in the world
NSW Branch social
ANZSI Conference 2011
Nuggets of Indexing
ANZSI and Branch Committee contacts
2
3
3
4
5
6
6
7
7
7
8
Deadline for the April issue: 26 March
PO Box 5062, Glenferrie South VIC 3122, Australia
Newsletter,
Web Manager and
Registration contacts
Editor: Peter Judge
<peter.judge@bigpond.com>
Web Manager: Mary Russell
<russellmf025@ozemail.com.au>
Website: <www.anzsi.org>
ISSN 1832-3855
This newsletter is published monthly 11 times
per year, with combined issues for January/
February. It is sent free to all members of the
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers.
Opinions expressed in the newsletter are those of
the individual contributors, and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of the Society.
It is your newsletter, and we are totally
dependent on contributions, both large and
small, from members. Please contact the editor if
you have any questions about the suitability of
items for publication. The editor reserves the
right to edit or abridge contributions.
Please send files via email in MS Word, .doc
files or .rtf, but NOT .html or .pdf. And please,
no images or footnotes embedded in Word files.
Next deadline
26 March for the April 2010 issue.
Graphics
Image files can be accepted in most common
formats. Do not embed images in text files.
Camera-ready art and photos can be scanned
by the editor. Note that photos need to be
clear, sharp and contrasty if they are to copy
well in black and white.
Advertising charges
Full page A$175; half page A$90; quarter page
A$35; full year 10 for the price of 8.
Membership charges
A$70 per year from 1 Jul 2009.
Institutional membership $95.
Subscriptions to the Newsletter A$55 p.a.
The Indexer
(international indexing journal)
Maureen MacGlashan, Executive Editor
<editor@theindexer.org>.
ANZSI Corresponding Member
Glenda Browne <world@theindexer.org>
To subscribe at the special rate for indexing society
members, go to <www.theindexer.org> and click
on the subscriptions link.
Registration
Shirley Campbell
Ph +61 2 6248 8297
<shirley.campbell4@bigpond.com> or
<www.anzsi.org/site/registration.asp>
Indexers Available
<www.anzsi.org/site/Indexers_available.asp>
2
(The P&P Committee continued from page 1)
Implementation
• Many of these can be implemented
with the continued support from
members to promote indexing,
indexers and ANZSI in their
everyday work.
• The P&P Committee calls upon all
ANZSI members and Branch
Committees to offer suggestions of
how these promotion endeavours can
be implemented. For example, details
of Conferences ANZSI could
distribute bookmarks; literary awards
that could include an index as a
criterion and even suggestions for
improving Indexers Available or the
website.
• We encourage all members to assist
in promoting indexing, indexers and
ANZSI, and to let the P&P
Committee know of these efforts so
they can be recorded, and we try to
note the impact they may have had.
• The P&P Committee recognises that
some of the suggestions form part of
work already being done by other
Committees and Branches, for
example the Victorian Branch’s work
with distribution of bookmarks, and
the Education Committee. It is
hoped that this work will continue
and they will approach the P&P
Committee for guidance and possible
suggestions.
• As we have all seen from various
advertising and marketing campaigns
the best way to promote something is
to have one thing you want to focus
on and to push that hard. So the
P&P Committee recommended that
ANZSI make 2010 the Year of
Annual Report Indexes.
2010 – The Year of Annual
Report Indexes
The P&P Committee recommended
that the 2010 project be Indexes in
Annual Reports. There are a number of
reasons for suggesting this:
• While
the
Commonwealth
Government has a requirement for
annual reports presented to
Parliament to include an index this
requirement doesn’t apply to all
annual reports.
• This Commonwealth Government
requirement is a great argument for
•
•
•
•
•
•
encouraging organisations to include
an index to their annual report.
In 2007 the Victorian Branch
successfully used this argument to
encourage the Australasian Reporting
Awards to include an index in their
award criteria.
There is a demand for indexers at
annual report time, with some
indexers complaining the demand is
too great, so there is a need for more
members to feel confident they can
index an annual report.
All sorts of organisations produce
annual reports that could be indexed.
These are spread across Australia and
New Zealand in both urban and rural
areas. So there is potential work for
indexers everywhere.
Indexing annual reports is a great way
for indexers to get their foot into an
organisation and this could lead to
not only an annual indexing job, but
even additional work.
Annual reports in Australia and News
Zealand typically work on a Financial
Year, so there is still time to prepare
for the post mid-year demand.
Being annual the proportion of
annual reports with indexes can be
monitored, so we have a way of
determining if our efforts have been
successful.
Promotions and Publicity
Committee suggestions
• The Australasian Reporting Awards
(ARA) winners provide a useful list of
organisations that are keen to have an
excellent annual report as they have
entered them for the award and
therefore should be receptive to
suggested improvements.
The 2009 winners of the
Australasian Reporting Awards were
announced on 4 June, 2009. There
were 42 Gold winners and of these
only 6 did not have an index. This
was a much better ratio then the 10
out of 37 Gold winners for 2008.
Breakdown of the full 262 ARA
results for 2009 by locality across
Gold, Silver and Bronze awards gave
the following results: ACT 22; NSW
66; NZ 9; QLD 38; SA 5; TAS 5;
VIC 65; WA 12.
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
•
•
•
•
Mary Russell’s investigation of the 65 Victorian
organisation winners of Gold, Silver and Bronze awards
found mixed results. She wasn’t able to find annual reports
on the web for 8 organisations, 27 didn’t have an index at
all and 30 did. Of those with an index, only a handful of
the indexes could be called good. Most were really a
glorified A-Z of section headings. We have not analysed
the data for other localities, but quite likely the results will
be very similar to Victoria.
The Victorian Branch implemented a successful annual
report drive by writing to all the Victorian Gold, Silver
and Bronze award winning organisations and either
congratulating them on their index, noting their lack of
index, despite the ARA requirement, or noting their index
could be improved. They then alerted them to a course on
annual report indexing which was run in July, as well as
supplying them with an ANZSI bookmark. A couple of
branch members have said they are doing indexers for
annual reports that previously didn’t have index, but the
Branch will be able to note changes when they look at the
organisation’s 2008/09 annual report indexes.
The P&P Committee suggests that each Branch assess the
indexes of their Gold, Silver and Bronze winners and
target the organisations with similar offers of training or
assistance.
The Institute of Public Administration Australia has
various Divisions. The ACT, Tasmania and Western
Australia Divisions have Annual Report Awards. These
Divisions will be approached by the P&P Committee on
behalf of ANZSI to encourage them to include the
requirement for an index as one of their award criteria.
Again we can look at the quality of indexers in the
previous award winners and target them for assistance and/
or a training session on annual report indexing.
While these training sessions can be targeted at
organisations they can also be aimed at members so
confidence in annual report indexing can be increased.
• As mentioned above there will be an ANZSI publication
produced on Indexing Your Annual Report. Electronic copies
will be downloadable from the ANZSI website. Hard copies
will be made available free of charge to Branches who would
like to receive them. The P&P Committee suggests that
each Branch organises a book launch of the publication
where copies can be distributed to interested parties. Copies
of the booklet will be available from early July.
• So the committee urges all members to look at annual
reports for indexes. Check the annual reports of your local
government, water authority, energy company, museum,
local hospital or similar organisations and see if they contain
a reasonable index. If not offer to do one for them, or target
them with the Branch training/promotion activity. When
successful, let the P&P Committee know so we can record
the improvements and even write to the organisation
congratulating them on their improved annual report index.
Max McMaster, Mary Russell
The Indexer, March 2010
Table of Contents
• Poetry and the indexing thereof: the role of the
Scottish Poetry Library (SPL) Julie Johnstone
• Classified versus specific entry in book indexes:
guidelines for decision making Glenda Browne
• Inter-indexer consistency (IIC) in a Persian context
Mohammad Reza Falahati Qadimi Fumani
• Wot, no index? – or the death of the ‘Washington
read’ Maureen MacGlashan
• The Going rogue index Seyward Darby
• Interim indexes and their fate Hazel K. Bell
Branch events
Date & time
Organiser
Name of activity
Venue
Contact details
Thurs –Fri
11–22 Mar
9.30–4.00
NSW
Branch
NSW Book
Indexing Course
NSW Writers
Centre, Rozelle
details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=130>
8 April to 7 May
(from home);
8 May 10.00 am
(morning class)
NSW
Branch
NSW Intermediate/Practical indexing course
At home from 8 April to 7 May, then
on 8 May from 10.00 am to 1.00 pm at Thomson Reuters, 100 Harris St, Pyrmont
details at<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=132>
Mon 12 April
Vic Branch
Basic Book
Indexing Pt 1
Holmesglen
TAFE
details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=128>
Tues 13 April
Vic Branch
Basic Book
Indexing Pt 2
Holmesglen
TAFE
details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=129>
Fri–Sun
4–6 June
Vic Branch
Nuggets of
Indexing
Seminar
Sovereign Hill
Ballarat
details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=118>
Vol. 6, No. 2, March 2010
3
Indexing indaba
W
hen I first started thinking
about how I was going to
write a bi-monthly column
on ideas and discussion related to
indexing, the word ‘indaba’ sprang to
mind. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a
Zulu word that lexicographers like to
describe as a ‘borrowing into English’.
Translated, it means ‘a meeting of the
minds’ and in a traditional sense is used to refer to any
gathering of tribal leaders for a sharing of ideas. The Shorter
Oxford English Dictionary lists its more contemporary and
less formal meaning as ‘subject, topic, matter or business’. I’ve
also seen the definitions ‘issue’, ‘problem’, ‘conference’ and
‘discussion’ given in a few other dictionaries.
I expect that all of these definitions will at some stage be
usefully applied to the content of this column, but in the
meantime, I’ll get on with some indaba...
Social networking
In the December 2009 issue of The Indexer, Glenda Browne
wrote a comprehensive review of the various social and
professional networking sites, including Twitter, LinkedIn,
Facebook and Ning. A number of indexers comment on their
experiences, so it’s a particularly valuable read iÉ you’re going
down this path for the first time and want to know the pros
and cons.
In February, ASI’s Twin Cities Chapter held their first
webinar, called Social Networking 101. I chickened out due to
the 3.00 am Melbourne start time, but Twin Cities Chapter’s
Terri Hudoba and Terry Casey, were able to fill me in on the
two-hour interactive workshop and sent this link to its
recording: <http://wmcol.acrobat.com/p12877905/>.
Ten participants attended the webinar in person, while
another ten connected remotely.
The presenters, Neal Axton and Lindsay Matts, from
William Mitchell College of Law in Minnesota, discussed the
reasons for social networking and the benefits it can have for
business, as well as the security concerns it raises.
They also gave an overview of Facebook, LinkedIn and
Twitter, and similar to the findings in Glenda Browne’s already
mentioned article, participants favoured Facebook for personal
use, and LinkedIn for professional connections.
Having noted that, indexers need to be aware that some
publishers have started to create Facebook pages for their
books, with the idea that they then collect ‘fans’. Glenda
Browne cites her own example of this with her title The
indexing companion workbook.
Recently I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had a fan
of my own, with a positive comment posted on the Facebook
page of a book I had indexed. So it might be worth your while
reading the comments, although your view will be limited if
you are not signed onto Facebook. Perhaps social networking
sites will finally bring indexers out of obscurity.
Economists as indexers
While putting some ideas together for The VIC’s recent
discussion on ‘To mark or not to mark’, I came across a blog
entry of the US based economist, Dave Prychitko.
4
Although his idea of marking up relates to academic
research rather than to indexing, it was Prychitko’s comments
on what he does with front inside covers and blank pages of
books that grabbed my attention. He says he uses them to
write the indexes that he often creates. Rather disconcertingly
for indexers, he finds these to be more useful than the
published index! If you think he is alone, one other
contributor has posted a comment to say that he likes to do the
same.
Prychitko is the author of a few books himself, so it would
be interesting to know how the commissioning process for the
indexes to his titles went.
You can see Dave Prychitko’s comments and handwritten
index to Ludwig von Mises’s Human Action at:
<http://austrianeconomists.typepad.com/weblog/2009/08/onmarking-up-books.html>.
Awards, good and bad
It’s difficult to imagine that Mary Russell and Sarah Palin
would have anything in common, but they do. Both are
recipients of awards from ASI.
Web indexing award
Mary Russell was honoured with this award in 2009 for her
index to the ANZSI website. Entries are now being in accepted
until Friday 23 April, for the 2010 Web Indexing Award.
Further details, including the award criteria and a submission
form are available at: <www.web-indexing.org/web-indexingaward.htm>.
Golden Turkey Award
ASI announced its first Golden Turkey Award last November,
with honours going to Sarah Palin and HarperCollins
for Palin’s book Going rogue, <www.asindexing.org/site/
PR20091120.shtml>.
Wheeler Centre for books, writing and ideas
Since the 2008 announcement of Melbourne as the second
UNESCO City of Literature, there has been much
anticipation over a new cultural centre that finally opened its
doors in February. I had to go to the FAQ to discover that it’s
named for the Wheelers of Lonely Planet fame, in recognition
of their substantial donation.
The Centre houses a two hundred seat performance space,
which has begun staging a full programme of either free or low
cost events. It is also home to a number of cultural
organisations, including the Australian Poetry Centre, the
Melbourne Writers Festival and the Small Press Underground
Networking Community (SPUNC), a representative body for
more than 70 small publishers in Australia.
Online discussion at <http://wheelercentre.com/> is now
being encouraged, although with comments not yet posted
(I was unable to find one), it still has the feel of a new journal
with just a few pages of entry. Membership, which entitles you
to participate in the discussions, is free. Given more time,
I expect that indexers will want to keep an eye on this new
online community devoted to books, writing and ideas.
Nikki Davis
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
ACT Branch visit to National Sports Information Centre, Canberra
O
n 22 February nine ACT Region Branch members
visited the National Sports Information Centre
(NSIC). We were welcomed by Greg Blood, who has
worked as a librarian there since the library was set up in 1983.
It has changed greatly since then.
We were told that the NSIC definition of sport is ‘human
activity suitable for achieving a result, requiring physical
exertion and/or skill, by nature competitive’.
The library supports the information needs of staff, coaches
and athletes, and often queries from the public, so the
information is of all kinds. Though this used to be mainly
supplied by books, these are not bought any more, and a large
part of the collection consists of journals, some hard copy,
some in the form of databases. The library found that Library
of Congress Subject Headings were not specific enough, and
uses the Sport Thesaurus, designed in Canada, with NSIC’s
Australian additions. The amount of indexing undertaken has
decreased markedly over the last few years since EBSCO
Information Services took over the SPORT Database and now
supply all indexing, including Australian content.
An important part of the collection is videos and DVDs, so
that athletes and coaches can watch their performances. These
are taken from TV, with performance analysis screenrights
established with international sports organisations. This
arrangement means this collection is not available to the
public. Currently the Vancouver Winter Olympics are being
recorded.
We were shown the online NSIC catalogue, of which there
is a public version and an internal version for staff and athletes
only. Much more information is given about any individual
book, virtually an abstract. Also staff research is documented in
the catalogue. The Ausport database is also part of the
catalogue.
The Sport Thesaurus mentioned above is inadequate in
some areas, e.g. sports sciences, which are developing rapidly.
Greg is in the process of developing the Australian Sports
Commission taxonomy of sport, which may take some years
but will be more comprehensive. He is asking practitioners
what terminology they use. All the systems now require staff to
enter the terms they use, though they may not be correct. This
is necessary because of all the different systems used. It won’t
be perfect until all the terms are entered, and will eventually be
available to the sports section of the public, acting as a
dictionary for the organisation.
Greg then described the Australian Sports Commission
Image Library. The criteria for indexing an image include
whether the sport is practiced at the AIS, what sport it is,
whether individual or a team sport. Quick image indexing is
used, with metadata. For the Winter Olympics the ASC has
contracted AAP to provide 50 selected images. The ASC buys
images for certain events such as the Olympics.
The NSIC intends to have a digital archive for all digital
material, with an online library and index entries for videos.
There is already in place a system of archiving important data.
There will be information on talks, events, etc, like a version of
YouTube. There is a move from the traditional indexing of
material to spending more time indexing material unique to
NSIC/ASC. Immediacy is necessary, and the writing of tags.
The taxonomy is going to be a major access point.
The indexing of sports sections in newspapers was
mentioned. The NSIC uses online newspaper databases such
as Australia and New Zealand Reference Library to locate
newspaper articles.
This concluded our visit, a fascinating talk by a very
experienced and dedicated librarian. We really appreciated
Greg’s time and effort.
Edyth Binkowski
THE INDEXER
The International Journal of Indexing
Indexer as poet, poet as indexer? Poem as index, index as poem? Want to know more?
Or do you need an index to Sarah Palin’s Going rogue?
Then the March 2010 issue of
The Indexer is just what you need.
SUBSCRIBE ONLINE NOW!
www.theindexer.org
•
•
•
Four issues a year (March, June, September and December)
Online access to current issues for subscribers in addition to print copies sent by priority mail
Online subscription and payment via The Indexer website (www.theindexer.org)
Annual subscription rate for ANZSI members for 2010 only: £28.00
Vol. 6, No. 2, March 2010
5
To mark or not to mark
T
he VIC (Victorian Indexing Club) met in February to
discuss ‘to mark or not to mark’ your indexing proofs.
Inspired by the session at the 2009 ANZSI Conference
run by Richard Strout, Mary Russell presented some different
styles of marking, as described in two articles by Kari Kells in
the ASI journal Key Words, 2004;12(2):54–7 and
2004;12(4):124–6. Several indexers in these articles describe
how they mark up a chapter and then enter the terms into their
indexing software package. Others write terms in the margins;
one even draws pictures, Venn diagrams or connecting
bubbles. The different approaches described show that you
may have a ‘standard’ process that works for most books, but
may need to change when you have to do a more difficult job
(or even an easy job).
Discussion in the group revealed several different
approaches. Mary Russell doesn’t mark her proofs at all. She
enters terms directly into Sky Index and occasionally notes a
term or page number to go back to.
Nikki Davis surveyed a couple of books on indexing to see
what has been written about the practice of marking up. She
was first introduced to the idea of marking up in the Book
Indexing Postal Tutorials (BIPT) correspondence course she
did with Ann Hall. At that time (1985) this course was largely
based on Robert Collison’s Indexing Books, which had this to
say:
Reading from the beginning again, underline any word or
name which might be wanted in the index. At this stage you
do not know whether a slight reference may gain in
importance later on. Use bright coloured ink, since black or
blue can easily be missed on the page when you refer back. It
is often useful to make notes in the margin, summarising the
content of a page or proposing a useful heading. Keep a note
also of pages where unfamiliar words are first defined, so that
you don’t have to search for them.
Rather surprisingly, the indexes to Henry B. Wheatley’s
book How to make an index, Nancy Mulvany’s Indexing Books
and The Chicago Manual of Style (chapter edition) did not have
entries in their indexes for ‘marking up’ or ‘highlighting’, as it
is also sometimes referred to.
Nikki always marks her proofs, and was relieved to discover
that the index to Glenda Browne and John Jermey’s The
Indexing Companion included entries for both ‘highlighting
step’ and ‘marking up’. Under the heading ‘To mark or not to
mark’, it says:
Some indexers do not mark up (highlight) the text, but
enter terms directly. They may or may not have read the book
first, although they are almost certain to have examined the
table of contents and other introductory material. Some
indexers mark only page ranges (for chapters and sections) in
advance. In effect, they perform the analysis, term selection
and entry steps at the same time. The advantage of this
approach is that it can be a lot quicker; the disadvantages are
that concepts may be missed, and the significance of content
early in the book may not be fully understood until the end of
the book. For straightforward, highly structured books the
method works particularly well.
Nikki emphasised these two points: highlighting the text
helps to prevent the indexer from missing a concept, and it
may not be until deeper into the text that the indexer is going
to know how important a concept is going to be.
It turned out that The Chicago Manual of Style did include a
three page section under the heading ‘Marking proofs and
preparing entries’, which is a subheading of ‘The Mechanics of
Indexing’. While the terms ‘marking up’ and ‘highlighting’ are
used in the text, neither of these have made the index. They are
instead covered by the entry ‘mechanics, proofs and’, which
also nicely illustrates what can go wrong in that other area that
indexers constantly juggle, that of broad and narrow
descriptors.
Nikki Davis
Different indexing: the largest book in the world
T
he British Library’s exhibition on
maps, to open in April, will display
the largest book in the world: 1.75m
tall and 1.9m when open. Surprisingly, it
only contains 37 engraved maps, on
39 sheets each 1.75m square, originally
intended for hanging on the wall. It was a
gift from a group of Dutch merchants to
Charles II on his restoration in 1660.
This photo by Mark Brown, was
published in The Guardian on 26 January.
You can find more information at
<www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/26/
klencke-atlas-british-library-exhibition>.
Mary Russell
6
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
New South Wales Branch social
Nuggets of Indexing
his report missed last month’s issue, so, in case members
thought nothing happened to mark the end of a great
year, here are some belated notes on a really enjoyable
occasion. On a sweltering Sydney Sunday last November,
members and friends of NSW Branch got together at Helen
Enright’s delightfully cool terrace house in Petersham for
Christmas festivities and a celebration of the year’s activities,
everyone still glowing from the success of the conference at the
Sydney Marriott Hotel.
Those present were Glenda Browne, Graham Clayton
from CCH, Robyn Cook, Madeleine Davis, Lorraine Doyle,
Melanie Elron from Blake Dawson, Helen Enright, Margaret
Harris, Elisabeth Thomas and Alan Walker.
Many thanks to Helen for her hospitality and to all the
cooks who provided such a delicious table.
Frances Paterson
Vic Branch Seminar, Ballarat 4–6 June
T
ANZSI Conference 2011
V
ictorian Branch has agreed to host the 2011
ANZSI Conference. It will be held in Victoria, probably
in September 2011. Details of the theme and exact date and
location will follow as planning proceeds.
Vol. 6, No. 2, March 2010
A
preliminary program has now been published. It includes
the following highlights:
• Workshop sessions on quoting for indexing work; annual
report indexing and indexing illustrations.
• Talks on indexing for local history societies; gold nugget
replicas; indexing in the ‘60s; indexing in the ‘80s in South
Africa; Gold Museum; the Mechanics Institute Ballarat;
indexes from the Victorian gold rush era and a report on the
ASI Conference.
• Tours on the Gold Museum; Mine; and Blood on the Cross
show.
• Partners program.
The cost for the three day seminar is $350 (inc GST) for
participants and $200 (inc GST) for the partners program.
While this is a Victorian Branch activity, all members and
partners are most welcome to join us. You will need to make
your own transport and accommodation arrangements.
For full details, online secure payment and suggestions for
transport and accommodation visit the webpage
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=118>.
7
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI)
ANZSI NEWSLETTER
Volume 6, number 3, April 2010
ANZSI News
ANZSI Committees
Education Policy Committee
o help facilitate specific work of
Council, committees have been
set up to assist it. The main
Council committees are the Registration
Committee, the Education Policy
Committee, the Awards Committee and
the Promotions and Publicity Committee.
The Education Policy Committee, chaired by Michael
Ramsden, was set up last year and has the following terms of
reference: ‘To develop a draft policy framework for the
provision and quality assurance of professional education in
indexing. The policy should encompass generalist and
specialist courses and all modes of delivery, including courses
and mentoring.’
The members of the Committee are Glenda Browne, Max
McMaster, Sherrey Quinn and Michael Ramsden. Their
report was tabled at the March Council meeting and is now
with Council members for comment. Discussion on the
report will be at the May Council meeting and the details will
be in a future ANZSI News column.
T
Registration Committee
The Registration Committee assesses the indexes submitted for
registration.
The Council regretfully accepted Michael Harrington’s
resignation as Chair of the Registration Committee. I would
like to thank Michael on behalf of all of you for the many years
of work he has given to the Registration Committee.
Sherrey Quinn has agreed to become the new Chair of the
Registration Committee. Her committee members will be Jean
Norman and Frances Paterson. Shirley Campbell will continue
as Receiving Officer.
Book indexing courses in NSW
N
ew South Wales Branch ran another two-day Basic
Book Indexing workshop in March, this time at the
NSW Writers Centre in Rozelle – a nice old building with
beautiful grounds. Ten students attended, from a variety of
backgrounds. Most of them had expressed interest in the
course before we had done any specific advertising, showing
the depth of interest in the community in indexing as a
profession. Catering – delicious and healthy – was by Mary
Coe and Frances Paterson, with Sue Flaxman efficiently
managing the bookings.
This introductory course will be followed by an
intermediate/practical course running from 8 April,
finishing with a face-to-face get-together on Saturday 8 May.
In addition to the full intermediate course (online
discussion and face-to-face) we have decided to also offer the
initial portion of the intermediate course as a stand-alone
event. The cost will be $200 for members and $235 for nonmembers. This will include an electronic copy of the book,
and one month’s access to comments on the YahooGroup,
but will not include the final summing up face-to-face event
nor the lunch. For details of the full course, see
<www.anzsi.org>.
Glenda Browne
ISSN 1832-3855
Awards Committee
The Awards Committee is chaired by Alan Walker and is
responsible for the annual judging of the ANZSI Indexers’
Medal. Applications for the medal will be available soon and I
urge members to consider applying.
Promotions and Publicity Committee
As you read in the March Newsletter this committee is chaired
by Max McMaster, with me as a Committee member. Having
declared 2010 as the Year of Annual Report Indexes, you will
notice in this issue that Victorian Branch has announced the
first event in the form of a Peer Review. While being run by
Victorian Branch it is open to all members.
Mary Russell
WHAT’S
INSIDE
Newsletter, Web Manager and Registration details 2
Indexing guru visits Queensland Branch
2
Indexing degustation
4
Annual Report peer review opportunity
5
News from New Zealand Branch
5
Thinking about words – the birth of the press
6
The VIC – Indexing quilts
8
Tips and Hints – book of
9
Indexing Training and Work
10
Nuggets of Indexing
11
ANZSI and Branch Committee contacts
12
Deadline for the May issue: 30 April
PO Box 5062, Glenferrie South VIC 3122, Australia
Newsletter,
Web Manager and
Registration contacts
Editor: Peter Judge
<peter.judge@bigpond.com>
Web Manager: Mary Russell
<russellmf025@ozemail.com.au>
Website: <www.anzsi.org>
ISSN 1832-3855
This newsletter is published monthly 11 times
per year, with combined issues for January/
February. It is sent free to all members of the
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers.
Opinions expressed in the newsletter are those of
the individual contributors, and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of the Society.
It is your newsletter, and we are totally
dependent on contributions, both large and
small, from members. Please contact the editor if
you have any questions about the suitability of
items for publication. The editor reserves the
right to edit or abridge contributions.
Please send files via email in MS Word, .doc
files or .rtf, but NOT .html or .pdf. And please,
no images or footnotes embedded in Word files.
Next deadline
30 April for the May 2010 issue.
Graphics
Image files can be accepted in most common
formats. Do not embed images in text files.
Camera-ready art and photos can be scanned
by the editor. Note that photos need to be
clear, sharp and contrasty if they are to copy
well in black and white.
Indexing guru visits Queensland Branch
O
ur inspirational guest speaker
for March was an indexing
guru from the United States,
who has several times donned the mantle
of the President of the American Society
for Indexers (ASI). She is a well-known
indexer and teacher, Frances S Lennie.
Originally born and bred in the United
Kingdom, Frances says that she fell into
indexing by accident. Whether by
accident or not, today Frances Lennie is
an indexing entrepreneur, with over
thirty years experience in the publishing
industry. Frances formed Indexing
Research, her own U.S. company, some
twenty-four years ago. She is also the
creator of the software package
CINDEX, which helps indexers around
the world to undertake the precise
activity we call indexing.
Frances gave Queensland Branch two
presentations on the night of 20 March –
a night to remember for those people
who attended. We played host to both
ANZSI Queensland Branch members
and other industry friends, at the Library
meeting room at the Carindale Shopping
Centre in Brisbane.
The first presentation was on how to
use the indexing software CINDEX.
Frances showed by simple indexing
examples how easy CINDEX is to use.
However, she also explained that with her
well-known product, there was full backup for the new or the experienced user,
should any queries or problems arise.
The supper break gave participants an
opportunity to discuss a wide range of
topics with Frances and the other
industry professionals.
The second presentation was entitled
‘How to survive and thrive as a freelance
indexer in today’s publishing world’.
Frances first asked us what sort of work
we were reaching for? What level and
type of indexing we were applying for?
She suggested that these directions might
vary from year to year depending on the
economic climate and the availability of
work in the industry.
Frances told us about the present
situation in the USA, where availability
of jobs and the rates of pay are controlled
not by the publishing houses as in days of
old, but by the groups known as
‘packagers’.
These packagers now outsource to
different professionals, such as editors,
typesetters, and indexers, who are
freelancers and find it hard to bargain for
a fair price against jobs being sent to
India or Asia, where prices are severely
undercut. Frances suggested that it would
be good policy for indexing professionals
Advertising charges
Full page A$175; half page A$90; quarter page
A$35; full year 10 for the price of 8.
Membership charges
A$70 per year from 1 Jul 2009.
Institutional membership $95.
Subscriptions to the Newsletter A$55 p.a.
The Indexer
(international indexing journal)
Maureen MacGlashan, Executive Editor
<editor@theindexer.org>.
ANZSI Corresponding Member
Glenda Browne <world@theindexer.org>
To subscribe at the special rate for indexing society
members, go to <www.theindexer.org> and click
on the subscriptions link.
Registration
Shirley Campbell
Ph +61 2 6248 8297
<shirley.campbell4@bigpond.com> or
<www.anzsi.org/site/registration.asp>
Indexers Available
<www.anzsi.org/site/Indexers_available.asp>
Franz Pinz, Frances Lennie and Mei Yen Chua
2
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
to get in with these packagers, to gain their respect and trust
and hopefully to obtain repeat business.
Frances admitted that a professional indexer’s life may be
either ‘feast’ or ‘famine’. Quickness and efficiency, while
creating a quality index, are the key; if we take too long on an
index we are diluting our rate of pay. Too much work and no
downtime is another hazard for the indexer – we have to focus
on the end result and create that index in as little time as
possible, so that we have some time to spoil ourselves.
Working out the ‘style of the client’ is another
characteristic of the smart indexer. Does the client like to chat
in emails or on the telephone, or do they just have short
sharp-to-the-point emails or phone calls? How stressed out is
your client? Where are you on their list of priorities? Be
supportive and efficient.
Looking after ‘self ’ is also a priority for the indexer – we
must work out our own strategy for survival. When there is
too much work, we must try to put money aside for the lean
times. Frances suggested that we look outside the box when
looking around for jobs. For example, what about school
boards, clubs or associations? They might need minutes of
their meetings indexed for ease of reference – and perhaps
even for posterity.
We might also engage in further education for our
professional development, aimed at developing additional
skills – as one of our previous guest speakers, Karl Craig, an
editor, put it, we should ‘value–add’ to our skills. Frances
proposed that we might perhaps consider adding editing or
proofreading, or abstracting, web indexing or database work,
or even thesaurus or taxonomies to the skills we offer our
clients. ‘Continuing Professional Development’ might very
well lead to extra jobs, even with the same clients.
Frances Lennie received the Theodore C Hines Award in
2005 for ‘continuous dedication and exceptional service to
ASI’. Most recently, she has been closely involved in
establishing ASI’s ‘Training in Indexing’ distance learning
course. She continues as a grader for the course exams, and is
about to begin another term as president of ASI (2010–11) –
truly a woman of distinction! We thank Frances for coming to
Brisbane for our General Meeting. She left us with a whole new
set of thoughts about this fascinating world of indexing and the
tools which we have at our disposal.
All Queensland members of ANZSI are warmly invited to
attend our General Meetings, which are held on the third
Tuesday of each month (see our flyers). The next meeting will
be on Tuesday 20 April, at 7.00 pm, in the Library at the
Carindale Shopping Centre. The guest speaker will be Elisabeth
Wheeler, on ‘Cataloguing and Indexing for Small Archives’.
Don’t forget – we have our own Branch now. Keep in touch!
Moira C Brown, President, Queensland Branch
<brown5moira@yahoo.com.au>
Moira Brown, Frances Lennie and Mei Yen Chua
Branch events
Date & time
Organiser
Name of activity
8 April to 7 May
(from home);
8 May 10.00 am
(morning class)
NSW
Branch
NSW Intermediate/Practical indexing course
At home from 8 April to 7 May, then
on 8 May from 10.00 am to 1.00 pm at Thomson Reuters, 100 Harris St, Pyrmont
details at<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=132>
Mon 12 April
Vic Branch
Basic Book
Indexing Pt 1
Holmesglen
TAFE
details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=128>
Tues 13 April
Vic Branch
Tues 20 April
7.00 pm
Qld Branch
Basic Book
Indexing Pt 2
General Meeting
Wed 5 May
6.00 pm
Vic Branch
The VIC
Animals and
zoology
details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=129>
Guest speaker Elisabeth Wheeler, on ‘Cataloguing
and Indexing for Small Archives’
Contact Moira Brown,
<brown5moira@yahoo.com.au>
details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=127>
Fri–Sun
4–6 June
Vic Branch
Nuggets of
Indexing
Seminar
Holmesglen
TAFE
Library,
Carindale
Shopping
Centre.
Kew Holy
Trinity
Anglican
Church
Sovereign Hill
Ballarat
Vol. 6, No. 3, April 2010
Venue
Contact details
details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=118>
3
Indexing degustation
N
ikki’s inspired choice of
indexing indaba for the title
of her bi-monthly column
prompted me to think of an original
title for mine. Indexing degustation
seemed to fit the bill, for it concerns
two interests dear to me; eating and
indexing. Degustation is the action of
tasting, a term that is suited to this
page of indexing bits and pieces.
Restaurant goers would be familiar
with the term, which is increasingly popping up on menus. A
‘degustation menu’ features a selection of the chef ’s signature
dishes, chosen by the chef.
It has been said by food writers that ‘a la carte is democracy
and the degustation menu is dictatorship’. See an article on the
subject at: <http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/14/
1087065077981.html>
This column then will feature a selection of subjects chosen
by your dictatorial columnist.
No jam for the wicked
Indexers are generally fascinated by language, so Julia Miller’s
survey into English idiom is worth a look. About 1500 native
speakers of English in Australia and the UK participated in the
exercise. Eighty-four idioms were divided between six different
surveys and represented Biblical, literary/historical, Australian
in reference, British in reference and older reference classes.
Older speakers were generally more familiar with the
idioms than the younger ones. However, the latter proffered
some intriguing idioms of their own: you can’t judge a wolf by
its cover, and feed pearls to pigs and their meat will sparkle.
Read more about the results at <www.ling.mq.edu.au/news/
australian_style/v16_no2/no_jam_for_the_wicked.htm>.
Pro Bono program
The Pacific Northwest Chapter of the American Society for
Indexing has developed a program that benefits both qualified
beginner indexers and small non-profit organisations which are
in need of an index. In other words, a satisfying blend of
education and volunteering. For more information on
participants, mentors, organisations and sample projects, go to
<www.pnwasi.org/probono.htm>.
In-Sync Indexing
Another innovation from the Pacific Northwest Chapter is InSync Indexing, where simultaneous meetings are held across
the region. On 10 April, members will meet at their nearest
location and follow a pre-planned script. Each group will have
a facilitator to synchronise activities, and work through a
packet of materials that will guide members through the
discussions and activities. At the end of the meetings a recorder
will post group summaries and evaluations, in order to create a
collection for the entire chapter to review. Indexers outside of
the chapter are welcome to take part. View more on the subject
at <www.pnwasi.org/mtgnext.htm>.
4
Virtual History Timeline
A new interactive history timeline developed by the British
Library allows users to explore collection items chronologically
for the first time: <www.bl.uk/timeline>.
A diverse combination of texts is included – those that
allow glimpses of everyday life (handbills, posters, letters,
diaries), remnants of political events (charters, speeches,
campaign leaflets), and the writings of some of our best known
historical and literary figures. Thematic timelines, such as
‘everyday life’ and ‘politics, power and rebellion’ and
‘literature, music and entertainment’ enable the user to make
fascinating comparisons, both within time periods and across
time.
Marketing and networking for introverts
Many indexers tend to sit nearer the introvert end of the
extrovert/introvert scale so it was with interest that I read a
post on the subject in the Indexers Discussion Group, [index-l]
(18 March) by Susan Coh. Susan claims to be ‘a total introvert’
who found making cold calls extremely difficult. However, by
forcing herself to make two per day (with little rewards to help
her along) she has managed to get as much work as she wants.
She now relies on word of mouth, referrals and her website,
plus a Google advertisement. Her sage advice to ‘take the
plunge’ is a heartening call to all the introverts out there.
See and See Also
Ruth Pincoe presented a paper entitled See and see also: rules
and controversies at the Indexing Society of Canada’s 2009
conference. Ruth has compiled several rules for references, the
first referring to the two types of cross-references: see
(prescriptive) and see also (suggestive). Her analysis of see also
references included the use of see under, see also under and see
below. Do we go this far? Ruth also explained the placement
and completeness of cross-references, the editing stage and
punctuation and typography.
Ruth concluded her talk on a humorous note with Browne
and Jermey’s story from the UK Yellow Pages: ‘Boring. See
Civil Engineers’.
You can read more of this summary of Ruth’s talk at
<www.indexers.ca/BULLETIN_Summer_2009.pdf>.
Index It Right! Advice from the experts
Volume 2, edited by Janet Perlman and Enid L Zafran, 2010,
is now available. The second volume in this series provides a
range of topics on the technique of indexing.
Further information and purchase details are available at
the ASI Publications homepage, or directly through ITI
<http://books.infotoday.com/books/index.shtml#index>. And
meanwhile see Mary Russell’s review on page 9.
Jane Purton
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
Annual Report peer review
opportunity
News from New Zealand Branch
A
NZSI Promotions and Publicity Committee declared
2010 as the Year of Annual Reports. How about
brushing up your annual report indexing skills and
participating in the Victorian Branch peer review opportunity?
Process
Payment of $75 (inc GST) will be required by 23 April.
During the weekend 24-25 April you will receive an email with
the links to the PDF files of the two annual reports. You pick
one annual report and complete an index to it. The annual
reports selected are approximately 130 pages in length, so the
task is not onerous. Indexes are to be submitted by 9.00 am
Monday 17 May.
Assessment and feedback
Each index will be assessed using the same criteria used by the
Registration Committee and participants will receive personal
feedback.
Follow up
During the session on indexing annual reports at the Nuggets
of Indexing seminar in Ballarat, 4-6 June, the assessors for the
Peer Review Opportunity will provide general comments and
feedback on the whole program. This will be a wonderful
opportunity for participants to add their comments on the
process and participate in the general discussion on indexing of
annual reports.
While this activity is being run by Victorian Branch, the
annual report peer review opportunity is open to all and since
this is all done via email, you can take advantage of it
anywhere. Further details and online payment facilities are
available at <www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=137>.
Mary Russell
N
ew Zealand Branch has sent a directory of its freelance
indexers to almost 70 publishers around the country.
The aims are to raise awareness of the indexing
profession and to provide another practical way for publishers
to find a trained indexer suitable for a particular job.
We have had appreciative replies from several recipients
and at least one publisher has used it already.
The directory has a description of professional indexing
and information on ANZSI, including its website.
Entries for individual freelancers give information on
qualifications, publications indexed and contact details.
The recipients range from subsidiaries of international
companies through medium-sized New Zealand operations
(commercial and institutional) to small publishers.
The directory was sent by email as a pdf file which can be
printed as an A5 booklet. We intend to produce this annually
and in future may also post it in printed form.
The promotion of freelance workers in the various fields of
database indexing is less clear-cut, but the Branch committee
has invited members to make suggestions.
Collective thanks go to Tordis Flath, Julie Daymond-King
and Jill Mellanby for their work on the first directory.
Robin Briggs, Branch President
THE INDEXER
The International Journal of Indexing
Indexer as poet, poet as indexer? Poem as index, index as poem? Want to know more?
Or do you need an index to Sarah Palin’s Going rogue?
Then the March 2010 issue of
The Indexer is just what you need.
SUBSCRIBE ONLINE NOW!
www.theindexer.org
•
•
•
Four issues a year (March, June, September and December)
Online access to current issues for subscribers in addition to print copies sent by priority mail
Online subscription and payment via The Indexer website (www.theindexer.org)
Annual subscription rate for ANZSI members for 2010 only: £28.00
Vol. 6, No. 3, April 2010
5
Thinking about words – the birth of the press
… printed books had consistent pagination from copy to copy
so that tables of contents, indexes and citations became possible …
T
his is an issue of your newsletter (and no doubt there
will be more like it) where you have contributed too
much good material for eight pages but not quite
enough for twelve. Our printer insists that it has to be one or
the other. Reluctantly, because as your editor I would much
prefer to publish your contributions, I am putting in a short
article of my own as a filler on this occasion. It is one of the
monthly articles that I write for the newsletter of the Canberra
Society of Editors. I have picked this particular piece because it
mentions indexing and so has links to your own history.
It was prompted by a TV
program last year on the origins of
printing. I had previously written
something about Caxton, who
brought printing to England in
1476 and began the process of
standardising English spelling. But
Caxton had simply continued
along the path first mapped out by
Gutenberg. I began to wonder
what exactly Gutenberg had done,
and how much of it he really did
by himself? We have all heard that
the Chinese invented printing with
movable type, so what was new?
Where did Gutenberg come in?
The Chinese certainly had the
three basic elements of printing by
the end of the second century CE:
paper made from rags (replacing
silk for writing on), ink, and
surfaces with raised relief from
which impressions could be taken.
Initially this involved little more
than the equivalent of brassrubbing, but later they were producing prints by writing on
fine paper that was then pressed onto a wooden block covered
with sticky rice paste that took up the ink. Craftsmen then cut
round the ink-marks, leaving a relief image on which to print a
page at a time. The first known book, the Diamond Sutra, was
made in this way in China in 868; it was followed by a
collection of the Chinese classics in 130 volumes.
It wasn’t until the 11th century that the Chinese invented
the first movable type, made of a mixture of clay and glue. The
type was stuck into wax on a tray to hold the characters in
place. After the job was finished, the wax was melted and the
type recovered for further use. The Chinese system of writing
requires many thousand separate ideographs – in 1313 an
author commissioned 60,000 characters carved on movable
wooden blocks. The Koreans took this even further, with ten
fonts each of 100,000 pieces of type cast in bronze.
Little of these eastern printing developments seems to have
been known in Europe except for paper, which arrived there
dramatically. The Arabs and Chinese were warring in the
6
8th century for the control of Central Asia, and in 751 a
decisive victory by the Arabs resulted in the capture of many
Chinese prisoners, including artisans skilled in paper-making.
The opportunity was too good to miss, and soon paper
factories were operating in Samarkand, Baghdad, Damascus,
Cairo and Delhi. By 1120 there was a factory in Valencia,
Spain (then under Arab rule), and before long paper spread
right across Europe. Paper was not necessary for the invention
of printing, but printing would not have been a commercial
success without paper. If a book took a year to make by hand,
vellum was a good option that
would last indefinitely. And
anyway, for the next three
centuries paper was seen as a
Muslim invention, unfit for the
use of Christians!
Johann Gensfleisch zur Laden
zum Gutenberg was born in 1400
to an aristocratic family in Mainz,
in central Germany. As a result of
some vicious politics, a number of
the wealthy families were driven
into exile, so that in his thirties
Gutenberg found himself in
Strasbourg. There he saw a market
opening. The Renaissance was
under way, the clergy was losing its
monopoly of literacy, there was a
shortage of books at an affordable
price and an increasing demand
for them. For example, Cambridge
University was founded in 1209,
but by 1424 its library still owned
only 122 books, each worth as
much as a farm or vineyard.
Gutenberg had trained as a jeweller and gold- and silver-smith,
but now he borrowed money to develop his ideas for printing.
He had the idea of printing from type made by pouring
molten metal into moulds, one for each letter. The shape of the
letter was carved on a punch, each of which took a skilled
craftsman a day to cut, and then stamped into copper to make
a mould. By trial and error Gutenberg came up with a formula
for type metal which was still used more than five centuries
later – an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony. Pure lead is soft and
cannot make castings with sharp details because molten lead
shrinks and sags when it cools to a solid. Adding pewterer’s tin
made the lead tougher; antimony reduced the shrinkage of the
alloy when it cooled. The letters were stored in cases (in the
background in the illustration), with divisions for each letter in
upper and lower cases. To print, the type for each line was set
out along a groove in a ‘composing stick’, with slips of lead
inserted as required for justifying. The lines were then
transferred to a tray (the’‘forme’) to build up the page. After
printing, the letters were replaced in their cases.
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
Back in Mainz in 1448 Gutenberg had a wooden press
built, worked with a screw, similar to those already used in
wine- and paper-making. He developed oil-based inks, using
soot and linseed oil. His early printing projects were probably
Latin grammars, but a lucrative sideline in 1454–55 was
‘indulgences’, by which reformed sinners paid for remission of
their punishment.
His greatest work was his 1272-page ‘Gutenberg bible’,
completed in 1455. A few copies were printed on vellum, but
most were on the finest quality paper, which he imported from
Northern Italy. The print run was 180. Six pages of the work
were composed at a time, printed, then the type broken down
for re-use. The first few pages originally had ‘spot colour’ in
red, by giving them a second pass through the press, but this
was soon found to be too slow and expensive. In the end the
bible was not sold as a finished book: the pages were delivered
loose, and any coloured decorations added by hand before
binding, according to the purchaser’s wishes (and pocket) –
a set of instructions for doing this has survived. The price was
30 florins, three years’ wages for a clerk.
Gutenberg was slow to repay his loans and after several law
suits (including one for breach of promise!) he lost his business
and everything in it to his principal creditor, Johann Fust. But
what he had started grew with astonishing speed. Within fifty
years about eight million books had been printed. Gutenberg’s
Vol. 6, No. 3, April 2010
bible had no title page or page numbers, but later printed
books did, and they had consistent pagination from copy to
copy so that tables of contents, indexes and citations became
possible.
The gothic font used for the bible was seen as
inappropriate for many applications, and typography rapidly
became an art, with new Roman and italic shapes based on the
best classical models – the Frenchman Claude Garamond
(1499–1561) was one of the earliest specialised typographers
(‘punch-cutters’ – and this newsletter is set in Garamond
type). Authorship became more profitable, and copyright laws
were passed to protect authors’ rights. Literacy took a great
leap forward, and Latin a step backward – more books
appeared in the vernacular, and spelling and syntax became
more standard. And suddenly we needed indexers, editors and
all the other trades and professions that contribute to the
amazing business of publishing!
Peter Judge
Reprinted from The Canberra Editor, Vol 18 no. 2, Sept 2009.
Sources: Encyclopædia Britannica 2009 Ultimate Reference Suite.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press>,
<www.mainz.de/gutenberg/zeitgutb.htm>,
<http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg>. The image is
from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Printer_in_1568-ce.png>.
7
The VIC – Indexing quilts
A
t the VIC meeting on 3 March, Nikki Davis examined
the way in which quilts are increasingly being
recognised as social documents, reflecting the
economic, political and social environments in which they
were created.
Since the 1960s, there has been a steady increase in the
number of people looking to quilts for clues about the past.
There is interest in the dye and printing technologies used, the
fashions and trends in fabrics, the symbolism associated with
patchwork patterns and of course, the numerous personal
stories that accompany these functional and usually
aesthetically pleasing items. This in turn has led to the
development of national quilt indexes and registers in
Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Between 1990 and 1993, the Quilters Guild of the British
Isles, <www.quiltersguild.org.uk/>, conducted a series of quilt
documentation days, in order to create an index of historically
significant quilts. More than 4000 quilts were recorded, and
the findings of this documentation project were published in a
book titled Quilt Treasures of Great Britain.
Quilt Index, <www.quiltindex.org/>, is an online
repository of more than 50,000 American quilts. The index
was initially built on the records from quilt documentation
projects carried out by various museums and archives, as well
as by quilt heritage search groups. In November 2009,
individual contributors became eligible for the first time to
contribute to the index. Each quilt has been photographed and
the accompanying record includes where possible information
on region of origin, quiltmaker, pattern, date and fabric type.
The National Quilter Register
Australia’s online quilt repository, at <www.collectionsaustralia.
net/nqr/index.php>, was an initiative of the Pioneer Women’s
Hut in Tumbarumba. Five years ago, the aim was to document
an estimated 500 to 600 old quilts in Australia, but by the
1000 quilt mark, it became apparent that what had been
recorded was merely the tip of the iceberg. The register was
built on information submitted by the public, about quilts
made or brought to Australia before 1965. While similar in
structure to the Quilt Index, the records place much more
emphasis on the stories behind the quilts. You can search by
themes such as rabbiters, war, famous people, migration,
royalty, agricultural shows, goldfields and Australians abroad.
Mary Russell then examined how you can group quilts, or
any other geometric design, into logical categories.
Repeated Patterns
The simplest quilt designs are make by repeating one shape
over the whole quilt. This could be a square, diamond, triangle
or hexagon. Variation comes in how different colours of the
This quilt (held by Terri Mackenzie and Kim Bear, the owner)
is an example of embroidered blocks repeated with plain
blocks. Original in red and white – photo by Nikki Davis.
8
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
shapes are arranged.
Another way to make a quilt is to combine shapes to form a
block, usually a square, and repeat this block over the quilt.
This can be done in a variety of ways. You could repeat the
same block all over, either straight across in rows or on the
diagonal. Or you could alternate the block with plain squares
of the same size, or separate the block with strips of fabric, or
repeat two or more different blocks over the quilt.
Basic categories
The trick is to be able to look at a pattern and visually divide it
into units. Usually the underlying block can be divided in to
squares, hence you have the categories:
• Four-patch: a square divided into four squares or multiples
of four.
• Nine-patch: a square divided into nine squares
• Five-patch: a square divided into twenty-five squares and
called a five-patch for simplicity.
• Seven-patch consists of 49 squares.
• Eight-pointed star is often confused with nine-patch, but
the central panel is actually wider than the ones on either
side and is actually a large octagon within the square block.
Other categories are:
• Isolated central square designs start with a central square
and fabric is layered around it. Popular example is Log
Cabin.
• Hexagon patterns are based on repeated hexagons, or
hexagons divided into two or three and these shapes used
to form Baby Blocks or Inner City.
• Five-pointed stars come from patriotic need to produce a
five pointed star.
• Curved designs are a large category and most are based on
one of the underlying described above. For example you
can have ‘four-patch’ curved patterns where arcs are drawn
in the squares to form a large circle.
The basis of this talk is the work of Jinny Beyer in her book
Patchwork Patterns (London: Bell and Hyman, 1982) and the
quilt designs are grouped into these categories in the index.
Nikki Davis and Mary Russell
Tips and Hints – book of
T
he Tips and Hints column hasn’t stopped with the New
Year; I have just had my focus shifted to bigger ANZSI
issues. I was also secretly hoping that someone else
would have some ideas they would like to share. So if you do
have tips and hints you would like to share, please do so.
Have you seen the American Society For Indexing
publications? Well there is a new one called Index it Right!
Advice from the Experts, volume 2 (edited by Janet Perlman and
Enid L Zafran, 2010).
It costs US$32 (with the international agreement ANZSI
members pay ASI rate). Divided into nine chapters it is full of
tips and hints.
Chapter 1 examines creating elegant subheadings.
Coverage includes nouns versus adjectives in subheadings;
direct rather than inverted word order; prepositions and
conjunctions, including ‘and’; readability; and sorting. The
Appendix is ‘Possible subheadings for the indexer’s toolkit’. It
is a useful list of subheading that may give you ideas on how to
divide up a long list of locations. For example background of;
biographical details; characteristics of; implications of; quoted;
remembered by; and writings of. I liked this idea and have
started a ‘toolkit’ of my own.
Chapter 2 looks at locators, including the issue of
undifferentiated locators. It covers several situations: the long
string of locators in headings and subheadings;
undifferentiated locators after the main heading with
subheadings; long page ranges; and mixture of locators, for
example references to illustrations and pages.
Chapter 3 highlights some of the differences in indexing
textbooks and associated issues. For example remembering the
audience; the nature of the book could mean there are lots of
‘callouts’, illustrations, maps, tables, graphs, charts, and maps;
sorting subheadings in date order; of cause the space for index
issue.
Vol. 6, No. 3, April 2010
Chapter 4 deals with public policy indexing. This refers to
indexing US government publications, but raises issues that
would apply here, for example what style* do you use to refer
to official documents, such as legal cases or Acts? Again there
are some tips for your ‘toolkit’ – terms such as ‘future research
needs’ or ‘methodology of study’.
Chapter 5 covers naval and other military books. The
chapter has a US focus, but again there are similar issues of
ranks, numbered units, ship names, and aircraft names.
Chapter 6 covers indexing in technical writing from
defining what the field includes; indexing tips to finding work
in the area.
Database indexing is discussed in chapter 7. It explains the
similarities and differences between book indexing and
database indexing and includes sections on controlled
vocabularies, thesaurus, the mechanics of it, how the process
differs; software and finding work.
Chapter 8 covers embedded indexing in both Adobe
FrameMaker and Microsoft Word. In both cases third-party
utilities (emDEX and IXgen for Framemaker and DEXembed
and WordEmbed for Word) are recommended to enable
indexers to work smarter when embedding.
The final chapter covers controlled vocabularies, thesauri
and taxonomies. After explaining the differences between the
three it suggests how you might create them for your large
indexing project including websites.
I will add references to these chapters to the lists of
Indexing Resources on the website for future reference, with
links to order information.
Mary Russell
[* The standard reference for contributors to Australian government
publications is the Style Manual for authors, editors and printers, Sixth
edition, John Wiley and Sons, 2002. It includes an extensive chapter
on indexing. Ed.]
9
Indexing Training and Work
How many indexers are there/are needed?
How many indexers should we train?
How should potential indexers proceed after initial training?
How can indexers keep the work flowing?
O
ver the last few years, people
have made comments to me
on the four inter-related
questions listed above, and I thought
it might be useful to gather some
ideas.
How many indexers are there/are needed?
It is very difficult to estimate the number of indexers in
Australia and New Zealand. Firstly, not all indexers are
members of ANZSI, and not all ANZSI members are indexers.
Secondly, many people do a bit of indexing in their work, but
do not consider themselves to be indexers. These people
include technical writers, editors, librarians, and authors.
Indexing is now a global business, and potential indexers of
Australian material do not necessarily live in Australia. Some
large Australian publishers outsource work to editorial and
indexing service companies in Malaysia and the Philippines. It
is also possible for Australian indexers to seek work overseas,
although this seems to happen more on a one-off basis than as
a regular occurrence (while outsourcing work away from
Australia is more likely to be a large-scale operation, if it
happens at all).
My personal experience suggests that at times there are too
many indexers seeking work (and we have downtimes) and at
other times there are too few indexers available for the work
required. I know of jobs that have been offered to more than
ten indexers before someone was found who was free to take
them on.
How many indexers should we train?
John Simkin in his editorial in the ANZSI Newsletter (v. 5, n. 4,
May 2009, p.1) discussed supply and demand in training,
noting that we train people when branches perceive the
demand for training, rather than when we have evaluated an
industry need for indexers.
Both indexers and potential indexers have suggested that
we shouldn’t train more indexers as there is not enough work
for them to do. Training too many means that existing indexers
struggle to fill their schedules, and the new trainees waste time
and money attempting a career in which there is no place for
them.
There are problems with setting an artificial limit on
training numbers. First, there are peaks as well as troughs in
demand for indexers; second, people need the opportunity to
experience the market for themselves, and make their own
decisions; and third, many people who seek training are not
seeking to become freelance indexers, but may be learning
indexing to better do their work as editors, or as authors.
ANZSI members also tend to be older than the average
worker, so ongoing training is needed to replace indexers who
retire or reduce their work load. There are also new fields for
10
indexers to explore (eg, website metadata creation and
taxonomy work), so total demand isn’t just for existing jobs in
traditional publishing. Of course, there may also be a decline
in the demand for indexers over time if search functions
replace book indexes. Neither the ups nor downs are easy to
predict.
My experience in teaching a range of students is that of
every 10 students attempting indexing, most are good, but one
is eminently suited to the task. An important part of training is
to ensure that this student has the chance to learn.
In addition to basic training, we also need ongoing training
in specialist areas for those who want to expand the fields they
are able to provide indexing services in.
How should potential indexers proceed after
initial training?
While the introductory ANZSI courses are crucial, for most
indexers they will not be enough. The intermediate/practical
courses offered by various branches provide the next step in
training, as they give people experience working on a real
book. Similarly, the mentoring programs run in the past by the
Victorian branch and ANZSI Council, and currently by the
New Zealand branch, and group projects from the ACT
Branch, fill this same need. ANZSI Council is also looking at
options to expand the range of training opportunities available
to indexers throughout Australia.
In this electronic age, no indexer need feel isolated. There
are many options for following and initiating discussions on
mailing lists relating to indexing in general, software programs,
and student experiences. There are also many books and
websites to be read and self-directed exercises to do.
Participation on a committee and attendance at meetings
provides face-to-face contact.
There are also some ‘real-life’ ways of getting experience:
• employment (limited to a small number of companies
which employ full-time or part-time indexers);
• apprenticeship;
• paid mentoring;
• collegial sharing.
Apprenticeship arrangements involve the beginner indexer
working with an experienced indexer on a project, with the
beginner doing most of the leg work, and the experienced
indexer providing ongoing advice and quality control, with the
payment being divided according to agreement. These
arrangements are not common, probably because most
indexers like to know that the output they create is all their
own, and because in busy times it can be quicker to finish a job
yourself than to guide someone else through it.
Another option is for beginner indexers to pay experienced
indexers an hourly rate for advice. This works best when the
beginner indexer has found a paid job, but needs some
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
guidance through certain steps in the indexing process
(perhaps starting with quoting). It may be that the first job
requires six hours advice, the next three, the next two, and then
just the occasional phone call. Not many indexers offer these
services, but when used it appears to be an approach that works
well for both helper and helpee. One beginner indexer wrote:
‘Mentoring has provided me with the primary source of help
and guidance in indexing since I started indexing some two
years ago ... if it wasn’t for the help of my mentor I would have
dropped indexing work long ago.’
Similarly, Pilar Wyman (2009, p.22), in Starting an
indexing business wrote ‘Consulting with an expert is also an
excellent option. In fact, paying for expert assistance early on
in your indexing career can pay off: You will reap the benefits
of learning, and your customers will receive a better product
and be more likely to hire you again.’
In addition, indexers are in general a helpful group of
people, willing to offer advice to colleagues. Even after 20 years
indexing I find there are areas in which I need to ask
experienced colleagues for advice. The only problem is, there is
a limit to the degree to which experienced indexers can help all
beginners. As one indexer pointed out, ‘It’s hard to make it
worthwhile for the mentor’.
How can indexers keep the work flowing?
The first, second and third proper, paid indexing jobs are
crucial for the beginner who is trying to get established as an
indexer. It doesn’t end there, however, and freelance indexers
have an ongoing challenge to balance their workflow so they
have all the work they need, but not too much to be
manageable. This balancing act is made more difficult because
publishing schedules so often slip, and the indexer can never be
sure that jobs will come when booked.
Most indexers, in my experience, manage their workflow
through having flexible hours, working in the evenings and on
weekends if needed to finish a job. A few subcontract some of
their work, or pair up with another indexer as a team (e.g. one
doing names and one doing subjects for a biography). When
too much work comes, most offer suggestions to the publisher
of colleagues who could take on the work.
Beginner indexers are often advised ‘Don’t give up your day
job’ – at least until you have had a steady flow of work for a
while. Even established indexers may feel more secure with
regular, part-time work in another area, meaning that even if
few index projects are booked for the next quarter, at least
there is some income coming in every week. The downside of
this is that when there is a deluge of indexing work, the
‘security job’ still has to be fitted in.
For job security, it is important to develop a range of
clients, with products including text books, trade books,
annual reports and journals. This means that even if one area
suffers a decline, there should be work in other areas. Journal
indexing can be good for spreading the workflow, as you can
work on issues as they arrive throughout the year (although
you are not usually paid until the end). Retrospective indexing
can be good as it tends to have less strict deadlines.
Specialist areas requiring subject knowledge may rely more
on in-house indexers (e.g. legal looseleaf updating services). To
break into these areas indexers may need to do extra study and
rely on experts for initial training.
Becoming a professional indexer is a multi-step process,
based on training and practical experience gained wherever
possible. Maintaining steady work as an indexer can also be an
ongoing challenge. Everyone has a different history and entry
point into the freelance world, so it would be great to hear
from other indexers about their experiences at getting started
and developing their careers.
Thanks to Mary Coe, Lorraine Doyle, Frances Paterson,
Madeleine Davis, Michael Ramsden, Martin Lindsay, Sherrey
Quinn and Max McMaster for helpful comments.
Glenda Browne, www.webindexing.biz
References: Wyman, L Pilar (2009) ‘The business of being in
business’ in Starting an indexing business 4th ed. Medford, NJ:
American Society of Indexers, pp. 19–36.
Nuggets of Indexing
How about stepping back in time to the Gold Rush era and having some indexing sessions thrown
in. Have you had a look at the Nuggets of Indexing program for 4-6 June at Sovereign Hill in
Ballarat? The cost is $350 for the three days. We even have a program for partners. You only need to
arrange transport and accommodation.
Ballarat is about 11/2 hours from Melbourne by car or train, and there is a range of
accommodation across the road from Sovereign Hill.
Full details at <www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=118>.
Vol. 6, No. 3, April 2010
11
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI)
ANZSI NEWSLETTER
Volume 6, number 4, May 2010
ANZSI News – from New Zealand
A
NZSI News this month has
been written by two
members: Tordis Flath, NZ
Branch founder and current Branch
Vice-President, (pictured at left) and
Robin Briggs, the current Branch
President. Tordis has the first word.
Very often when discussing the
indexing scene, so to speak, with
someone in Australia, I become aware that there are quite
a few differences. I end up saying ‘It’s not like that here’.
So what is it like?
Well, we recently sent our Freelance Directory out to all
the publishers we knew about – roughly 65 publishers.
How does that compare to Australia? How many
publishers are over there? I don’t really know. Work doesn’t
seem to migrate across the Tasman, although I have heard
of Australian indexers being offered work from NZ
publishers. Despite all the talk of how busy Australian
indexers are and how they need to train more indexers, I
don’t know of any NZ indexers who have been offered
work by Australian publishers or had referrals from
Australian indexers. How busy is it really?
Our Freelance Directory contained details of eleven
freelance back-of-the-book indexers. We have about 25
members in New Zealand. Some work in-house or as
librarians and database indexers.
Pay rates seem to be different too. Currently freelance
back-of-the-book indexers get paid between NZ$40–50 per
hour; in-house indexers a lot less. We always have a chuckle
when raising the recommended rate gets discussed. ‘I wish’
is the usual response to whatever the new rate is. After
allowing for the currency conversion, we have to work two
hours or more to pay our yearly subscription, which last
year was still under NZ$100.
There is a lot of talk in Australia about indexing annual
reports and how busy June/July gets as they all have to be
indexed at the end of the financial year by law. Firstly, our
financial year in New Zealand ends 31 March and,
secondly, we have no legal requirement for annual reports
to have an index. I have never indexed an annual report
and don’t know anyone here who has.
There was quite a surge of interest last year when The
Dominion Post published an article on me describing
what I do as an indexer. Suddenly almost a dozen people
enquired about training in indexing. We didn’t get
excited and rush off and organise a course as the odds of
getting all those people together on one day is quite
marginal. The last course the Branch had run made a
loss, and we already had an advanced course scheduled.
Some of those people were so keen they flew to Australia
and did a course over there.
Most of them are now applying to or engaged in a
mentoring project through our NZ Branch Mentoring
Scheme, which we reinitiated since no society-wide
scheme is running at present. We took all references to
registration out as this seemed to be causing some of the
confusion. The scheme here is again running well. Before
we suspended it, we had 12 applications and two
mentoring projects went through. We have had four new
applications, one now well advanced, since we started in
February.
The Branch library has been a useful initiative. When
we are asked how to find out more about indexing and
suggest books on indexing, people sometimes have
difficulty in finding current books. Members can access
our Branch library.
(Continued overleaf )
WHAT’S
INSIDE
Newsletter, Web Manager and Registration details 2
Nuggets of Indexing
3
Indexing Indaba
4
Recipes for success – ACT/NSW conference
5
Tips and hints – Index-L
5
Database indexing at The VIC
6
Cataloguing and indexing for small archives
8
Is knowledge work making us stupid?
9
Recommended rate for book indexing
11
ANZSI and Branch Committee contacts
12
Deadline for the June issue: 28 May
ISSN 1832-3855
PO Box 5062, Glenferrie South VIC 3122, Australia
Newsletter,
Web Manager and
Registration contacts
Editor: Peter Judge
<peter.judge@bigpond.com>
Web Manager: Mary Russell
<russellmf025@ozemail.com.au>
Website: <www.anzsi.org>
ISSN 1832-3855
This newsletter is published monthly 11 times
per year, with combined issues for January/
February. It is sent free to all members of the
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers.
Opinions expressed in the newsletter are those of
the individual contributors, and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of the Society.
It is your newsletter, and we are totally
dependent on contributions, both large and
small, from members. Please contact the editor if
you have any questions about the suitability of
items for publication. The editor reserves the
right to edit or abridge contributions.
Please send files via email in MS Word, .doc
files or .rtf, but NOT .html or .pdf. And please,
no images or footnotes embedded in Word files.
Next deadline
28 May for the June 2010 issue.
Graphics
Image files can be accepted in most common
formats. Do not embed images in text files.
Camera-ready art and photos can be scanned
by the editor. Note that photos need to be
clear, sharp and contrasty if they are to copy
well in black and white.
Advertising charges
Full page A$175; half page A$90; quarter page
A$35; full year 10 for the price of 8.
Membership charges
A$70 per year from 1 Jul 2009.
Institutional membership $95.
Subscriptions to the Newsletter A$55 p.a.
The Indexer
(international indexing journal)
Maureen MacGlashan, Executive Editor
<editor@theindexer.org>.
ANZSI Corresponding Member
Alan Eddy <aeddy2@bigpond.com>
To subscribe at the special rate for indexing society
members, go to <www.theindexer.org> and click
on the subscriptions link.
Registration
Shirley Campbell
Ph +61 2 6248 8297
<shirley.campbell4@bigpond.com> or
<www.anzsi.org/site/registration.asp>
Indexers Available
<www.anzsi.org/site/Indexers_available.asp>
2
(ANZSI News – from New Zealand, continued from page 1)
The industry in New Zealand is
quite small and most of us work parttime around other jobs and/or
commitments. The new people will
help to fill in a few gaps where some
of us get a bit overworked at times.
Mostly the recession meant work
dropped off a lot last year.
We only meet up generally once a
year for the AGM, usually in
Wellington as it is central and until
recently most of our committee were
there. There is a small group of
members meeting in Kapiti (an hour
north of Wellington) at the moment
as I and some of the new members
live there, with a few coming from
Wellington. Other members are
scattered throughout the rest of New
Zealand. We mostly keep in touch
and run the committee during the
year by email,
Tordis Flath
R
the Australian Government felt able
to). One publisher told me he
increasingly had to tell authors to do
their own indexes.
He said a combination of the
recession and the new
print-on-demand
technology had led chain
bookstore companies to
slash their initial orders.
That meant less money upfront, at the least, which
affected budgets.
Some of us have found
work offers picking up, but
there is still some nervousness about
the Government’s virtual freeze on
expenditure, which affects not only
ministries and departments but also
universities and other institutions.
Publishers are also wondering about
the effect of the rise in GST expected
in the Budget this month (admittedly
along with some personal tax cuts).
Books on New Zealand history
and the country’s natural (or nonhuman) and Polynesian worlds have
always been popular and, as in several
other countries, there’s been a boom
in cultural, ethnic, local and family
histories in the past decade.
However, the involvement of
professional indexers is mixed. The
(now gone) Labour Government set
up a Ministry of Culture and
Heritage (with the Prime Minister its
Minister), and it has published several
excellent books and at times used
first-class freelance indexers. The
National Library does comprehensive
database indexing of periodicals, and
one of our members works on that.
obin Briggs takes up the
account.
Indexing in New Zealand, while a
smaller field than in Australia,
probably covers much the same range
– back of book, database
work and specialist areas
such as legal indexing.
Annual report indexing is
one exception; there may be
others.
The publishing industry
is small but active and
diverse. Players range from
subsidiaries of international
(mainly British) houses through
medium-sized independents and
institutional publishers to small-scale
local operations. Some of the
independents have relationships with
overseas publishers and carry out
projects for them. Occasionally the
New Zealanders initiate and
implement projects for international
readerships.
The quality is generally to
international
standard.
We’ve
grumbled among ourselves recently
about a couple of important
biographies that were published
without indexes, but both were by a
subsidiary of a British company.
Going by comments made by
Americans in online forums, this is
an international problem.
Some fully local books are also
being published without indexes, or
at least professional indexes. The
recession had a considerable effect
last year (and the New Zealand
Government did not implement the
consumer pump-priming measures
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
(ANZSI News – from New Zealand, continued from page 2)
On the other hand, local and family historians rarely
have the money to employ professional indexers, and
some community trusts have less investment money to
subsidise publications. Also, institutions (such as major
libraries) digitising 19th century books generally do so in
PDF form without adding proper indexes. We have put a
foot in this door by specifying unindexed pre-WWI books
for use in our mentoring scheme, and are considering ways
to make more strides.
As Tordis says, very few ‘Australian’ jobs cross the
Tasman, even to those of us on ANZSI’s Indexers Available.
I’ve been approached just twice – by authors, not publishers
– in both cases because I had some experience with
Polynesian subjects and names. In the first case the timing
or logistics were impractical and I referred the writer to her
State ANZSI branch. I did do the second job.
One dimension we have to work in frequently in New
Zealand is that of Maori subjects. Indexing of Maori names
is not as complex or difficult as that of Australian aboriginal
names, but it would be a more common task. It includes
handling of multiple names, spelling variations and the
form of names for alphabetising. Methods have varied over
the years and, although they are cohering, there is still some
inconsistency. We had a session on this in our advanced
book indexing course last year.
The New Zealand Branch was established in 2005.
Membership is scattered up and down the country. Even
the current committee’s homes range from Helensville, north
of Auckland, to Dunedin in the lower South Island. We
began with enthusiastic organisers in or near the two main
cities, Auckland and Wellington, but the enthusiasm faded,
particularly in Auckland, and in 2008 the Branch almost
went into recess. However, Jill Gallop, Tordis Flath, Susan
Brookes and a few others kept it going and we’re on our feet
again.
Since 2005, the Branch has held training courses in
several parts of the country. In the first three years they were
taken by Max McMaster, to whom we owe considerable
thanks for our development. Besides basic and intermediate
courses, one was on newspaper and magazine indexing. At
the advanced book indexing course last year our tutors, if not
exactly home-grown, were at least long-time NZ residents
(Tordis, with small contributions by me). However, because
our membership and the indexing workforce as a whole are
widely spread, it is difficult to hold these without losing
money. Last year’s advanced course just broke even.
We are also trying to raise consciousness of professional
indexing and ANZSI in the publishing and record-keeping
fields. Our Freelance Directory was partly designed for that.
Another avenue is giving presentations at meetings of
relevant organisations – those of historians, archivists, etc.
We value our membership of ANZSI and look forward
to continued involvement.
Robin Briggs
Nuggets of Indexing
Vic Branch Seminar, Ballarat, 4–6 June
Just a few weeks until our weekend at Sovereign Hill, which all ANZSI members and partners are invited to attend.
There’ll be workshop sessions including quoting for indexing work and annual report indexing. There’ll be talks
on everything from indexing for local history societies to what happened at the ASI Conference in May. And last
but not least there’ll be fun, including a tour of the Gold Mine and the Blood on the Cross show.
All you’ll need to arrange is your own accommodation and transport. The cost is $350 for delegates and $200
for partners. Get in early as bookings made after 28 May, will incur an extra charge of $50. For full details, online
secure payment and suggestions for transport and accommodation arrangements visit the webpage:
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=118>.
Nikki Davis
Branch events
Date & time
Organiser
Name of activity
Venue
Contact details
Tues 18 May
7.00 pm
Qld Branch
General meeting
Library,
Carindale
Shopping Centre
William S Kitson: 'Playing football for the
Cockroaches: the history of Queensland's southern
border'. Contact <brown5moira@yahoo.com.au>
details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=140>
Fri–Sun
4–6 June
Vic Branch
Nuggets of
Indexing Seminar
Sovereign Hill
Ballarat
details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=118>
Sat 24 July
ACT and NSW
Branches
Recipes for Success
Conference
Craigieburn
Resort, Bowral
Contact <sueflaxman@bigpond.com>
Program and full details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=147>
Vol. 6, No. 4, May 2010
3
Indexing Indaba
Indexing hub
A
recently created hub on
the Hub Pages website
<http://hubpages.com/
hub/How-to-make-moneyfrom-home-as-a-bookindexer>, is bringing a little bit
of attention to the indexing
profession. Written by a Welsh
indexer with the user name
WriteAngled,
it
includes
information on why indexes are
important, why machines can’t do the job, training,
indexing software, finding work, embedded indexing,
and types of materials indexed. There is also a link to a
YouTube interview with a book indexer.
It’s difficult to know how much demand for training
ANZSI will get out of this, but along with SI and ASI,
the society gets promoted in this regard. This being
ANZSI’s year of the Annual Report, it’s good to see that
she hasn’t forgotten this area either.
From comments left, it appears that a few more people
in the world now appreciate the human input that goes
into indexes.
Indexless books
Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue, published without an index,
continues to attract commentary. It came under scrutiny
from Maureen McGlashan in the March 2010 edition of
The Indexer. Of course, this is not a new problem and
perhaps this is a good time to revisit what Henry B
Wheatley wrote about it in 1902 in his book How to make
an index, particularly the suggestions on what to do with
those who offend.
As a little aside, we probably all owe Mr Thoms,
mentioned below, a small debt of gratitude for being the
first person to propose the formation of an indexing
society.
‘It has been said that a bad index is better than no index at
all, but this statement is open to question. Still, all must agree
that an indexless book is a great evil. Mr J H Markland is the
authority for the declaration that ‘the omission of an index
when essential should be an indictable offence.’ [Thomas]
Carlyle denounces the publishers of books unprovided with
this necessary appendage; and [John] Baynes, the author of the
Archaeological Epistle to Dean Mills (usually attributed to
Mason), concocted a terrible curse against such evil-doers. The
reporter was the learned Francis Douce, who said to Mr [W J]
Thoms: ‘Sir, my friend John Baynes used to say that the man
who published a book without an index ought to be damned
ten miles beyond Hell, where the Devil could not get for
stinging-nettles. Lord Campbell proposed that any author
who published a book without an index should be deprived of
the benefits of the Copyright Act; and the Hon. Horace
Binney LL D, a distinguished American lawyer, held the same
4
views, and would have condemned the culprit to the same
punishment. Those, however, who hold the soundest views
sometimes fail in practice; thus Lord Campbell had to
acknowledge that he himself sinned before the year 1857.’
Magpies and indexing
At the ISC/SCI annual general meeting and conference
in June 2009, Katherine Barber from Oxford University
Press (Canada) gave a talk in which she found some
interesting links between magpies and indexing.
The word ‘pie’ is derived from the French word ‘pie’
and the Latin word ‘pica’ before that. The word ‘mag’ was
added, forming the word ‘magpie’ which describes a bird
that collects bits of this and that to take back to its nest.
Hence, indexers can be described as human magpies,
collecting pieces of a book to put into their index nest.
The humble pie also has a link, being baked from
various foods into one pie crust. Also known as ‘pies’,
were reference books of feast days – apart from being
index-like in their structure, the black and white pages
mimic the magpie’s colouring.
Lastly geographical indexes or gazetteers, derive their
name from the Italian word gazette which was a 17th
century newspaper sold for a gazeta (a small Venetian
coin). This came from the word gazza which is the Italian
word for ‘magpie’!
ISC/SCI magpie pins are now available for purchase
by contacting <hlebbs@gmail.com>.
UC Berkeley Extension indexing course
Congratulations to Max McMaster whose skill and
experience in indexing training has been recognised with
his appointment as an instructor for this course. See
<http://extension.berkeley.edu/cat/course394.html>.
Nikki Davis
T
his is the new ANZSI
banner, to be used at
Vic Branch functions.
Based on the bookmark, it
is free-standing and two
metres high – you won’t
be able to miss it!
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
NSW and ACT Branches of ANZSI invite members
to participate in a one-day Conference
Recipes for success: indispensables in the office and the kitchen
Cooks who index, indexers who cook: an interactive workshop
Saturday 24 July, at the Craigieburn Resort
Centennial Road, Bowral, NSW
11.45 for 12.00 start (includes working lunch of sandwiches and drinks)
Sherrey Quinn and Lynn Farkas outline their session in these words ...
D
on’t be misled – this workshop will primarily address basic indexing principles and practice.
It will be invaluable to all indexers, not just those interested in cooking. We have planned a
very practical session around what we (and the participants) as cooks think would be useful
in cookbook indexing, augmented by advice from the experts who actually do it!
In the introductory session we will introduce the general principles of indexing (especially as they
relate to cookbook indexing) and criteria for good cookbook indexes. There will be group discussion
of content, style, presentation, entry points etc, with reference to cookbooks that illustrate the
principles, have different styles of index or don’t seem to conform to any standards.
During a practical session we will ask small teams to index a selection of recipes, then we will
compare approaches and results. We’ll collate your favourite recipes to distribute to all participants as
the NZSI Workshop Cookbook – complete with the index you have created!
Following afternoon tea, Essential ingredients: a panel session for all participants will challenge
you to reveal the indexing aids you could not live without. In the evening, participants are welcome to
bring spouses/partners to dinner at Montfort’s, the Craigieburn restaurant. There will be opportunities
for informal discussion and networking with other ANZSI members.
You can find the complete program and full details on tha ANZSI website at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=147>
Inquiries to Sue Flaxman,
, <sueflaxman@bigpond.com>.
Tips and hints: searching the Index-L discussion list archives
Y
ou are in the middle of indexing a book and have a
dilemma, how do you handle the indexing of
something. You rummage in your indexing
resources and still no real guidance. Where can you go for
ideas?
Index-L is a public, un-moderated email list that
intends to promote good indexing practice. While it has
a large American membership, it is international. It can
generate a lot of email traffic in a month, sometimes as
many as 750. So you may want to think about receiving
that many emails before you subscribe. You can read the
discussions at <http://lists.unc.edu/read/?forum=index-l>.
The most useful feature is your ability to search the
archives.
Max McMaster had a dilemma when he was indexing
a pregnancy book and had a see reference conundrum.
He was wondering what order the list of twins, triplets
and quadruplets should be after the entry ‘multiple births
see ...’. He sent an email to Index-L. Doing this is a bit
like asking a room full of indexers what they think. You
will get responses from the most vocal in the group. As
Vol. 6, No. 4, May 2010
we have learnt in indexing there is not necessarily one
correct answer, so the responses you get could give you
several leads on how to approach the dilemma.
Let’s pretend you didn’t subscribe to Index-L and
wondered if someone else had had this dilemma. You do
not need to belong to the list to search the archives. Open
the list (<http://lists.unc.edu/read/?forum=index-l>) in
your web browser. Using the search button on the left
hand side of the screen, type in ‘see reference’. This will
display a list of items that discuss see and see also
references. You need to press the next button at bottom
right several times to see the responses to Max’s question.
Another way to search the archives is to use the Search
button on the left hand side, but this time click on the
Advanced Search link. This will enable you to limit or
expand your search to the entire message, body or header
and also to exclude words. Using Max’s example you can
type in ‘Twins’ to get to the responses directly.
So next time you have a dilemma, consider searching
the archives of Index-L for guidance.
Mary Russell
5
Database indexing at The VIC
A
larger than usual group of indexers gathered for
the monthly meeting of The VIC (the Victorian
Indexing Club) in April to discuss database
indexing. Database indexing can have many names.
Glenda Browne and Jon Jermey includes it amongst the
names, collection indexing, bibliographic unit indexing,
open-system indexing, and continuing indexing1. Other
names that come to mind, include periodical indexing
and multiple document indexing. The variation of names
indicates that this style of indexing is used to index a
variety of materials and for a variety of audiences and in a
variety of institutions. We find indexers using these skills
working for research organisations, universities,
government departments, museums, galleries and many
other organisations.
The discussions focussed on periodical or collection
indexing which started formally many years ago. Towards
the end of 19th century, periodical indexes began to
emerge, the first being Poole’s Index to periodical
literature, which began publication in 1882. In the social
sciences, Psychological Abstracts commenced late
nineteenth century. The Institution of Electrical
Engineers (now IET) first published Science Abstracts in
1898 and Physics Abstracts from 1903. Early in the 20th
century, Wilson’s Education Index commenced in 1925.
In Australia, the Australian Education Index commenced
in 1954 along with the Australian Public Affairs
Information Service and the Australian Science Index about
the same time. These indexes were produced in print
format and researchers and librarians searched through
the monthly, quarterly and annual volumes for relevant
articles.
The introduction of computer systems and interactive
online searching of machine readable databases in the
1960s profoundly transformed both searching and
indexing.
Medline, the US medical index was one of the first to
establish a searchable database, followed by many others.
Inspec (published by IET) celebrated its 40th anniversity
in 2009 and in 2008, reached its 10-millionth item
added to the database. In Australia AUSINET – hosting
APAIS, Australian Education Index, Australian Transport
Index etc – commenced in the seventies. Currently in
Australia INFORMIT, <www.informit.com.au/indexes.html>,
managed by RMIT Publishing, hosts a wide range of
databases produced by research organizations, the National
Library of Australia, universities and government
departments.
Differences from back-of-book indexing
Database indexing is different from back-of-book
indexing. The database indexer analyses and records the
description and content of the book, article or report as a
whole for inclusion in a database in order to assist the
6
searcher to locate books, articles and reports on specific
topics from within a specified collection of works.
However, there is much similarity. In both cases the
indexer is creating a finding aid for the reader. With backof-book indexing, the indexer can be creative as to how
they do that and use the language in the text; with
database indexing the indexer has to follow rules and use
a controlled vocabulary or thesaurus for subject analysis.
Susan Klement refers to open-system indexing (often
known as periodical indexing or database indexing) and
closed-system indexing commonly called book or back-ofbook indexing. She provides an interesting three page table
differentiating the two main indexing processes.2
Harry Diakoff gives us ‘The primary objective of the
database indexer is to help the reader find entire
documents, typically journal articles, on specific topics
within some large document collection’ ; that of the ‘Back
of book indexer is to help the reader locate specific topics
within a single, usually lengthy, document’.3
Composition of databases and entries
Each database will require
• a policy for the selection of materials for
inclusion and scope of coverage which will take
into consideration the intended audience,
organisation and subject.
• a record structure containing all the essential
elements to describe the material. If a
publication, these may be author, title, source of
work (eg journal, book, conference paper, thesis,
web document, etc), date of publication, size or
pagination, publisher, notes, abstract)
• software for maintaining the database
• methods for constructing and maintaining the
database
• format of database output – online, CD-ROM.
Subject analysis of document / selection of
subject keywords
Controlled vocabularies have always played an important
role in indexing in order to maintain consistency in
subject terms. In most cases, indexers primarily apply or
assign terms taken from a prescribed / standard
vocabulary to the documents they are indexing. It is usual
that the vocabulary is developed into a thesaurus and
made available to the searchers in order to assist
searching. There was much discussion on the format and
use of the thesaurus in indexing using two Australian
thesauri, Australian Thesaurus of Education Descriptors
(Australian Council for Educational Research) and
APAIS Thesaurus (National Library of Australia) as
examples. Both thesauri are updated to reflect the
changes and use of terminology in the literature and
everyday useage. The structure of terms and relationships
linking with other terms were explored, starting with the
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
(Database indexing at The VIC, continued from previous page)
elements of the term, such as Term, Scope notes, Used for
links, Use links for preferred terms, See also links to
narrower, broader and related terms. Classic texts on the
compilation and maintenance of thesauri are Atkinson J,
Gilchrist A and Bawden D (2000) Thesaurus construction
and use : a practical manual. 4th ed. London, ASLIB IMI.
and Guidelines for the Construction, Format and
Management of Monolingual Thesauri (2005) ANSI/
NISO Z39.19. Bethesda Md : NISO Press.
This overview of database indexing touched on the
forthcoming registration for database indexers by ANZSI
and employment in this area. The number of periodical
and publication databases is very extensive – check any
university or research library website and check the list of
Australian databases available through RMIT
INFORMIT. We know little about the quantity of non
literature databases that are compiled and maintained in
museums, galleries, government departments, etc. From
this we can deduce that there are large teams of
experienced indexers who work both in-house and as self-
Vol. 6, No. 4, May 2010
employed contractors to keep these databases current and
consistent. We look forward to discussions with more of
these indexers who have much to share about databases
and the practical aspects of database construction and
entry format. It was also agreed that further discussions
on subject analysis and language usage in both database
indexing and back-of-book indexing would be
welcomed.
For further information see the ANZSI webpage on
thesaurus at <www.anzsi.org/site/res-thesaurus.asp>.
Margaret Findlay
1. Browne, Glenda and Jermey, Jon (2007) The Indexing
Companion. Cambridge University Press p. 30.
2. Klement, Susan (2002). Open-system versus closed-system
indexing : a vital distinction The Indexer v 23 n 1, pp. 23–31.
3. Diakoff, Harry (2004) Database indexing: yesterday and
today. The Indexer, v 24 n 2, pp. 85–96.
7
Cataloguing and indexing for small archives
N
etworking and an early supper were first on the
agenda on the evening of 20 April last, when the
Queensland Branch General Meeting was held
at the Carindale Library. Our guest speaker was a well
known and highly respected archivist, Elisabeth Wheeler.
Elisabeth is currently School Archivist at the Brisbane
Girls Grammar in Brisbane. The school records date from
1875, when the new State of Queensland was just 16
years old, so any archivist working at the school would be
handling many formats of records, spanning some 135
years.
Elisabeth explained to us that we need to know the
What, the Why and the How of each record or artefact,
to be able to understand how to process it. The ‘What’
explains what the record, document, artefact or image is
and its ‘enduring’ value to a community or society or
even to particular individuals. The ‘Why’ covers the
‘provenance’ or creator or origin of the record, followed
by the ‘How’ or the original order or sequence of the
records, i.e. the ‘Respect des Fonds’.
Elisabeth then listed for us the fundamental archival
principles and practices. These cover the accession listing,
followed by the in-depth cataloguing of each document
or image. Cataloguing referred firstly to the I.D. ‘series’
or group of the record, for example, Board Minutes, and
to this was added the agents, i.e. the Trustees of the
Board, and the ‘context’ of the record, meaning what was
the function of the minutes. Finally, ‘metadata fields’
would be added to complete the cataloguing process,
adding the author, classification, subjects/keywords,
format, location, source and related records to each entry
in the database.
Elisabeth has a Masters of Information Management
& Systems from Monash University. She has had a varied
career, working in archives and record keeping for over
two decades. Before that she was a librarian in
government and has been a trainer in information
management. She now works part time as a consultant
for both private and public businesses. She has
established archives for government and other
organisations large and small, including the RACQ and
Lourdes Hill College, Brisbane.
The role of the archives is to preserve and make
available original source material as evidence of human
actions and culture. The role of the archivist is to
appraise, organise, arrange and describe (catalogue +
index) and to provide access to these same original
materials.
An experienced archivist is a very valuable person in
the community. A trained and skilled archivist is able to
process and preserve documents and artefacts from our
past because they understand their value in our history
and they care if these items are preserved. It is a role for a
determined, dedicated professional and Elisabeth
Wheeler is just that.
Elisabeth’s informal style of presentation allowed
questions throughout the evening. Queensland Branch
members and a QUT Masters of Library Science student
thoroughly enjoyed a very informative evening from this
well known and highly respected archivist, and we are
most appreciative of the time and trouble she took on our
behalf.
Moira Brown, President of Queensland Branch of ANZSI
(information taken from Elizabeth’s PowerPoint)
(from left to right) Sandy Liddle, Elizabeth Wheeler, Beryl Macdonald,
Moira Brown and Corrie-Anne Sarafian
8
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
Is knowledge work making us stupid?
I
ndexers might be surprised at the amount of attention
afforded their area of work in Matthew B. Crawford’s
book Shop class as soulcraft: An inquiry into the value of
work. His personal work history is a broad one, having
worked as an electrician, an indexer and abstractor at
Information Access Company, an executive director of a
think tank and most recently as a motorcycle mechanic.
Crawford examines his own experience of indexing and
abstracting work in order to understand why it is that he
finds manual work more intellectually satisfying. Most
pointedly, he questions the progressive decline of shop
class programs in the US (with parallels in Australia) and
the devaluing of trade occupations during the last two
decades, in favour of ‘knowledge work’.
He suggests that knowledge work, aided by electronics
and the recent trend in engineering towards hiding the
inner workings of everyday devices, appears to be
increasingly removing us from ‘hands on’ experiences.
This in turn has seen a dramatic shift in our thinking
from ‘knowing how’ to ‘knowing that’ resulting in, most
notably, a loss of mechanical competence. Without such
competence, he wonders, how clever are we are in fact
becoming?
I’m not sure how many late model Mercedes driving
indexers there are, but the absence of dipsticks in these
vehicles provides a perfect example of the sort of
disengagement that Crawford talks about. When it comes
to oil levels, Mercedes drivers now rely on an interface
which is in reality just a smarter looking version of the
old ‘idiot light’. That term, of course, has been dropped.
‘By some inscrutable logic, idiocy gets recast as something
desirable,’ Crawford says.
Indexers and manual engagement
With these ideas in mind, I was interested to know where
indexers lay in the realm of hands-on stuff and
mechanical engagement. I posted a message on Index-L
about the type of handwork engaged in and whether
there were any differences perceived in the sort of
thinking required for headwork (i.e. indexing) and
handwork.
The response was enormous and indicated that
indexers are engaged in hand activities that include clay
and pottery work, painting, drawing, photography,
feltmaking, papermaking, scrapbooking, various forms of
sewing, knitting, weaving, jewellery making, beadwork,
mosaics, gardening, cooking, furniture making, building
work and the playing of musical instruments.
Knitting was by far the most common form of activity
named. The new ‘cutting edge chic’ status of this craft
does not escape Matthew Crawford’s attention. He
wonders if ‘getting an adequate grasp on the world,
intellectually, depends on getting a handle on it in some
literal and active sense’. Writing in the wake of the global
financial crisis, he sees activities like knitting fitting
neatly into the new trend towards frugality, the results of
which bring about that sense of self reliance, or of ‘being
the master of one’s own stuff ’, that appears in recent
decades to have been eroded.
In terms of ideas on ‘thinking’, many respondents saw
direct links between their indexing work and their
handwork. Artist Ellen Chapman said that like indexing,
her artwork ‘requires some organising principles in
general and often particular ones’. Dona Roell’s thoughts
on cross stitching echoed the thoughts of many engaged
in needlecraft work. She said that both ‘require patience,
enjoyment of detailed work, as well as the ability to
perform detailed work’.
Some clearly saw their handwork as less intellectually
taxing. Susan Cohen wrote that needlepoint ‘occupies my
mind without my having to think about anything’ while
Mary Wendt said, ‘98% of my knitting is mindless’.
Perhaps it depends on the nature of the task at hand,
but from my own practice of quiltmaking, I experience
elements of both. I could relate to Jane Purton’s
description of the challenge of designing a quilt that
‘brings to bear long forgotten geometry skills and colour
coordination, not always easy’. But I also knew exactly
what another quilter, Mary Stevens meant when she
wrote of enjoying the less challenging but ‘meditationinducing rhythm of pushing and pulling needle and
thread’. Quite a few respondents used the word
‘meditation’ in relation to their handwork.
Tactile elements of handwork were important to
some. Sonsie Conroy described her yarns as ‘pettable’
while Dianne Brenner spoke of ‘pleasing textures’ in her
rug hooking and beading and Mary Stevens said she
enjoyed ‘the tactile experience of handling fabric’.
Noeline Bridge was the only one who said it, but I
suspect that for most indexers her words would ring true.
‘I often find solutions to indexing problems and get
perspective on my projects when my hands are busy.’
Tools and machinery
While most respondents wrote of activities that involve
the use of tools and in some cases machinery, only one
indexer, Catharyn Martz, a scrapbooker, specifically said,
‘I enjoy working with all the tools.’
Dick Evans doesn’t do as much woodworking as he
used to, but clearly he still loves the tools. He wrote that
‘mostly these days I just buy tools and rearrange them in
my shop’.
‘Knowing how’ thinking was well demonstrated by
Jodi Kaye when she described the mechanics of her
jewellery making. ‘It definitely takes head work and
precision, for example, if I want the metal to move that
(continued overleaf )
Vol. 6, No. 4, May 2010
9
(Is knowledge work making us stupid? continued from page 9)
way, where do I hit it with the hammer? How long do I
leave the flame on the melting solder to avoid burning a
hole in the piece?’
Kay Dusheck wrote of the vast array of manual
activities in her work as a farmer, including the harvesting
of crops, ‘which means lots of machinery operation’.
Tools of course come in many forms, including the
sometimes not so humble food processor. Sylvia Coates
described hers as ‘heavy machinery’ that ‘requires an
engineering degree to operate’.
Few indexers would engage with the sort of machinery
that Bob Schwarz does, working as a locomotive
engineer. He likened some aspects of indexing –
planning, anticipation, organisation, and leaving some
‘slack’ (a term derived from railroading) – to driving a
train. He wrote, ‘The satisfaction of planning smooth
acceleration, speed changes, and eventual stopping of a
5–10,000 ton train through curves and up and down hills
over a number a miles is, in a way, analogous [to
indexing].’
Technical writing
Matthew Crawford expresses some dismay at the way that
motorcycle manuals, once written by engineers with
mechanical and drafting skills, are now being produced
by technical writers with no practical knowledge of
motorbikes. In fact, he is pretty harsh on technical
writers, emphasising that they ‘know that, but they don’t
know how’. One technical writer who answered my
query, Beth Baillie, was also one of the most manually
active respondents. Besides enjoying the ‘softer’
needlecrafts, she does woodworking, building, painting,
upholstery and heavy gardening. She wrote, ‘If I return to
work on Monday without achy muscles and dirt in my
callouses or lingering remnants of paint or stain on my
hands, I don’t appreciate my desk job nearly so much.’
Rules-based work vs situated work
Knowledge workers, including indexers, in countries
such as the US, the UK and Australia have been
expressing concern at their ‘rules-based’ work being sent
offshore to countries with populations of well-educated
people that speak English and who are prepared to work
for lower rates. It is now commonly understood that as
long as the rules are known, the work can be done
anywhere.
Just as the Princeton economist Alan Blinder, who
said ‘you can’t hammer a nail over the internet’, Crawford
believes that job security in the future lies in the ‘situated’
manual occupations that became devalued with the rise
of knowledge work. As he says, ‘If you need a deck built,
or your car fixed, the Chinese are of no help. Because they
are in China.’
Ironically, one of the few respondents that wrote of
her skills in situated manual work, Teri Jurgens Lefever,
10
didn’t fit this mould. Admittedly, the output of her work
could be classified as non-essential and perhaps even a
luxury, but she wrote, ‘Before becoming an indexer, I did
faux finishing and decorative painting and plastering.
When the economy went south, demand for my business
fell to almost nothing.’
The joy of handwork
Matthew Crawford writes, ‘I once built a mahogany
coffee table on which I spared no expense or effort. At
that time I had no immediate prospect of becoming a
father, yet I imagined a child who would form indelible
impressions of this table and know that this was his
father’s work.’
Dick Evans tapped directly into Crawford’s thinking
with his own joy at a shaker cradle he made when his
niece was born. He wrote, ‘She’s now in her forties. My
second niece was rocked in it, and then her two kids. It’s
nice to see something I did becoming part of family
history.’
I’ve always felt a small sense of ownership over my
indexes, so I was interested by Rae Rice’s comment that
with her handwork she gets ‘a pretty visual when I’m
done and something to show friends and family, or give
to them, which I don’t get from an index.’ Dianne
Brenner similarly, liked that her handwork was
something to ‘keep’.
Another interesting response came from Dianna
Haught who has found active ways of engaging with her
intellectual interest in the Medieval period. There
probably aren’t too many indexers who can claim to have
cooked ‘period documented 5–7 course medieval feasts
for 65–100 people’.
Focal practices
Crawford also examines ‘focal practice’, a term coined by
the philosopher Albert Borgmann to mean ‘the decided,
regular, and normally communal devotion to a focal
thing’. Many of the activities already mentioned are good
examples of focal practices, for example, gardening, a
common interest of the respondents, which Borgmann
specifically cites as a focal practice. Some indexers also
wrote of activities that did not produce physical or
tangible outputs but which also resulted in ‘skilled and
active human engagement’.
Borgmann places heavy emphasis on music making as
a focal practice. This is as opposed to the passive use of
technological devices such as iPods, to listen to music.
Matthew Crawford believes that fewer people are playing
musical instruments these days.
Three respondents were bellringers, including Pauline
Sholtys who plays in a handbell choir. She described the
communal element of this activity, ‘You are all literally
(continued oppposite)
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
(Is knowledge work making us stupid? continued from previous page)
parts of one instrument and need to get in sync with each
other; you’re working toward a common goal; and during
all the practicing and performing, you form close
relationships with your fellow ringers.’
Other respondents wrote that they played the
recorder, the Native American flute and finger cymbals.
Dancing activities included contra dancing, authentic
movement and belly dancing.
Some indexers were also engaged in sporting activities
including horse riding, soccer, doubles tennis and
curling, the sport that we all discovered at the recent
Winter Olympics is ‘sexy’. All of these involve ‘thinking
by doing’ activity which Heather Ebbs described perfectly
when she wrote of her involvement with soccer, ‘one
doesn’t think so much as intuit, act and react.’
Balancing headwork and handwork
By asking my question on Index-L, I did not set out to
challenge Matthew Crawford’s assertions because
I believe there to be a measure of truth in some of them.
In fact, his book was not mentioned at all in my query.
But it seemed to me from the indexers who responded,
that manual engagement was not missing from their lives.
Overwhelmingly, they appeared to have a need for
some balance between headwork and handwork. This is
evident in Bob Schwarz’s words on the difference in
experience between driving trains and indexing academic
books. ‘Indexing is quite important to me as an outlet for
a kind of intellectual creativity I don’t find in driving a
train. But operating a locomotive requires a set of skills
and a thought process, as well as giving a kind of
satisfaction, that I did not find in a previous job working
in a small publishing house.’
The last word goes to Tordis Flath, who said this of
her involvement in a variety of art and craft activities, ‘the
joy of it is not thinking, not analysing, not organising.
When I index, these are all the skills I use. To balance,
I need to use both sides of my brain equally. I tried doing
one then the other but it didn’t work – I need both in my
life.’
With thanks to the many indexers who responded to
my query.
Nikki Davis
References:
Crawford, M 2009, Shop class as soulcraft: an inquiry into
the value of work, Penguin, New York.
Borgmann, A 1984, Technology and the character of
contemporary life, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Recommended rate for book indexing
A
NZSI’s recommended rate for book indexing has
not been evaluated since 2007, and Council
decided it was time for the issue to be revisited.
ANZSI’s recommended rates since 2001 have been as
follows:
- 2001 rate was $44/hr
- 2004 rate was $55/hr
- 2007 rate set at $60/hr (not including GST)
What rate is appropriate for 2010?
The editors were used as an appropriate benchmark
for comparison. The Institute of Professional Editors
Limited (IPEd) has no recommended rates, but regularly
reports the results of an informal survey conducted after
its conferences. In 2008 the median rate based on
reported actual earnings of editors was $60 per hour, but
the range was very wide, from $34 to $160 an hour. In
July 2009 this median may have increased slightly.
Based on this median, it was recommended that
ANZSI should follow a scale similar to that found in
practice in IPEd, and set a recommended minimum rate
for competent indexers* in 2010 at $65 per hour.
Vol. 6, No. 4, May 2010
This approach still provides flexibility for experienced
indexers to charge a higher rate if they deem it desirable,
whilst trainee indexers may feel more comfortable
charging less.
A note on the ANZSI website provides an explanation
of the term competent indexer, as well as a comment on
flexibility of pricing.
So ANZSI recommends that the minimum rate for a
competent indexer in 2010 is A$65 per hour. The rate
does not include GST.
The rate will be reviewed in 2012.
The New Zealand Branch has approached Council for
the addition of a recommended rate in New Zealand
dollars. This will be discussed at the Council meeting in
mid-May.
Mary Russell
*A competent indexer is one, not necessarily registered, who
can do a reasonably good job of indexing materials put before
them. They are most likely to have completed a number of
indexes. A competent indexer should also be aware of their
limitations, and know when to reject a commission because it
is outside of their level of expertise or knowledge.
11
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI)
ANZSI NEWSLETTER
Volume 6, number 5, June 2010
ANZSI News – Education Policy Committee
T
he
Education
Policy
Committee, chaired by me,
Michael Ramsden, was set
up last year, ‘to develop a draft
policy framework for the provision
and quality assurance of professional education in indexing. The
policy should encompass generalist
and specialist courses and all modes
of delivery, including courses and
mentoring.’
The members of the Committee were Glenda Browne,
Max McMaster, Sherrey Quinn and Michael Ramsden.
Their report was tabled at the March 2010 Council
meeting and comments from Council members were
considered at the May Council meeting. The full report,
numbered 34/035, can be found in the members’ area of
the website at <www.anzsi.org/site/council_mins.asp>.
Here is a summary of the main points of the report and
recommendations.
Education Committee
Council has established an Education Committee to be
responsible for monitoring and developing policy over the
entire field of education and for oversight of courses
offered by the Society. I have been appointed as Chair of
the Committee and will be forming a Committee. The
Chair of the Registration Committee and the Training
Coordinator will be ex officio members of the
Committee.
Education policy
The objectives of the education policy will be to:
(a) take people who are untrained in indexing and bring
them to a level where they are in a position to apply
for registration;
(b) provide tuition in specialised or advanced areas of
indexing;
(c) ensure that tuition is of a satisfactory standard; and
(d) maintain the integrity and standing of any
qualification(s) awarded by the Society.
Courses
• The Society should offer, or arrange the offering of,
the following categories of tuition:
ISSN 1832-3855
(a) Introductory courses, i.e. courses for students
with no previous knowledge or experience in
indexing.
(b) Advanced courses covering a more extensive range
of knowledge and expertise.
(c) Refresher courses, covering the advanced course
material in a quicker way, for persons who have
been out of the profession and wish to update
their expertise.
(d) A process whereby indexers who have completed
the Society’s courses (or their equivalent) may be
assisted to achieve registration.
(e) Specialised courses, i.e. courses in specialised
applications of indexing, e.g. database indexing,
particular forms of material (e.g. journals) or
particular subject areas (e.g. law).
• When offering courses organisers will be asked to
give consideration to how remote members might be
assisted to attend.
• We will continue to offer occasional courses, as at
present, to assist members to reach the level of
competence necessary for the production of a basic
index.
(continued on page 4)
WHAT’S
INSIDE
Newsletter, Web Manager and Registration details 2
The Indexer ... eating humble pie
2
NSW/ACT conference – 24 July
3
Branch events
3
Membership dues for 2010–11
5
Indexing degustation
6
Tips and hints – paper size
7
NSW indexing course
8
Queensland's southern border
9
Indexing see Change: ANZSI Conference 2011 10
ANZSI Medal 2010
10
Indexing on the ABC Book Show
10
Membership renewals
10
Mythical creatures at The VIC
11
ANZSI and Branch Committee contacts
12
Deadline for the July issue: 30 June
PO Box 5062, Glenferrie South VIC 3122, Australia
Newsletter,
Web Manager and
Registration contacts
Editor: Peter Judge
<peter.judge@bigpond.com>
Web Manager: Mary Russell
<russellmf025@ozemail.com.au>
Website: <www.anzsi.org>
ISSN 1832-3855
This newsletter is published monthly 11 times
per year, with combined issues for January/
February. It is sent free to all members of the
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers.
Opinions expressed in the newsletter are those of
the individual contributors, and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of the Society.
It is your newsletter, and we are totally
dependent on contributions, both large and
small, from members. Please contact the editor if
you have any questions about the suitability of
items for publication. The editor reserves the
right to edit or abridge contributions.
Please send files via email in MS Word, .doc
files or .rtf, but NOT .html or .pdf. And please,
no images or footnotes embedded in Word files.
Next deadline
30 June for the July 2010 issue.
Graphics
Image files can be accepted in most common
formats. Do not embed images in text files.
Camera-ready art and photos can be scanned
by the editor. Note that photos need to be
clear, sharp and contrasty if they are to copy
well in black and white.
The Indexer . . .
Eating humble pie
N
o, not those ISC/SCI magpies – and I hope you’ve all ordered
your pins – just the plain, ordinary humble pie of the
humiliated. Back in the January/February ANZSI newsletter
I expressed dismay at the tiny proportion of ANZSI members who subscribed
to The Indexer. The figures got even worse as the renewal season came and
went. What had I done to put you all off?
Quite simply, the renewal reminder system I thought to be automatic
turned out not to be automatic at all, so those of you who had subscribed were
not being reminded that it was time to re-subscribe. I hope we’ve got that
sorted for the future, and (now that reminders have gone out) you are all
rushing to sign on the dotted line. To whet the appetites of both old and new
readers, here’s the contents list for the June issue:
Editorial Maureen MacGlashan
From thesaurus to ontology: the development of the Kaunokki
Finnish fiction thesaurus Jarmo Saarti and Kaisa Hypén
The visual appeal of indexes: an exploration Frances Lennie
The Mandela Portal – how do visitors get there?
Shadrack Katuu and Sello Hatang
Automated indexing: feeding the AutoComplete monster Jon Jermey
Society memberships: to join or not to join Janyne Ste Marie
Around the world Glenda Browne
Letter to the editor Hazel K Bell
Obituary: Geoffrey Dixon
Indexes reviewed Edited by Christine Shuttleworth
Reviews Edited by Christopher Phipps and Michael E. Jackson
Advertising charges
Full page A$175; half page A$90; quarter page
A$35; full year 10 for the price of 8.
Membership charges
Maureen MacGlashan
Editor, The Indexer
A$70 per year from 1 Jul 2009.
Institutional membership $95.
Subscriptions to the Newsletter A$55 p.a.
The Indexer
(international indexing journal)
Maureen MacGlashan, Executive Editor
<editor@theindexer.org>.
ANZSI Corresponding Member
Alan Eddy <aeddy2@bigpond.com>
To subscribe at the special rate for indexing society
members, go to <www.theindexer.org> and click
on the subscriptions link.
Registration
Shirley Campbell
Ph +61 2 6248 8297
<shirley.campbell4@bigpond.com> or
<www.anzsi.org/site/registration.asp>
Footnote: Maureen also told ANZSI that the March issue of The Indexer
would be sent to all those people who have now renewed but missed out earlier
through no fault of their own.
If you have not yet received it and are impatient to read the latest articles by
Glenda Browne et al. you can download it from <www.theindexer.org>. Click
on ‘Online Issues’. Don’t be put off by the sentence saying the latest issues are
only available to those whose subscription includes online access via Ingenta.
Take a note of the username and password offered and follow the instructions
to use the Ingenta facility.
Indexers Available
<www.anzsi.org/site/Indexers_available.asp>
2
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
NSW and ACT Branches of ANZSI invite members
to participate in a one-day Conference
Recipes for success: indispensables in the office and the kitchen
Cooks who index, indexers who cook: an interactive workshop
Saturday 24 July, at the Craigieburn Resort
Centennial Road, Bowral, NSW
11.45 for 12.00 start (includes working lunch of sandwiches and drinks)
Sherrey Quinn and Lynn Farkas outline their session in these words ...
on’t be misled – this workshop will primarily address basic indexing principles and practice. It will be
invaluable to all indexers, not just those interested in cooking. We have planned a very practical session
around what we (and the participants) as cooks think would be useful in cookbook indexing, augmented by
advice from the experts who actually do it!
In the introductory session we will introduce the general principles of indexing (especially as they relate to
cookbook indexing) and criteria for good cookbook indexes. There will be group discussion of content, style,
presentation, entry points etc, with reference to cookbooks that illustrate the principles, have different styles of
index or don’t seem to conform to any standards.
During a practical session we will ask small teams to index a selection of recipes, then we will compare
approaches and results. We’ll collate your favourite recipes to distribute to all participants as the ANZSI
Workshop Cookbook – complete with the index you have created!
Following afternoon tea, Essential ingredients: a panel session for all participants will challenge you to
reveal the indexing aids you could not live without. In the evening, participants are welcome to bring spouses/
partners to dinner at Montfort’s, the Craigieburn restaurant. There will be opportunities for informal
discussion and networking with other ANZSI members.
You can find the complete program and full details on the ANZSI website at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=147>
Inquiries to Sue Flaxman,
, <sueflaxman@bigpond.com>.
D
Branch events
Date & time
Organiser
Name of activity
Venue
Wed 7 July
6.00 pm
Vic Branch
The VIC: The
Argus indexing
project
Kew Holy
Trinity Anglican
Church
Sat 24 July
ACT and NSW
Branches
Recipes for Success
Conference
Craigieburn
Resort, Bowral
Contact <sueflaxman@bigpond.com>
Program and full details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=147>
Wed 4 Aug
2.00 pm
Vic Branch
Visit to Museum
Victoria
Royal Exhibition
Bldg, Carlton
details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=142>
Wed 1 Sept
Vic Branch
ANZSI AGM and
Vic Branch AGM
to be confirmed
details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=146>
Vol. 6, No. 5, June 2010
Contact details
details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=141>
3
(ANZSI News – Education Policy Committee, continued from page 1)
The Society will draw to the attention of members,
through the website, professional level courses available
through reputable educational institutions or
professional societies but without recommending them
as having been assessed by the Society, since the Society
does not have the means to assess or accredit courses.
The Education Committee will have responsibility for
laying down a broad curriculum for each course offered
by the Society, but delivery of the content will be at the
discretion of individual trainers.
Trainers of ANZSI-run courses will seek feedback from
students and the results will be made available to the
Education Committee.
recommendation and a working party will be set up to
develop the details of a scheme.
Mentoring now Tutoring Scheme
The topic that occasioned most discussion in the
Committee was that of mentoring, and no less than 22
paragraphs of the report are dedicated to this matter. In
2009 the Council put the mentoring scheme on hold
pending receipt of recommendations from the Education
Policy Committee. However, the New Zealand Branch has
been operating a scheme not unlike one of the
recommendations that has emerged from the Committee.
The Committee thought the Mentoring Scheme has merit,
especially for members in remote areas, and has chosen to
seek to remodel the scheme. As part of the re-modelling the
scheme will be re-named ‘Tutoring’, which more accurately
conveys its purpose. The objectives of the Tutoring Scheme
would be:
(a) to assist members who have reached the level of being
able to produce a basic index to reach the level of
professional competence necessary to achieve
registration, by improving their work and skills to the
level where they can submit an index of a
commercially acceptable standard. It is not, however,
designed to assist in the production of an index for
submission;
(b) on a targeted basis, i.e. dealing with specific issues as
they arise; and,
(c) established with limited central control.
The Society should recognise two levels of tutoring:
Level 1 Tutoring would not seek to achieve a
commercially acceptable index. It should seek to reinforce
basic indexing skills and knowledge learned through earlier
training courses, either those offered by the Society or other
approved alternatives. This level should aim to provide some
practical indexing of a real world title, but in a noncommercial manner and within a time frame which, while
strict, would be more generous than would apply in the
commercial world.
Level 2 Tutoring would aim to achieve a higher quality of
index than Level 1. Its objective should be to assist students
to achieve a level of expertise appropriate for the production
of an index of a commercially acceptable standard.
Full details of the proposed Tutoring Scheme are outlined
in paragraphs 40-55 of the report. Council accepted this
‘Registered Indexer’ or ‘Professionally Qualified
Indexer’ or ?
With the introduction of Database Registration there has
been a lot of discussion regarding nomenclature to be used as
the indication of competence for indexing print material,
and its equivalent for database indexing. This has lead to
further discussion over the term ‘Registered’ and its
meaning, particularly to those outside the profession. Is
‘Professionally Qualified Indexer’ a suitable alternative? This
discussion is still open and has been referred to the newly
established Education Committee.
•
•
•
4
Professional development
The Education Committee has been requested to examine
the feasibility of a scheme with a focus on professional
development and specialised areas of indexing.
Registration
There is overlap between education and registration, so some
aspects of the Education Policy Report have been deferred
pending the receipt of a report which has been
commissioned from the new Chair of the Registration
Committee.
Indexers Available
As part of the updating to Indexers Available, provision will
be made to enable members to specifically list their indexing
qualifications, in addition to their academic qualifications.
Fellowship
If the Society is to operate as a professional society it would
be appropriate to recognise members who have extensive
experience and/or have contributed significantly to the
profession of indexing. Many professional associations, such
as ALIA, do this by the award of Fellowship and, as members
may be aware, this path will now be followed by SI. ANZSI
may wish to consider following this precedent. The
Committee thought that any award of Fellowship (or other
high recognition) should be in recognition of
accomplishment which could be measured by extensive
experience in producing indexes of a commercially
acceptable standard and contribution to the development of
the profession by means of training and/or publication. The
award would be separate from the award of honorary life
membership. Council did not commit itself to adopting the
idea of a Fellowship but did agree to consider the suggestion
in the context of a review of membership structure which it
plans to undertake next year.
I urge all members to read the report, which is available on
the
ANZSI
website
at
<www.anzsi.org/site/
council_mins.asp>. Anyone who has any comments is very
welcome to contact me. My email address can be found in
the list of contacts on the back page of the Newsletter. I will
be pleased to hear from you.
Michael Ramsden
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
Membership dues for 2010–11
M
embership dues for 2010–11 will be:
Australian members
New Zealand members
Student members
Institutional members
$75
A$68
$40
$100
New Zealand membership dues have been reduced to
bring them more into line with the NZ dollar.
Half-year membership to be
calendar year membership
• Many new members wait until January to pay the
half-year rate so they can get concession rates on
training courses.
• In 2009 half-year memberships represented
about 25 new members.
• Half-year membership often involves more
administration work, as members sometimes pay
$70 and have to be reimbursed for $35 and, as
they only joined to get the member’s price for the
courses, they often don’t renew their membership
in July.
• In previous years some members doing courses in
March/April have been offered 14/15 months
membership for the price of one year.
Council has decided to abolish half-year membership in
favour of calendar year membership for new members.
• It is hoped that having been members for a bit
longer than with the present scheme before
having to renew, they see the benefits of the
ANZSI membership and will renew their
membership.
• This would mean in the future there would be
some members renewing Dec/Jan and others
June/July.
• For current members there will be no change,
your membership will still be due June/July.
• There would be income to Council in Dec/Jan
and June/July instead of just June/July.
• Branches will still get their per capita payments
based on the numbers of members as at
1 October.
• Currently Branches do not receive funds for the
half-year member who chooses not to renew in
July, even though they have had access to branch
services, because they have joined and left before
October membership figures are noted. With the
calendar year system the Branches will get their
per capita payment based on true Branch
membership numbers.
• When memberships fall due, the online database
flags members whose membership is due. A
Vol. 6, No. 5, June 2010
•
program is run that sends to each member a
unique secure payment link. Most members
renew their membership by using the secure link.
They then receive an automatic receipt. Those
choosing to pay by cheque or mail order have
their payment ticked off on the database and
then receive an automatic receipt. For the
Treasure and Membership Secretary this
automatic renewal process has resulted in a huge
reduction in their work load. So having to run
the renewal program twice a year will not involve
much extra work, as the database will keep track
of when members joined and hence when their
membership is due.
To abolish the half-year membership option and
instigate the new calendar-year option requires
constitutional changes that need to be voted on
at the AGM on 1 September.
Rejoining fee
When I was reviewing the membership dues I discovered
there was a provision for a rejoining fee. It appears that
this has never been charged and is therefore redundant in
the Constitution. The removal of this will also be added
to the proposed constitutional changes.
Constitutional changes
At the AGM on 1 September in Melbourne these
proposed changes will need to be voted on. The actual
wording of the changes will be discussed in the Newsletter
near the time of the AGM.
Other ways to raise funds
While these changes will increase Council’s revenue,
Council is looking at other ways to raise funds. Some
suggestions include:
• Branches sponsoring projects for the benefit of all
members. For example Victorian Branch has
printed the ANZSI bookmarks.
• Selling the Indexing your annual report booklet.
• Perhaps charging members a fee for having a
detailed entry in Indexers Available.
I welcome any additional suggestions from members.
The full Membership dues report, numbered 34/035, can
be found in the members’ area of the website at
<www.anzsi.org/site/council_mins.asp>.
Mary Russell
5
Indexing degustation
Indexing on the Book Show!
ur own Mary Russell
appeared on Ramona
Koval’s Book Show on
ABC Radio National, as part of
their Book Makers series. Mary was
interviewed on indexing, a subject
that will come as a great surprise to
some listeners, and a reminder of
the value of a good index to others.
Let us hope the interview generated a surge of interest in
indexing out there in the wilderness. The interview was
aired on 18 May, but if you missed it, the podcast is
available at <www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2010/
2901716.htm> (and see page 10).
O
The Argus goes online
The National Library of Australia is digitising more than
100 Australian newspapers, one of which is Melbourne’s
defunct The Argus (1846–1957), which will be online at
the end of May. A group of volunteers has been working
at the State Library on an index for The Argus archives,
parts of which are already online. When the index is
finished, it will be the first complete index of an
Australian newspaper. An article in The Age alerted me to
the latest on the project at <www.theage.com.au/victoria/
bodies-babies-and-barneys-available-as-argus-goesonline-20100508-ul2v.html>.
For further information, look at the NLA’s page on
the project at <www.nla.gov.au/ndp/>.
Standard Business Reporting (SBR)
Reporting and regulatory requirements for businesses and
other agencies will be simplified in July 2010 when
Australia adopts the Standard Business Reporting (SBR)
model.
The Australian SBR program follows the Netherlands’
model, which involves collaborating across agencies to
agree to develop a single set of definitions and language
for the information reported to government.
At the heart of SBR is a unique and specific Australian
taxonomy, harmonised across participating entities to
simplify business reporting in a standard language which
can be communicated electronically from a business’s
accounting software using a single sign-on, both
externally to government and other agencies and
internally between departments.
The collection of agreed reporting terms is called the
SBR Taxonomy, and has been developed in a technology
standard called XBRL, or eXtensible Business Reporting
Language.
The SBR Taxonomy is a dictionary of harmonised
language, a much needed item The harmonisation results
in the identification of terms which mean the same thing
but have different names, then agrees on a single name,
6
and to identify terms which have the same name but have
different meanings. For example, the term ‘employee’ has
more than 50 legal definitions in Australia. Even worse,
there were nine different names to describe the ABN.
The SBR will be adopted in New Zealand and in
2009 Australia and New Zealand formalised a
Memorandum of Understanding on Standard Business
Reporting, and have ensured that there is an alignment
between the two taxonomies.
The use of the SBR is voluntary but there is no doubt
that the benefits are many. These include a single
reporting language, cost reduction in providing data,
single secure sign-on, opportunity to streamline data
across internal departments, increased interoperability of
information across finance applications, and improved
data quality.
Read more of Paul Madden on the SBR at
< w w w. t re a s u r y. g ov. a u / d o c u m e n t s / 1 6 3 3 / P D F /
1_SBR.pdf>.
Certification for indexers
There is a move afoot in America to set up a certification
process for indexers. It was a surprise to me to learn that
American indexers do not have a registration or
certification scheme as we do. The Institute of Certified
Indexers (ISI) has been created to remedy this:
<www.certifiedindexers.com/index.html>
According to the ISI, certified indexers have had their
work and experience reviewed by the ICI, prepared a test
index on a complex text, and demonstrated knowledge of
and adherence to indexing best practices. Certified
indexers must take part in continuing education and be
recertified every three years.
The founders of the venture are Enid Zafran, Frede
Leise, Kate Mertes and Pilar Wyman. Denise Getz
conducted an interview with Pilar Wyman about the
formation and purposes of the ICI which is posted on her
‘See also’ blog on her website: <www.access-indexing.com/>.
Government 2.0
On 3 May 2010, the Minister for Finance and
Deregulation released the Government Response to the
report of the Government 2.0 Taskforce – Engage: Getting
on with Government 2.0.
You can find the Government’s Response at
<www.finance.gov.au/publications/govresponse20report/
index.html>.
But what is Government 2.0? According to the
Taskforce, Government 2.0 promises to make our
democracy more participatory and informed and to
improve the quality and responsiveness of services.
Citizens’ enthusiasm will be harnessed and together with
the government the people will be able to participate in
(continued on facing page)
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
Tips and hints – paper size
S
oftware packages come with default settings. These
can be frustrating things as they require you to
explore the hidden depths of the package to learn
how to change them. One default setting that particularly
annoys me, because I often seem to have to change it, is
paper size.
You prepare an index, print it off and then wonder
why it does not go the full length of the page. You go back
and look at the paper settings and find it is set at Letter
size, not A4. This is of course assuming your printer can
cope with printing Letter size documents. Some printers
are prone to have a ‘hissy fit’ and refuse to print the
document unless you change the paper in your printer to
Letter size.
Many of the software packages we use were developed
in the USA and hence the default paper size is Letter.
Letter size paper is very slightly wider then A4, but not as
long. To be precise, Letter size is 21.59cm x 27.94cm
compared with 21cm x 29.7cm for A4. Since A4 paper is
used in Australia, it is important to always check that the
settings on your software packages are set at A4. Some
software packages, such as MS Word, remember if you
change your default settings, but others do not. I use SKY
Index software and, unless I use a preset template, I have
to change the paper settings for each new index.
So check the paper size of your index before you send
it out and do not subject your poor editor or publisher to
a printer ‘hissy fit’.
And, by the way, if your software offers a choice of
language, make sure you aren’t working in the default
‘English (US)’ or your spell checker will drive you mad!
Mary Russell
(Indexing degustation, continued from previous page)
decision-making. The Government set up a blog,
AGIMO (Australian Government Information
Management Office (AGIMO)) so that people could
comment on the Taskforce’s proposals at
<agimo.govspace.gov.au/>
New words from AskOxford.com
Emulsion: a fine dispersion of one liquid or puréed food
substance in another: ravioli with pea and ginger
emulsion. And I thought emulsion was painted onto a
wall. I shall go no further. For more new words look
at <www.askoxford.com/worldofwords/newwords/?view=uk>.
Jane Parton
THE INDEXER
The International Journal of Indexing
The visual appeal of indexes? Automated indexing? Around the world?
Or a shorter trip in Finland, from thesaurus to ontology?
Then the June 2010 issue of The Indexer is just what you need.
SUBSCRIBE ONLINE NOW!
<www.theindexer.org>
•
•
•
Four issues a year (March, June, September and December)
Online access to current issues for subscribers in addition to print copies sent by priority mail
Online subscription and payment via The Indexer website <www.theindexer.org>
Annual subscription rate for ANZSI members for 2010 only: £28.00
Vol. 6, No. 5, June 2010
7
NSW Branch intermediate practical book indexing course
A NSW Branch intermediate indexing course was held
on Saturday 8 May at Thomas Routers, Pyrmont.
Participants had been working for a month on indexing
‘Bitten by a Penguin: Linux for Windows users’ by Jon
Jermey, with the help of an online collaborative forum
guided by course co-ordinator Glenda Browne.
The course focused on the practical application of
indexing principles. Some of the online discussions
included issues such as planning and quoting, style,
cross-referencing, using the metatopic, and various
discussions on terminology. We also discovered first
hand, some powerful and useful functions of the software
available.
Using excerpts of the indexes prepared, the face-toface workshop was a review of issues faced such as size,
style, audience, entry points etc. plus some invaluable
information on business aspects of freelance indexing.
The group then enjoyed lunch, where discussions
were continued and we were able to get to know the
participants and the organisers. We were also given a
demonstration of a working Linux system which was of
keen interest to the group.
Thanks to Glenda Browne, Lorraine Doyle and
Madeline Davis for a first class training experience. I
think all participants were definitely bitten by the
indexing bug and perhaps some of us may have been
bitten by the ’Penguin’ itself.
Sarah Anderson
That NSW indexing course – one attendee thinks back
I
found this course, run by Glenda Browne in May,
challenging but exceedingly helpful, having never
indexed a thing before in my life, not even a shopping
list.
It is all very well to read, make notes, talk to people
and attend a course (the introduction to indexing also
run by Glenda earlier this year), but the actual
production of an index, using, for the first time, the
designated software, really imprinted on my mind the
‘how-to’ of basic indexing and tested just how well I had
understood and assimilated the text and course material.
As it turned out, I had neatly passed over some basics
and in particular had enough ‘orphans’ to set up my own
orphanage, or even adoption agency.
The concept of ‘direct entry’ also took me some time
to come to terms with, having as I seem to, a penchant
for classifications and lots of subheadings. Thinking
oneself into the shoes of an index user, if you will pardon
a kind of bastard metaphor, became a bit of a game, with
the ghost of the user peeking over my shoulder in a rather
proprietorial fashion, as if to say ‘well, I’d never look
under that heading’. So then I would have to think of
something else. In the beginning it seemed to me that
I was cheating in using the precise language of the text.
The text itself was another challenge, being a guide to
Linux for Windows users. Not being big on computer
operating systems, the jargon was something of a hurdle
for me. However, by the time the assignment was due,
the penguin and I were, if not intimate friends, then
something more than mere acquaintances. (The title of
the text was Bitten by a Penguin, by Jon Jermey)
It was wonderful to have guidance from someone as
experienced – and as patient – as Glenda and then to be
able to discuss the whole exercise with the other
participants at the face to face session at Thompson
Reuters. I realised that there is no absolutely right answer
to many indexing questions,
and that there may be as many
acceptable views on a subject as
there are indexers – or even
Fairy Penguins – in the room.
Helen Enright
At the course, from left:
Glenda Browne, Madeleine Davis,
Sarah Anderson, Chris Roberts,
Helen Enright and Ava Shifreen.
Photo by Lorraine Doyle.
8
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
Playing football for the Cockroaches: the history of Queensland’s
southern border
Q
ueensland Branch’s guest speaker for 18 May
was historian Bill Kitson (pictured) from the
town of Ayr in North Queensland. Bill started
his career as a surveyor for the
Main Roads Department. A surveyor’s life
some 40 years ago was often out in the
bush, mixing it up with the wildlife,
forging tracks and roads through dense
bushland hampered by heavy equipment.
Bill had come to speak to us about his
charmed life and how it included tracing
the southern border of Queensland. He
started his presentation with the 1836
map of the Royal Geographical Society,
which subdivided Australia into nine or
ten states – the powers to be had no idea of
what was in the middle of Australia in
those days.
In 1846, the southern boundary was situated at
26 degrees latitude on the east coast. This was traced by
Colonel Engineer George Barney and verified in the
following year in our own Queensland Government
Gazette, which was hand-written in Gladstone. In 1850
the border was moved to 30 degrees latitude; all land
north was called Cooksland and settlement there was
favoured by the yeoman Protestant farmers from
Denmark, Germany and other European states. The
border was returned to 29 degrees latitude some nine
years later in 1859.
The western boundary underwent similar changes.
Instead of going straight up from New South Wales and
South Australia, it was decided by Surveyor Augustus
Charles Gregory in 1862, to bend it to where it is at
present. This has turned out to be a fortuitous decision
for Queensland, because the originally proposed border
would have had the rich mining towns of Mt Isa, Mary
Kathleen and many more recent finds within the
Northern Territory’s border.
To mark a border needs two surveyors and their teams
from each state, to meet at a point on the east coast, in
this case Point Danger, from whence they would all climb
to the highest point of the mountain ranges and mark off
the border with the very basic instruments which they
hauled up and down the hills via horses. These
instruments were usually navigational in origin (i.e. taken
from ships); they were often rudimentary but in the right
hands could be highly accurate. Surveyor Roberts (Qld)
and Surveyor Roland (NSW) set out along the southern
border, but fell out and went their separate ways, doing
two separate surveys between 1863 and 1866.
In 1985, Bill Kitson was awarded a fellowship from
the Royal Geographical Society to research the
Queensland New South Wales border, to verify where it
Vol. 6, No. 5, June 2010
really did lie. So 100 years later Bill and his team checked
Roberts’ and Roland’s measurements using satellites and
modern equipment. They found that the measurements
of Surveyor Roberts of Queensland were
the more accurate.
However, it was not only the hundreds
of horses who aided the early surveyors and
their teams through the dense Australian
bushland. The friendly Aboriginal people
in the area also provided crucial help to the
surveying teams. The Aboriginals were
skilled in climbing trees. Once up there, the
surveyors then directed them to cut certain
angles in branches and also mark ‘Broad
Arrows’ within the bark of the trees,
showing the direction of the border. There
is an Aboriginal Dictionary of Trees left to us
from these early expeditions to mark the southern border.
The Aboriginals aiding the surveyors were paid cash for
their invaluable help. At O’Reilly’s Guesthouse there is
such a marked tree from these expeditions and the town
of Stanthorpe has a ‘cairn’ erected where an original
‘Broad Arrow’ tree had stood.
Valuable lessons were learnt from the original
surveyors. Bill Kitson and his team from Queensland
carried out their re-survey over five years. Being locals,
they were aware of the severe summer heat of Western
Queensland, so the team only carried out their surveying
checks during the cooler winter months.
There was a second survey to finish the original
marking of the border and the very talented Surveyor
John B. Cameron (NSW) and Surveyor Watson (Qld)
were commissioned in 1879. They started their survey at
the town of Baragan, south of Cunnamulla. Again they
struggled through the summers and came to blows, with
Watson withdrawing from the scene. Bill Kitson and his
team found original marks made by Surveyor John B.
Cameron, which Bill proved to be perfectly exact. The
professionalism of these early surveyors was remarkable,
considering their equipment and the harsh terrain and
conditions.
Bill Kitson went on to be the Curator of the Museum
of Lands, Mapping and Surveying, where he built an
amazing collection of surveying instruments, artefacts,
diaries, artwork and thousands of photographs, together
with the biographies of every surveyor who worked in
early Queensland. However, the Toad Warrior Historian
made no mention of playing football for the
Cockroaches.
We hope to invite Bill Kitson back to speak to us at
another meeting, on the passion of his life – the Museum
of Lands, Mapping and Surveying.
Vicki Law and Moira Brown
9
Indexing see Change: ANZSI Conference
Monday 12 to Wednesday 14 September
change is as good as a holiday! This conference is
providing the change by being different and
doing things differently. Conference papers will
be spread over the three days. Short workshops will also
be integrated throughout the conference, rather than
being held on a specific day. The workshop sessions and
the conference dinner will be included in the price.
Topics covered will be a change. There will be changes in
indexing, changes in the types of material being indexed
and changes in what you might consider to be indexing.
A
2011, Brighton Savoy, Brighton, Victoria
Brighton is a bayside suburb about 13 km from the
centre of Melbourne on the Sandringham train line. The
Brighton Savoy is just across the road from the beach and
the colourful bathing boxes. You can see them (in
colour!) on the conference webpage at:
<www.anzsi.org/site/2011Conference.asp>.
The call for papers will appear later in the year.
ANZSI Medal 2010
Indexing on the ABC Book Show
T
M
he Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers'
Medal is offered annually for the most outstanding
index to a book or periodical compiled in Australia or
New Zealand. The index must be in print and published
after 2006. It must have been compiled in Australia or
New Zealand, even though the text to which it refers may
have originated elsewhere. The index should be
substantial in size; the subject matter should be complex;
and the language, form and structure of the index should
demonstrate the indexer's expertise, as well as serving the
needs of the text and reader. The publisher of the winning
index will be presented with a certificate recognising their
promotion of work of outstanding quality. The judges
may also make 'highly commended' awards.
Nominations, with bibliographical details and a copy
of the book (which will be returned if requested) should
be sent to the address on the nomination form.
Publishers, indexers and all interested people may
nominate indexes, and indexers may nominate their own
work. A nomination form is available from the Society's
website <www.anzsi.org>.
Entries close on 31 July.
Contact Alan Walker, Convener, Awards Committee
email: <alan.walker@s054.aone.net.au>
telephone:
ary Russell was approached by the ABC Radio
National Book Show to be interviewed on
Indexers as part of their Book Makers Series.
During the interview, with Anita Barraud, Mary
managed to highlight what constituted a good index; the
pitfalls of searching for keywords; the process involved in
producing an index; how indexes were compiled before
software packages; how the lack of an index can cause an
outcry and even lead to indexes being published on
blogs; the occasional censorship of indexes;
acknowledgement of indexers and even the use of
humour of indexes.
Anita had asked for some suitable music, and Mary
suggested Indexers Lament by Hazel and Aiden Bell.
Some members may remember the song performed,
during the 2009 Conference dinner. Hazel was delighted
at this and also provided Anita with additional
information on the history of indexing from her book
From Flockbeds to Professionalism: A history of Index
makers.
The interview was aired on 18 May, but if you missed
it, the podcast is available at <www.abc.net.au/rn/
bookshow/stories/2010/2901716.htm>.
There have already been several expressions of interest
in indexing and indexing courses as a result of the
interview.
Membership Renewals
M
embers are reminded that the ANZSI financial year is July to June, so your membership subscriptions are now
due. You will be sent an email reminder containing a personalised secure link to the payment facility to enable
you to pay via credit card. There will also be a link to the membership form that can be downloaded if you wish to pay
by cheque and post to the Membership Secretary at the address on the form. Only members without email or those with
bounced emails will be posted a renewal form.
If you have any questions about the renewal process, please feel free to contact the Membership Secretary, Joanna
McLachlan, at <bandoola1@bigpond.com>.
10
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
Mythical creatures at The VIC
C
an you tell the difference between a wyvern and a
dragon? This was one of the challenges facing
attendees at the May meeting of The VIC. Max
McMaster presented a list of 40 mythical beasts. The
initial challenge was to work out what the
beast looked like, so the books borrowed
from libraries were put to good use. Then we
needed to group the beasts, with the aim of
applying the basics of thesaurus construction
introduced at last month’s meeting on
database indexing. Reptiles and winged
creatures were easy, but what to call the part
human beasts caused quite a discussion.
‘Mini-monsters’ was suggested for trolls, gremlins,
gnomes etc, but then that changed to ‘little people’
when ‘fairies’ was added to the list. ‘Giant people’ was
chosen for yetis, bigfoot, etc, but what do you call the
in-between group of nymphs, mermaids, etc?
‘Humanoids’ was suggested. Time ran out before a
satisfactory conclusion could be reached for these
headings.
Vol. 6, No. 5, June 2010
In the second half Mary Russell introduced the
concept of heraldry. Heraldry has its own language, for
example describing a shield is called ‘blazoning a
complete achievement’. Mythical creatures are used and
have specific meanings in heraldry. For
example, a centaur is used for those who have
been eminent in the field; a mermaid is for
eloquence; and Pegasus is for poetic genius
and inspiration.
Very specific terms are used to describe
the position of the creature. For example, a
creature standing up rearing on one leg is
called rampant; standing on three legs with
one raised as if walking is called passant; while standing
on all four legs is called statant. The challenge was then
set to describe a few shields using heraldic terms.
By the way, a wyvern is a dragon with only two legs
and a barbed tail – the picture shows one holding a fleurde-lys.
Mary Russell
11
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI)
ANZSI NEWSLETTER
Volume 6, number 6, July 2010
ANZSI News – Incorporation of ANZSI
T
he topic of incorporation
is an important one for all
ANZSI members. Council
has decided to revisit this issue and
strongly push for its acceptance by
members at the AGM to be held on
1 September. A paper was presented
to Council by Max McMaster in
April on the issue of incorporation,
and following consultation and
discussion was accepted by Council at its June meeting.
So that members can fully understand the background
and implications of incorporation the following item has
been prepared for members. It is based extensively on the
original paper.
The issue of incorporation was originally considered
by ANZSI Council in late 2008, but was shelved due to
Branch concerns. One of the major reasons put forward
for incorporation at the time was to protect office
holders in case of the Society being sued. With the lack
of progress on incorporation the Council considered
association risk insurance as a possible alternative option.
Investigation revealed the merits of the idea, although the
premium was relatively expensive. ANZSI however, as an
unincorporated association is deemed not to be a legal
entity, and as such cannot enter into contracts nor be
liable as an organisation. ANZSI therefore is ineligible to
take out risk insurance. Risk insurance can only be taken
out by registered legal entities, i.e. incorporated bodies,
which ANZSI is not.
One of the major advantages of incorporation is the
protection of ALL members and office holders against
personal liability for debts and other legal obligations
of the organisation. This means we could ALL be held
personally liable in case of a claim, and it would be OUR
personal assets which would be at risk NOT the assets of
ANZSI.
You may think this is unlikely to happen. Australian
society is following the USA in becoming far more litigious.
To provide a hypothetical example, an indexer who has
attained Registration discovers 12 months afterwards
that the information about them gaining Registration has
not been updated in their Indexers Available entry on the
ANZSI website due to a clerical oversight. That person
ISSN 1832-3855
would have every right to sue for potential loss of income,
and it would be ALL members and not the Society who
would have to pay. This serious risk is not something we
should expose members to any longer.
By incorporating, ALL members will be covered, so
the risk of personal liability is removed. In the case of any
claim it will then be ANZSI itself which is sued, not the
members.
Public liability insurance protects ANZSI if members
or non-members are injured at ANZSI meetings or
functions. Although ANZSI currently has public liability
insurance, the legal validity of the policy is questionable
due to the fact that the policy was signed by the then
Treasurer on behalf of ANZSI, which as we have said
is not a legal entity. Incorporation will provide absolute
certainty that the policy is legal. We don’t want to find out
after a member makes a claim for say breaking a leg at an
ANZSI function that the policy will not be honoured.
The other major benefits of being incorporated are as
follows:
• Greater certainty and acceptability to potential
contracting parties such as suppliers of goods and
services, e.g. conference venues.
(continued on page 4)
WHAT’S
INSIDE
Newsletter, Web Manager and Registration details 2
ANZSI AGM preliminary notice
2
Web Indexing SIG survey
2
Life: not an index (Hazel Bell)
3
ANZSI and Branch events
3
Membership renewal reminder
4
Tips and hints – getting paid
5
NSW Branch joins Sydney PEN
5
Letter to the Editor
5
Indexing Indaba
6
Queensland Branch news
7
ASI Conference, Minneapolis
8
Nuggets from Ballarat
10
Indexing nuggets from A to Z
11
ANZSI and Branch Committee contacts
12
Deadline for the August issue: 30 July
PO Box 5062, Glenferrie South VIC 3122, Australia
Newsletter,
Web Manager and
Registration contacts
Editor: Peter Judge
<peter.judge@bigpond.com>
Web Manager: Mary Russell
<russellmf025@ozemail.com.au>
Website: <www.anzsi.org>
ISSN 1832-3855
This newsletter is published monthly 11 times
per year, with combined issues for January/
February. It is sent free to all members of
the Australian and New Zealand Society of
Indexers. Opinions expressed in the newsletter
are those of the individual contributors, and
do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the
Society.
It is your newsletter, and we are totally
dependent on contributions, both large and
small, from members. Please contact the editor
if you have any questions about the suitability
of items for publication. The editor reserves the
right to edit or abridge contributions.
Please send files via email in MS Word,
.doc files or .rtf, but NOT .html or .pdf. And
please, no images or footnotes embedded in
Word files.
Next deadline
30 July for the August 2010 issue.
Graphics
Image files can be accepted in most common
formats. Do not embed images in text files.
Camera-ready art and photos can be scanned
by the editor. Note that photos need to be
clear, sharp and contrasty if they are to copy
well in black and white.
Advertising charges
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers
Annual General Meeting 2010
Preliminary notice is given that the Annual General Meeting of the Australian
and New Zealand Society of Indexers will be held on Wednesday 1 September
2010 at 6.30 pm at the Elsternwick Club, 19 Sandham Street, Elsternwick
Victoria (Melway 67, F2).
Officer bearers and Council members (other than ex officio members) for
2010–11 will be elected at the meeting. Nominations must be received by the
Returning Officer at the Society’s postal address (PO Box 5062, Glenferrie
South, Vic 3122) no later than Wednesday, 18 August.
At the meeting the following motion will be put on behalf of the Council:
That the Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers
take the steps necessary to incorporate under the provisions
of the Associations Incorporation Act 1981 (Vic).
The meeting will also be asked to approve amendments to the Constitution.
The proposed amendments have been circulated to Branch committees for
comment and will be considered by Council on 8 July. Following that meeting
details will be available on the Society’s website at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=151>.
Any member lacking access to the website may obtain a copy by writing to
the Secretary at 104 Lakeview Drive, Lilydale, Vic 3140.
Members wishing to propose any motion at the AGM, including any
amendment to the Constitution as proposed to be amended, must give notice
to the Secretary at the address in the foregoing paragraph before Friday 30 July,
to give all members time to read the motion and for space to be placed on
proxy form.
Proxy voting is allowed at the Annual General Meeting and forms may be
downloaded from the website or obtained from the Secretary at the address in
the above paragraph.
Michael J Ramsden, Secretary
Full page A$175; half page A$90; quarter page
A$35; full year 10 for the price of 8.
Membership charges
A$70 per year from 1 Jul 2009.
Institutional membership $95.
Subscriptions to the Newsletter A$55 p.a.
The Indexer
(international indexing journal)
Maureen MacGlashan, Executive Editor
<editor@theindexer.org>.
ANZSI Corresponding Member
Alan Eddy <aeddy2@bigpond.com>
To subscribe at the special rate for indexing
society members, go to <www.theindexer.org>
and click on the subscriptions link.
Registration
Shirley Campbell
Ph +61 2 6248 8297
<shirley.campbell4@bigpond.com> or
<www.anzsi.org/site/registration.asp>
Indexers Available
<www.anzsi.org/site/Indexers_available.asp>
2
Web Indexing SIG survey
A
t the Web Indexing SIG meeting at the American Society for Indexing
(ASI) national conference last month, it was decided that this special
interest group (SIG) needs to refocus its scope.
All members of ANZSI, as an affiliate of ASI, are eligible to join the SIG
so may complete the survey, and are encouraged to if involved or interested in
online/electronic, nonprint media indexing.
There are just seven questions, all on a single page, (some multiple choice
and some open response) at the following link:
<www.surveymonkey.com/s/R27338H>.
If interested, please try to complete the survey by 15 July.
Thank you.
Heather Hedden
Past-president and current treasurer of the Web Indexing SIG
< www.web-indexing.org>
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
Our very own odd ode
Life: not an index
To bring about order from chaos
Is what indexers aim to achieve;
Reminiscent of God’s first creation,
Work mighty indeed to conceive.
I spend my days in the endeavour
To impose whole correctness, no less;
All the text most efficiently signalled –
Yet my desk’s in a terrible mess.
Entries placed where each reader may seek them,
Abstract concepts are all analysed
In elegant style, and with headings
Precisely, concisely devised.
Cross-references all integrated
In a model of intricateness;
Alphabeticisation is flawless –
So how come my house is a mess?
M
any of you asked for the words of this poem
by Hazel Bell.
Mary Russell has provided a little background
information. The poem had been published in the
Society of Indexers publication Anthology for the
Millennium in 1999. Hazel’s son Aiden Bell put
the verses to his own music as The Indexer’s lament
and sings it with Kirk Duncan at the piano. If you
want to hear it, it is the background music to Mary’s
interview on ABC, which is online at <www.abc.
net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2010/2901716.htm>.
The photo is from <www.aidanbell.com/hkbell.htm>.
Deft structure of stratified headings
To a nicety graded and ranked;
Hierarchy of neat indentations
Wherein layers of meaning are banked.
If you asked, ‘Is control here quite perfect?’
I could answer with confidence, ‘Yes’;
All is accurate, clear and consistent –
So why is my life such a mess?
Hazel K. Bell
ANZSI and Branch events
Date and time
Organiser
Name of activity
Venue
Contact details
Tues 20 July
6.00 for 6.45 pm
Qld Branch
AGM – speaker
Max McMaster
Carindale
Library
Details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=156>
Tues–Wed
20–21 July
9.00–5.00 pm
Qld Branch
Basic Book
Indexing 1 & 2
Max McMaster
5 Celeste Court,
Wynnum West,
Brisbane
Only if adequate numbers. Details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=154>
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=155>
Thurs 22 July
9.00–5.00 pm
Qld Branch
Glenda Browne
Only if adequate numbers. Details at<www.anzsi.
org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=153>
Sat 24 July
ACT and NSW
Branches
Recipes
for Success
Conference
5 Celeste Court,
Wynnum West,
Brisbane
Craigieburn
Resort, Bowral
Wed 4 Aug
2.00 pm
Wed 1 Sept
6.30 pm
Vic Branch
Visit to Museum
of Victoria
ANZSI AGM and
Vic Branch AGM
Royal Exhibition
Bldg, Carlton
Elsternwick Club
Details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=142>
Details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=146>
Vic Branch
Vol. 6, No. 6, July 2010
Contact <sueflaxman@bigpond.com>
Program and full details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=147>
3
(Incorporation of ANZSI, continued from page 1)
• The ability to take out insurance, e.g. association risk
assurance, if deemed appropriate.
• The ability to accept gifts or bequests which the Society
doesn’t have at the moment. Gifts and bequests can
only be made to an incorporated body.
• Greater eligibility to apply for grants, which could be
extremely beneficial.
The cost of incorporation is minimal, currently $116.90
for incorporation within Victoria. After incorporation
there will be an annual fee of $40.90 to lodge the Annual
Statement.
The disadvantages of incorporation as outlined on the
Consumer Affairs Victoria website are:
• The expense of becoming incorporated
and meeting ongoing statutory obligations.
This is definitely not an issue.
• The necessity to comply with legal formalities and the
possibility of penalties for innocent breaches of the law.
This is hardly an issue. Many small clubs and
associations are incorporated and they don’t have an
issue, so there is no reason why we should either.
• Restrictions on the ability to carry on business or trade.
We don’t carry on a business or trade in the commercial
sense.
• Less flexibility to cope with changed circumstances.
Presumably this means submitting any change of the
Constitution to Consumer Affairs Victoria. Not an
arduous step and would be sent at the same time as
the lodgement of the Annual Statement.
Incorporation procedures (from Consumer Affairs
Victoria website)
A group that wants to become an incorporated association
must give the members 21 days notice that a meeting of
the group will be held and that one of the agenda items
will be to apply for incorporation as an association under
the Associations Incorporation Act 1981.
At the meeting:
• a majority of members (whether in person or by
proxy) must vote to pass the motion to incorporate as
an association;
• a person, residing in Victoria, is authorised to apply to
incorporate the association;
• a proposed Statement of Purposes and the Rules or
Model Rules are adopted.
After the meeting the person authorised becomes the
first public officer of the association and must complete
and lodge the Application for Association Incorporation
form, the Statement of Purposes, the Rules and the
incorporation fee with Consumer Affairs Victoria.
Branch structure issue
Although ANZSI has a branch structure, based on advice
from Consumer Affairs Victoria, this is not a problem as
far as incorporation goes. The body to which all members
belong is the Australian and New Zealand Society of
4
Indexers (ANZSI) and this (assuming the resolution
is passed by members) will be the legal entity to be
incorporated. The Branches (including the NZ Branch)
are purely an administrative convenience for the running
of the Society. Our membership fees are paid to ANZSI,
not the Branches, and when we join the organisation it is
ANZSI to whom we belong. If a member decides to join
a Branch as well, that is purely a logistical convenience for
the member to attend meetings, functions, etc.
Constitution
To ensure the ANZSI Constitution includes all the
criteria required under the Consumer Affairs Victoria,
Model Rules for Incorporated Associations <www.consumer.
vic.gov.au/CA256902000FE154/Lookup/CAV_
Publications_Associations/$file/Association_Model_
Rules.pdf>. Michael Ramsden has worked tirelessly
making a substantial number of proposed changes to
the ANZSI Constitution. These changes include items
which were previously not covered in the Constitution,
for example, sections on ‘discipline, suspension and
expulsion of members’ and on ‘disputes and mediation’.
Other areas of the Constitution needed rewording to
ensure the Model Rules criteria were met.
Members will need to vote on the motion to
incorporate, as well as voting on the extensive changes
to the Constitution at the AGM. Details about the
proposed Constitutional changes are available on the
ANZSI website <www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.
asp?id=151>. A copy of the precise wording on the
motion to incorporate will be in the August Newsletter,
together with details and links to all the AGM papers and
forms.
Although trying to come to grips with all the Rules
and Constitutional changes may seem very heavy going,
it is in members’ interests for ANZSI to proceed down
the incorporation path. For less than $120 I strongly
recommend ANZSI incorporates. The personal risks of
not doing so are far too great.
Mary Russell
Membership renewal reminder
M
embers are reminded that the ANZSI financial
year is July to June, so your membership
subscriptions are now due.You will have received an
email reminder containing a personalised secure link
to the payment facility to enable you to pay via credit
card, plus a link to the membership form that can be
downloaded if you wish to pay by cheque and post to
the Membership Secretary at the address on the form.
Only members without email or those with bounced
emails will be posted a renewal form.
If you have any questions about the renewal process
please feel free to contact the Membership Secretary,
Joanna McLachlan, at <bandoola1@bigpond.com>.
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
Tips and hints – getting paid
I
n his report on the American Society for Indexing
Conference, Max referred to a session on getting
paid. He noted that direct deposit for payment is
unusual. This prompted me to realise how getting paid
has changed over the last few years.
Electronic invoices
I send all my invoices via email. I choose to send mine via
PDF as it saves potential hassles with different versions
of software. This means no more printing and posting of
invoices and no potential for the invoice to be lost in the
company’s internal mail, while they find the part-time
editor that you were working with.
Electronic payment
If you include your banking details on the invoice
you are more likely to be paid directly into your bank
account. Companies like this facility as to print and get a
cheque signed, and often counter signed, can take time.
Some companies may require you to fill in some initial
paperwork to enable them to add your payment details
into their system. By giving them you banking details you
are more likely to be paid quicker and no longer have to
join a bank queue with a cheque, or wait for the cheque
to be cleared.
NSW Branch joins Sydney PEN
T
he NSW Branch is joining Sydney PEN as a
Corporate Member. The annual donation includes
listing on the Sydney PEN website.
International PEN <www.internationalpen.org.uk>, a
worldwide association of writers, emphasises the role of
literature in mutual understanding and world culture; and
promotes literature in various ways, including opposing
restraints on freedom of expression and working to
promote literacy itself. The International PEN Charter is
at <pen.org.au/about/international-pen-charter>
Sydney PEN <pen.org.au/>, an affiliate of International
PEN, is an association of Australian writers and readers,
publishers, journalists, playwrights and human rights
activists. Sydney PEN was founded in 1931 by Ethel
Turner, Mary Gilmore, and Dorothea Mackellar. Its
mission is to be an authoritative source on matters of free
expression in Australia and internationally; to campaign
on behalf of writers who are silenced by persecution, exile
or imprisonment; to promote the written word.
One of Sydney PEN’s current campaigns is the The
Empty Chair campaign to raise public awareness on
behalf of imprisoned writers around the world.
The NSW Branch has taken this step in order to
promote recognition of ANZSI in the wider community
and to continue to fulfill the aims of ANZSI, one
of which is: ‘to establish and maintain relationships
between the Society and other bodies with related
interests’ (see <www.anzsi.org/site/aimserv.asp)
Madeleine Davis
Vol. 6, No. 6, July 2010
Late payment
You need to include a statement of terms and conditions
on your invoice. Perhaps something like ‘Payment within
30 days of invoice’, as this gives you a date after wish you
can hassle them for payment. Without this statement
they are under no obligation to pay you within 30 days
and can take a lot longer if they choose to.
When the 30 days is up I add the following to the
invoice (in very large type and in red):
L Unpaid 30 June 2010
I then email this updated invoice to the editor. Usually
this is enough to prompt apologies and payment. If not,
I then contact the company and ask to be put through to
the accounts department. While it can sometimes take a
while to find the correct person to talk to and explain the
situation, it usually produces satisfactory results.
For a particularly difficult and late paying client I
had to contact senior management to obtain payment.
Needless to say I have been paid extremely promptly in
subsequent jobs.
Mary Russell
Letter to the Editor
Robin is President of NZ Branch, but here he is writing in
his personal capacity.
he certification for American indexers reported in
‘Indexing degustation’ in the June newsletter is a
controversial issue in the United States.
It is not sanctioned by the American Society for
Indexing (ASI) and has been strongly criticised by indexers
on the index-l forum. Comments were overwhelmingly
in opposition and dominated the forum for a couple of
weeks.
Certification – equivalent to what we call registration
– has apparently been debated and rejected several times
by the ASI.
The four people who set up the so-called Institute
of Certified Indexers are still current ASI office-holders,
and no one questions their ability as indexers. However,
they have done this as a private venture. Critics did
question their right to be arbiters and described their new
operation as ‘commercial’ (the fees are quite high).
The matter may not affect us directly, but it is useful to
learn or be reminded that not all major national indexing
bodies have certification programmes. Perhaps someone
who knows more about the American situation than I do
could write something about it. Did the ASI in the past
decide certification was dangerous ground, or just too big
to administer with consistency in the US? An interesting
issue when we are reassessing our own registration
programme.
Robin Briggs
T
5
Indexing Indaba
B
y the very nature of their
work, indexers are naturally
conscious of their potential or
indeed their actual role as ‘memory
keepers’. Recently, public interest
in memory keeping has been well
reflected in the media, with articles
that display the value attached to the
myriad of small human stories that
add up to form the collective human memory. One only
has to look at the number of times in history that libraries
have been destroyed as acts of warfare to appreciate
how important collective human memory is. It is well
recognised that being able to look back into the past
provides us with a greater understanding of ourselves, and
so too does there seem to be an awareness of how essential
it is that we preserve a record of our current times, using
the tools of digital technology.
The Argus indexing project
The Argus (published in Melbourne from 1846 to 1957)
has been included as part of a project of the National
Library of Australia to digitise more than 100 Australian
newspaper titles by the end of next year.
Another vital project that perfectly complements
this digitisation undertaking is The Argus index, which
has been underway for a number of years at La Trobe
University. Some parts of the index are already online, but
this ongoing project will take many years to complete. In
The Age recently, Dr John Hirst, the editor of the index
said that on most days you can expect to find a couple of
volunteers in The State Library of Victoria, going through
yellowing old newspapers and looking for key names and
subjects. As I write this, the Victorian Indexing Club
(The VIC) is looking forward to having Judy Thomas,
one of these volunteers, as a guest at the July meeting.
Dr Hirst said that one of the challenges in indexing
The Argus has been the changing nature of language, for
example, ‘drains’ used to be referred to as ‘cesspits’. He
also gave an example of how historical reporting could
have value in our lives today, saying that climate change
researchers would be able to locate old weather reports.
<www.theage.com.au/victoria/bodies-babies-andbarneys-available-as-argus-goes-online-20100508-ul2v.
html> and <blogs.abc.net.au/victoria/2010/05/the-argusmakes-a-return-online.html?site=melbourne&program=mel
bourne_breakfast>.
Revisiting the old Melbourne Hospital
Sixteen years ago, Gabriele Haveaux, an archivist at Royal
Melbourne Hospital made a remarkable discovery of
2000 leather-bound ward books at a warehouse in North
Melbourne. Each ward book is embossed with the name
and the ward of the doctor that used it to record notes
when visiting the hospital, then known as Melbourne
6
Hospital. They detail information about patients such as
their age, date of admission, place of birth, ships travelled
on to Australia, marital status, occupation and religion.
They also offer considerable insight into early Melbourne
life, including numerous scaldings of children by water
boiling on woodfires and injuries sustained through
domestic violence.
For the past eight years a joint venture between the
Royal Melbourne Hospital, the Public Record Office of
Victoria and the Genealogical Society of Victoria, has
seen a group of 20 volunteers spending every Wednesday
transposing doctors’ notes for 50,000 patients of the
former Melbourne Hospital into an index. The result
is Patients in Melbourne Hospital 1856-1905, a CD
available through the Genealogical Society of Victoria.
Fortunately, volunteer Shirley Hutchinson, with 30 years
of nursing experience is well versed in reading doctors’
handwriting. And like The Argus index, some medical
terms have also required translation, for example, malaria
used to be known as ‘ague’ and tuberculosis went by the
name of ‘phthisis’.
Patients in Melbourne Hospital 1856-1905 covers just
451 ward books of the 2000 found, so this remains an
ongoing indexing project.
<www.theage.com.au/victoria/hospital-records-paintbleak-picture-of-1800s-melbourne-20100606-xna1.html>.
All aflutter over Twitter
Twitter’s recent announcement that it is to donate its
entire archive (from 2006) to the Library of Congress has
had a reaction on a number of fronts. Firstly, there’s the
sheer size of the thing. Twitter currently processes more
than 50 million tweets a day, much of them difficult to
understand due to their brevity (140 characters is the
maximum allowed per tweet). Amusingly, Penguin have
recently published Twitterature, giving new meaning to
the much maligned Reader’s Digest condensed book, as it
includes the world’s greatest novels in just one volume.
The prospect of meaningfully indexing such an archive
is mind boggling. Quite a few posts on the LOC website
reflect some dismay at what the library has taken on,
feeling that it is a waste of valuable resources. For example,
Michaee Critz wrote, “It’s critical the future generations
know what flavor burrito I had for lunch.”
People like Margot Gerritsen, are a lot more excited.
A professor with Stanford University’s Department of
Energy Resources Engineering and head of the Center
of Excellence for Computational Approaches to Digital
Stewardship, she believes that Twitter “will be one of
the most informative resources available on modern day
culture, including economic, social and political trends,
as well as consumer behavior and social trends.”
(continued on facing page)
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
(Indexing Indaba, continued from facing page)
Twitter as born-digital material represents a new
era of collective human memory. The internet that has
enabled us all to become publishers, and Twitter has seen
a massive development in citizen journalism, with history
being recorded through tweets by eyewitnesses as events
occur. The ‘Green Revolution’ in Iran is a perfect example
of this.
In an interview with Andrew Stephens in The Age
(‘You must remember this’, 15 May 2010), Paul Koerbin
who administers the National Library of Australia’s web
archiving program, Pandora (which is registered on
UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register), said that
at its inception in 1996, the internet was thought of as
another form of publication.
‘But once it started moving into being as much a
communication medium as a publishing one, the line
between private and public is not so clear. In the early days,
people may have had a sense they were publishing. Now
people just contribute or get on to a social networking
service – they are not thinking they are publishing. A lot
of people would have the sense they intend what they put
up online to be private or ephemeral. They are naïve in
thinking that.’
Koerbin’s words couldn’t be truer with respect to
Twitter as those with accounts wonder about the prospect
of having their words retained for future generations.
So along with LOC’s challenge on what and how to
preserve billions of tweets, an unedited post by Lu on
LOC’s website is typical of the sort of questions raised in
a new era of memory keeping:
‘My tweets are private, only people i allow to see
them can read them, it is unnerving that your above FAQ
amounts to saying that after 6 months anyone can view
my tweets’.
<www.loc.gov/today/pr/2010/10-081.html> and
<blogs.loc.gov/loc/2010/04/the-library-and-twitter-an-faq/>.
Nikki Davies
Queensland Branch news
Colin Sheehan – a short history of indexing
olin Sheehan, a well known
local researcher, spoke to
Queensland Branch members
and guests last month about the
origins of indexing. His present
position is Historical Coordinator for
the Department of Environment and
Resource Management, providing
historical background for the native
title claims in Queensland. Colin
has written many booklets on Queensland history and
has done his share of indexing and editing. He has
been a librarian at the National Library of Australia as a
reader of Sanskrit manuscripts, Chief Librarian of John
Oxley Library in Brisbane, and a significant researcher
for the successful Mabo and Wik native title cases in
Queensland.
Colin described for us ancient methods of classification
and indexing from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Turkey and
western Europe and their impact on modern indexing.
The need to locate information was as important back
then as it is now.
Mesopotamian classification and indexing were
recorded on clay tablets – Assyria’s first library contained
over 30,000 clay tablets, each inventoried to a fixed
location. In Egypt, writing was considered important and
the development of papyrus created significant changes
in storage and retrieval. At the library of Alexandria,
Callimachus the Greek poet, developed a set of indexes
called the Pinakes. The library collection consisted of
over 120,000 items grouped together by subject area
C
Vol. 6, No. 6, July 2010
and housed in bins. Each bin detailed titles, authors,
biographical information and so on, and carried a label
with painted tablets hung above them. The tablets are
known as the Pinakes and had significant influence on
library management up until the introduction of the
Dewey Decimal system.
Other significant libraries that adopted this method
were the first public library in Rome 39 BC, the northern
African library in Timba (Algeria), the library of Celsus in
Ephesus (Turkey) and the great library in Constantinople.
It was the library in Constantinople, after it had been
rebuilt, that started using book form instead of papyrus.
In Western Europe, after the fall of the Roman
Empire, only monasteries were able to maintain libraries,
housing the books in cupboards. The library of the Abbey
of Cluny, France, which held approximately 5,000 books,
developed concordances or indexes to assist with retrieval.
This further developed the construction of the citation
which was included in the description of the item.
Printing has affected the way books are organised
– books had consistent page numbering, so enabling
indexes, and the greater number of books has needed
better retrieval methods. Significant indexes have been
created in Australia, such as the Queensland Mineral
Index of 1913 containing 18,000 entries and remaining a
major reference source even today. Colin also showed the
meeting some examples of his own indexing.
It was truly an enjoyable evening, and we eagerly
networked with our guest over supper.
Rachael Harrison,
Committee member, Queensland Branch
7
Report on ASI Conference, Minneapolis, 13–15 May
T
he conference was held at the
Marriott City Centre Hotel
in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Minneapolis has a population
of around 450,000 and its sister
city St. Paul, on the other side of
the Mississippi River has around
250,000. St Paul is the much nicer
city.
There were about 130 delegates
at the conference. All were from the US except for four
Canadians and one each from Britain and Australia.
The conference commenced with a welcome reception
on the first evening. The three international representatives
Ruth Pincoe (ISC/SCi), Maureen MacGlashen (SI) and I
were introduced by Frances Lennie (conference chair, and
President-elect, ASI).
There had been a number of half-day workshops
earlier on in the day, which I didn’t attend. Ruth and
Maureen both went to different workshops and found
them lacking in depth.
Next day (Friday) breakfast commenced nice and early
at 7.00 am. The keynote speaker, a Canadian by the name
of Katherine Barber, spoke on the history of the English
language, and why there are so many synonyms in English.
She works for the Canadian Oxford Dictionary. She was
absolutely brilliant. Very witty and very entertaining. In
fact, probably the highlight presentation of the whole
conference.
After Katherine’s presentation the conference started
in earnest. There were four parallel sessions running at
any given time. The difficulty was that two sessions were
on the main conference floor (level 4) and the other two
sessions were on level 8. You had to take a lift between
the levels to get to the various presentations. There
were other rooms on the 4th floor but a very large US
Army contingent (250 or more) were using all the other
available rooms for strategic training planning. This was
an issue outside of ASI’s control. It was simply poor
management on the hotel’s part and certainly didn’t win
them any accolades.
Many of the sessions used a panel format. This worked
fairly well, as long as the moderator of the panel didn’t
monopolise the group.
One of the best panel presentations I went to was
the session on ‘Revitalising Chapter Meetings’ – how
to improve attendance at meetings, as well as providing
for the needs of regional members. Seth Maislin, Diana
Witt and a couple of others explained the use of their Go
to Webinar 4 software for conducting virtual meetings.
Essentially the presenters (and a small audience) can be
in one location, and the other ‘attendees’ can dial in using
either their phone or Skype. ASI has purchased a licence
8
for the Webinar software and the Chapters are welcome
to use it. I presume it is free to the Chapters. The licence
allows for up to 100 people to be on the system at any
time, either via audio, video, or combined audio/video
links. Basically you need a control person to set up and
run the system and to moderate the links – if someone
is having problems logging in, they can sort out the
problems leaving the presenters to do the talking. It is
best to set the camera to focus on the computer screen, on
the Powerpoint slides rather than on the person talking.
The Webinar works well for visual presentations. It is a
waste of technology for purely a talkfest, such as Board
meetings, or for just discussing some Powerpoint slides.
You are better off sending the slides to everyone first
and then they can discuss them at their leisure. Virtual
audience members have a facility to raise their hand,
applaud, ask a question, and so on.
Broadband internet is absolutely essential for the
Webinar to work.
The Webinar will not provide the same value as faceto-face meetings, but it is a good substitute, particularly
when regional (or even interstate) delegates are involved.
The Pacific Northwest Chapter of ASI ran a small
trial of the Webinar and it worked well. There were some
teething problems for the speakers with people dialling
in, and there was an issue of background noise (dogs
barking, mobile phones ringing, and the like). This latter
issue was overcome by the speakers using headsets.
The second part of the ‘Revitalising Chapter Meetings’
presentation talked about the types of sessions they have.
The various Chapters have only 2–3 meetings per year,
with around 25 attendees, and each meeting runs for
around 4–5 hours including lunch. What was obvious
was that they tend to have a speaker circuit where ASI
luminaries travel around the Chapters giving talks on
different aspects of book indexing. These presentations
were designed for members at basic, intermediate and
advanced levels. It was disappointing to hear that no other
types of indexing-related activity were even mentioned or
considered.
The session on ‘Getting Paid’ was interesting. This
was run as a panel session moderated by Enid Zafran.
What I found surprising was that everyone is still paid
by cheque. Direct deposit, which we would class as the
norm, is very rare. Ruth Pincoe confirmed this is the same
situation in Canada. Apparently direct deposit is only for
employees. The other thing I found interesting was how
they chase up late payments. Their approach is to contact
the editor who commissioned them for the work. I asked
why not ring the accounts payable section directly, and
I was promptly asked how would I find out who to ring?
I replied ringing the switchboard of the appropriate firm
or university department and ask for accounts payable.
This approach was seen as a novelty.
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
I attended Richard Shrout’s interesting session on
‘Indexing Working Styles’. He mentioned he followed the
same format as for the Sydney conference in 2009. After
we broke into 3 groups (markers, non-markers and halfand-half markers/non-markers) he basically left us to our
own devices. Some leadership as to what he expected us
to do would have helped. We managed to work it out but
initial guidance would have been beneficial. Interestingly
enough the largest group was the non-markers, which
was the opposite result to Sydney. However, during our
discussions it was obvious that most people provided
some marking, even if it was just putting a symbol,
squiggle or some other mark on the page proofs that they
could recognise when they keyed the entries in. There
were only two of us (of probably around 15 in the nonmarker group) who didn’t place any mark on a page.
The session on ‘Streamlining Our Work Processes’
was run by a panel consisting of Connie Binder, Bonnie
Hanks and Becky Hornyak. It was very pedestrian.
Basically they said to use a spreadsheet to keep track of
clients, billing and scheduling. They suggested backingup your indexes both off-site in case of power outages, or
disasters like fires or tornadoes, as well as on a flash drive.
Archived indexes should similarly be kept off-site.
The other session I attended on ‘How to Start Your
Freelance Indexing Business’ run by Sandi Frank would,
at least according to the handout, have had useful content
for a new indexer. Unfortunately the presentation was
handled poorly so a lot of the value was lost.
There was another reception and poster presentation
early on Friday evening. Unfortunately there were only
two posters, which was a bit limiting. People seemed to
let their hair down and were much more friendly, chatty
and keen to mix.
The final morning (Saturday) everyone seemed a bit
jaded. Breakfast started at 7.00 am again. At 7.45 am
ASI held their AGM. During questions the topic of
ICI (Institute of Certified Indexers) certification arose.
Frances Lennie (the incoming ASI President) was very
diplomatic and just said the issue of certification was for
the four people concerned (Enid Zafran, who acted as ICI
organiser, Fred Leise, Kate Mertes and Pilar Wyman), and
not ASI. I disagree with Frances Lennie’s assessment and
I think the issue of ICI-certification is a major one for
ASI. As all four members are either still on the ASI Board
or have been recently on the Board there is definitely
a conflict of interest. From what I could understand
from Fred Leise the reason why they went ahead with
the certification idea was that ASI had prevaricated over
the issue for more than ten years and the group felt that
something needed to be done.*
The general feeling I gained from talking to a number
of attendees was the whole project would probably quietly
fade away as it just doesn’t make sense. The indexers
Vol. 6, No. 6, July 2010
who could potentially have benefited from this scheme
would have been relatively new indexers who wanted
their indexing skills assessed. However, according to the
information from ICI it is designed for indexers with 10
or more years experience. There are also costs involved.
A non-refundable application fee of US$60, and a nonrefundable grading fee for the qualifying examination of
US$500. Recertification, which is required every three
years, costs US$150 per recertification period.
After morning tea I gave my paper on ‘Indexing of
Illustrative Materials’. There were about 30 people in
attendance, and a lively discussion ensued. Both Maureen
and Ruth attended the paper. Maureen immediately
asked to include the paper in The Indexer.
During lunch Kate Mertes (outgoing ASI President)
introduced the three of us, and we all gave a five-minute
presentation about what our respective societies were
doing. I mentioned the dates, place and theme of the
ANZSI conference next year and received a lot of interest
in people attending. Whether it translates into actual
bodies I don’t know, but I think getting some preliminary
publicity out there will be a good thing. I think including
some photographs of the location, the beach and the
bathing boxes will be a significant drawcard. I mentioned
our Publicity and Promotion activities including the
bookmarks, banner and our ‘Year of Indexing Annual
Reports’ There was a lot of interest in the indexing
of annual reports. It was something that hadn’t even
been thought of. I also mentioned Database Indexing
Registration.
All three internationals were listened to attentively. We
all pushed indexing of other topics outside of traditional
book indexing, and I felt with the three of us taking this
line it acted as a wake- up call to the attendees. It will be
interesting to see if this translates into any changes for
their next ASI conference in Providence, Rhode Island,
28-30 April, 2011.
We were all presented with ASI Kohlrabi award
badges.
On the final afternoon ASI had organised a four hour
guided bus tour around Minneapolis and St Paul. It was
very, very enjoyable. The highlights were a trip to the
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, a visit to the Minnesota
State Capitol (parliament), a magnificent white marble
and granite building built around 1905, the Mississippi
River, and some delightful sculptures of Charles M.
Schulz’s famous Peanuts cartoon characters in a park in
St. Paul.
Max McMaster
[ * Robin Briggs’s ‘Letter to the Editor’ on page 5 is relevant
here. Ed.]
9
Nuggets from Ballarat
T
he Vic Branch of ANZSI
recently held a two-day
forum, Nuggets of Indexing,
at Sovereign Hill, the historical
gold mining heart of Ballarat. The
forum was primarily planned as
an opportunity for professional
indexers to gather to share indexing
experiences with colleagues. A most
pleasing and sensible program interspersed solid indexing
experiences with opportunities to explore the Sovereign
Hill settlement.
The selection of a venue within the Sovereign Hill
settlement encouraged participants to immerse themselves
in the historical experience, commune with locals plying
their wares as in 1860’s and accompany tourists enjoying
the thrill of a recreation of the Eureka uprising in the
‘Blood on the Southern Cross’ sound and light show, now
branded as Murder, Betrayal and Rebellion.
Indexing being, by its nature, a mostly solitary
working environment, members of this profession strive
to be proactive about gathering for discussion and
sharing the art and craft of indexing. The presentations
and discussion generated within many sessions lead
inexorably to the reiteration that the Art of Indexing is
alive and in constant practice even if the compilation of
the alphabetical lists and layout is extensively aided via
computer software.
Building on the theme presented by the location, the
forum was a well planned and managed event with an
even balance of thought provoking sessions on aspects of
indexing emphasizing delivering access to the historical
information and reflection on changes in the tools used
by indexers in the last 30 years.
Some of the Nuggets
The Ballaarat Mechanics Institute (BMI)
Clive Brooks spoke about this historic institution, thriving
in a shrinking Mechanics Institute community. Still using
the original spelling for its home city, the BMI hosts a
busy lending library in the central business district in
addition to a substantial collection of minerals attesting
to the importance of mining in this district.
An online database provides a valuable resource for
researching the local history and related mining sources.
Jane Purton gave an overview of Indexing of Local
History Newsletters in regional Victoria. The regional
focus of many local history groups is discouraging a more
comprehensive approach to providing reference points
into the wealth of detail within these locally produced
and potentially ephemeral publications. This regional
focus has lead to a variety of different thesauri, software
and database systems being used and missed opportunities
to benefit from the encouragement of Royal Historical
Society of Victoria (RHSV) which subsidises access to
10
DB Textworks and promotes use of the Victorian Local
History Thesaurus.
The Gold Nugget Replicas in the Museum of Victoria
were described in fascinating detail by Dermot Henry.
Truly weighty statistics of the number, size and quality of
nuggets found at seemingly improbably depths from ‘on
the surface’ to cited depths of less than 12 inches (this was
the 19th century) were testament to the wealth generated
in Victoria from gold in that era.
On a more traditional note, Mary Russell presented
a compelling case for Indexing Annual Reports. Annual
reports are a body of publications not often indexed and
yet multiple substantial drivers exist to encourage creation
of indexes for them. As greater numbers of people become
shareholders and superannuation funds delve deeper into
investment in stock and securities this underlines the
ongoing importance and benefits of structured access to
the information held in the reports from both industry
and government. An opportunity for ANZSI members.
The story of the Creation of the Sovereign Hill
settlement was told by Alan Eddy. The fascinating
early days of the settlement were filled with APEX club
members scrounging for original buildings, fixtures and
fittings to create a realistic environment, a dedicated
commitment to historical accuracy which was informed
by tales from old miners providing an oral history. All
this was converted into a working community providing
an understanding of life in mid 19th century ‘boom’
town and of the highs and lows of prospecting for gold to
generations to come . When the indexers ventured out of
the meeting rooms, the earnestness of this dedication to
recreation was delightfully matched by vingettes of daily
life re-enacted in streets to the amusement and education
of the 21st century passers-by.
Overall a totally enjoyable and professionally rewarding
time for those attending this ANZSI Vic event.
Susan Liepa, sometime indexer, librarian and IT devotee.
Setting out on the mine tour at Sovereign Hill, with Max McMaster,
Nikki Davies and Jenny Restarick. Photo by Jane Purton.
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
Indexing Nuggets from A to Z
We make no apologies for including TWO accounts by ANZSI members of their experiences at the seminar. They are completely
different in their emphasis and presentation, and both demonstrate quite brilliantly the enthusiasm and positive outcomes to
which the occasion gave rise.
I
am a new member of ANZSI
and at The Nuggets of Indexing
seminar I was asked to give some
feed-back. Others will write about
the event and, as I understand it, the
papers will be published, too. So,
below are just a few highlights of the
event to avoid repetition. After three
days of indexing discussions I cannot
help but compile my highlights in alphabetical order.
Note: Italics do not necessarily designate a title.
Acknowledgements
The Nuggets of Indexing was excellent and well organised.
Topics were varied and relevant and the speakers were
very knowledgeable and entertaining. It was a very good
mix of ‘strictly indexing’ presentations, talks that touched
on history, geology and social life, a visit to the local
Gold Museum, and ‘educational entertainment’: a tour
down a mine and a spectacular show about the Eureka
Stockade uprising. Breaking up the presentation of the
papers with some fun made the event less tiring and very
enjoyable. The program for partners was a very welcome
idea. The location of the seminar itself, Sovereign Hill, is
an absolute gem.
See also Thank you.
Bush Poetry
I was at a bush poetry reading once but it was just
that: a reading. Nothing had prepared me for the fun
of Noel Bull’s performance. Noel wove the poetry with
accounts of real life experiences, thus setting the poems
in a background that allowed us to enjoy them fully. And
what a selection: from the biggest river cod ever fished
in Australia, to the despair brought by a draught, to the
boardrooms of corporate power and a novel strategy for a
successful publicity campaign.
Dinners
Very welcome at the end of quite a full day, and another
opportunity to talk to other delegates in a relaxed
atmosphere. Food plentiful and delicious, accompanied
by excellent wine. Very good service, too. All framed
by the 19th century setting of the United States Hotel
luscious dining room. Five stars.
Flames, Smoke and Gun Shots
see Murder, Betrayal And Rebellion
Hazel Bell
I know many will cringe at seeing a personal name
entered in this fashion, but I cannot bring myself to list
her as ‘Bell, Hazel’. It is always difficult to single out a
‘best speaker’ among so many good ones, but for me the
Vol. 6, No. 6, July 2010
honour goes to her. After listening to her speech I know
why she is considered a mentor. She retraced the path
of indexing from the 1960s to this day in a fascinating
journey dotted with anecdotes and deep reflections.
See also Speakers.
Lunch
Lunch served at New York Bakery was the first item on the
program on Day 1. It convinced me a hearty lunch is the
best way to begin a seminar or a conference. It restores
you after travelling to the venue, it gives you nourishment
for the task ahead and it helps breaking the ice among
delegates who might not have ever met before. It should
be mandatory.
Murder, Betrayal and Rebellion
This is how the banner announces the ‘sound-and-light’
spectacular show Blood on the Southern Cross. ‘Spectacular’
is the operative word. It consists of a combination of
the history of the Eureka Stockade uprising (or ‘riots’,
depending which side of the political fence you sit on,
as Nikki Davis pointed out in her talk) told by actors,
a re-creation of the grounds and the movements of the
protagonists of the event, and a lot of amazing pyrotechnics
on a very large scale. Highly recommended.
Speakers
All very good, not a dull moment! They opened my eyes
to the vast amount of information in need of indexing
out there in museums, libraries, archives, and other
repositories. They also made me reflect on the enormity
and complexity of the task. As a very green member of
this Society I wonder if I am truly up to it.
See also Hazell Bell.
Spider (big)
The Gold Mine tour is an opportunity to walk underground
along the quite spacious, but low ceiling, dim tunnels of
a replica 18th century gold mine. You stop at designated
points and listen to the informative and entertaining
commentary delivered with humour and flair by a
guide. At one of these stations one of us asked if she was
standing in the right spot. ‘By all means, madam,’ was the
reply. ‘You stand there, right under the big spider.’
Thank you
Many thanks to the Organising Committee (in alphabetical
order): Jane Purton, Mary Russell, Max McMaster and
Nikki Davis for putting together such a good program
and for the format they chose.
I would like to thank also my husband Robert who
drove a 14 hours return journey so that I could attend
this seminar. (He enjoyed himself, too.)
Silvia Muscardin
11
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI)
ANZSI NEWSLETTER
Volume 6, number 7, August 2010
ANZSI News – Constitution changes
L
ast month I explained that
ANZSI was seeking to
incorporate. As part of that
process, Council will be taking to the
AGM some extensive amendments
to the Constitution. Most of the
amendments add new provisions to the
Constitution rather than change existing
provisions. A document showing
the existing Constitution and the
amendments is on the ANZSI website
at <www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=151>. If you
can’t access the website you can obtain a printed copy from
your branch president or from the Secretary at 104 Lakeview
Drive, Lilydale, Vic 3140, or phone 03 9735 4235.
If you find the entire document difficult to plough through
I ask that you at least read the following to understand what
the changes involve.
Why are we changing the Constitution?
There are two main reasons for the changes:
1. The procedures for incorporation are set out in the
Associations Incorporation Act 1981 (Vic), and detailed on
the Consumer Affairs Victoria website. Consumer Affairs
provides a set of Model Rules (their term for Constitution)
which may be found at <www.consumer.vic.gov.au/
CA256902000FE154/Lookup/ CAV_Publications_
Associations/$file/Association_Model_Rules.pdf>.
An organisation seeking to incorporate must adopt these
model rules in full, modify the model rules to suit its own
requirements, or draft its own rules. Since the model rules
do not mention branches, or the maintenance of a register,
such as our Register of Indexers, Council has decided to
amend our Constitution to conform to the Act.
2. A review of the present Constitution found in some places
there was either internal conflict or conflict between the
Constitution and the guidelines published on the website,
and also that the Constitution makes no provision for
some matters.
The changes
So what are the principal changes?
• Half-year membership
At its meeting in May, Council decided to abolish halfyear membership but instituted a second renewal date of
1 January in addition to 1 July. This has entailed some
minor amendments.
ISSN 1832-3855
• Life membership
The provisions for election to life membership have been
consolidated in one section of the Constitution rather than
being, as at present, divided between the Constitution
and the Procedures. This gives the members more control
over the procedures, in particular the voting requirements,
rather than having it enshrined in the Procedure which is
controlled by the Council.
• Incorporation requirements
The schedule to the Act lists seventeen matters to be provided
for in the rules of incorporated associations. These include
provisions for disciplining members together with the
mechanism for appearance by members in any disciplinary
action that takes place, and grievance procedures for settling
disputes between the Society and any of its members or
between a member and another member. These changes
were made by incorporating the relevant sections from the
Model Rules (described above).
• Nominations for Council
The timetable for nominations has been spelled out in more
detail and modified so that the names of nominees can be
published in advance of the Annual General Meeting. This
means that members unable to attend the meeting may, in
(continued on page 3)
WHAT’S INSIDE
Newsletter, Web Manager and Registration details
ANZSI AGM and Statement of purpose
Proxy voting at the AGM
ANZSI and Branch events
‘Recipes for success’ conference
Annual report peer review opportunity
Indexing degustation
Reporting awards 2010
News from Queensland
Indexing in South Africa in the ’80s
Letters to the editor
Indexing your annual report (Russell and McMaster)
Book review: The accidental taxonomist
Membership renewal
ANZSI and Branch Committee contacts
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Deadline for the September issue: 27 August
PO Box 5062, Glenferrie South VIC 3122, Australia
Newsletter,
Web Manager and
Registration contacts
Editor: Peter Judge
<peter.judge@bigpond.com>
Web Manager: Mary Russell
<russellmf025@ozemail.com.au>
Website: <www.anzsi.org>
ISSN 1832-3855
This newsletter is published monthly 11 times
per year, with combined issues for January/
February. It is sent free to all members of
the Australian and New Zealand Society of
Indexers. Opinions expressed in the newsletter
are those of the individual contributors, and
do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the
Society.
It is your newsletter, and we are totally
dependent on contributions, both large and
small, from members. Please contact the editor
if you have any questions about the suitability
of items for publication. The editor reserves the
right to edit or abridge contributions.
Please send files via email in MS Word,
.doc files or .rtf, but NOT .html or .pdf. And
please, no images or footnotes embedded in
Word files.
Next deadline
27 August for the September 2010 issue.
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formats. Do not embed images in text files.
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by the editor. Note that photos need to be
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well in black and white.
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quarter page A$50.
Membership charges
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from 1 Jul 2010.
Institutional membership A$100.
Subscriptions to the Newsletter A$55 p.a.
The Indexer
(international indexing journal)
Maureen MacGlashan, Executive Editor
<editor@theindexer.org>.
ANZSI Corresponding Member
Alan Eddy <aeddy2@bigpond.com>
To subscribe at the special rate for indexing
society members, go to <www.theindexer.org>
and click on the subscriptions link.
Registration
Shirley Campbell
Ph +61 2 6285 1006
<shirley.campbell4@bigpond.com> or
<www.anzsi.org/site/registration.asp>
Indexers Available
<www.anzsi.org/site/Indexers_available.asp>
2
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers
Annual General Meeting
will be held on Wednesday 1 September 2010 at 6.30 pm at the
Elsternwick Club, 19 Sandham Street, Elsternwick Victoria (Melway 67, F2).
Agenda
1. Minutes
To approve the minutes of the AGM held at the Marriott Hotel, College Street, Sydney
on Friday, 16 October 2009.
See < www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=151>
2. Matters arising from the minutes not included elsewhere in the agenda.
3. President’s Report
To receive a report from the President on the Society’s activities in 2009-10.
4. Treasurer’s Report
To receive an audited financial report from the Treasurer on the year 2009-10.
5. Council for 2010-11
To receive a report from the Returning Officer on nominations for the following
positions:
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Five Council members.
6. Incorporation
To approve the following motions:
6.1 That the Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers take the steps
necessary to incorporate under the provisions of the Associations
Incorporation Act 1981 (Vic).
6.2 That the Secretary be authorised to incorporate the Society.
6.3 That the statement of purpose (see below) be approved.
6.4 That the Constitution, as amended, be approved as the Constitution of
the incorporated society.
6.5 That the property (real and personal) that was previously held by
individuals on behalf of the unincorporated society be transferred to
the new incorporated society.
7. Any other business
Not requiring prior notice.
Statement of purpose (Item 6.3)
The Society aims:
• to improve the quality of indexing in Australia and New Zealand;
• to promote the training, continuing professional development, status and interests
of indexers in Australia and New Zealand;
• to act as an advisory body on indexing to which authors, editors, publishers and
others may apply for guidance;
• to provide opportunities for those interested in and connected with indexing to meet
and exchange information, ideas and experiences relating to all aspects of indexing;
• to establish and maintain relationships between the Society and other bodies with
related interests; and
• to publish information in accord with the foregoing aims.
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
(Constitution changes, continued from page 1)
the event of an election and if they wish, cast a vote by
proxy. At the moment, with nominations closing only
fourteen days before the AGM, this is impracticable.
• Proxy voting
The provisions for proxy voting have been tidied up.
• General meetings
The procedures for convening the Annual General Meeting
and special general meetings have been detailed more fully.
In particular provision is now made for members to give
notice of business they wish to raise by resolution at the
AGM. This provision does not exist in the Constitution as
it stands. Some aspects of procedure have been clarified to
conform to the provisions in the Model Rules.
• Removal from office of members of Council
Provision has been made for the removal from office of
members of Council by members voting in a general
meeting. These provisions are based on the Model Rules.
I encourage all members to read the amended draft
Constitution. It will be voted on at the Annual General
Meeting on 1 September, where the motion will be to approve
the amended Constitution. The quorum for an annual general
meeting is ten members personally present and entitled to
vote. A simple majority (i.e. one more than 50%) is required
to approve the amended Constitution. Members may vote by
proxy by completing and returning the form available on the
website at <www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=151> or
from the Secretary at the address in the first paragraph.
It is important that ANZSI proceed to incorporate for the
reasons I explained in my article in the July Newsletter. To do
this we are required to have a set of rules (a Constitution) that
meets the criteria set out in the Act. If you are able to attend
the AGM please do so. If you cannot, please exercise your right
to vote by proxy. ANZSI needs your vote!
Mary Russell
• Society’s records
The Constitution now identifies responsibility for
maintaining the Society’s records and confers on members
the right to inspect those records.
Proxy voting at the 2010 AGM
T
o have your say at the AGM you need to complete a
proxy form. It includes only one resolution relating to
item 6 on the AGM agenda – the other separate resolutions
have been encompassed in the first. This is because logically
one cannot vote for the first resolution and then not
pass the other enabling resolutions, including the proposed
amendments to the Constitution. Hence a member who is
in favour of incorporation [the first resolution] will also vote
in favour of the four other resolutions, or vice versa.
The Statement of Purpose has been taken from the aims in
the present Constitution. Constitution changes are discussed
in ANZSI News and the document is on the website.
To make your vote count it is essential that it is received
by the President either via post or by emailing a scan of the
form. Proxy forms need to be collated before the meeting, so
please do not give your proxy to the person nominated. If you
give the form to your proxy it will be invalid.
The resolution and options are as follows:
In respect of the five resolutions listed under item 6 of the
agenda for the AGM, relating to Incorporation, I issue the
following instruction –
PLEASE CHOOSE ONE OPTION
• I appoint <name > to act as my proxy and to vote as he/
she sees fit on all resolutions.
OR
• I appoint the Chairman of the Meeting as my proxy to
vote as he/she sees fit on all resolutions.
OR
• I instruct the Chairman of the Meeting as my proxy to
vote on all the resolutions in the manner directed below:
For/Against/Abstain (please indicate preferred option)
The proxy form is available from the Secretary or at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=151>.
Mary Russell
ANZSI and Branch events
Date and time
Organiser
Name of activity
Venue
Contact details
Tues 17 August
6.00 for 6.30 pm
Wed 1 Sept
6.30 pm
Qld Branch
General meeting
Hazel Bell via DVD
ANZSI AGM and
Vic Branch AGM
Carindale Library
Details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=160>
Details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=146>
Wed 1 Sept
6.30 for 7.00 pm
Vic Branch
AGM dinner
Elsternwick Club
Vic Branch
Vol. 6, No. 7, August 2010
Elsternwick Club
Details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=159>
3
Cooks who Index; Indexers who Cook
NSW and ACT Recipes for success conference, 24 July, Bowral
A
prons on! Lynn Farkas and Sherrey Quinn, the
Masterchefs, (pictured) began the workshop by asking
us what we liked and didn’t like about cookbook
indexes. Indexes we liked had entries under recipe titles, main
ingredients, cooking methods and utensils. Less useful indexes
were the table of contents type of
indexes or those with too much
classification. Lynn and Sherrey
showed us a wide range of books
illustrating good and bad features.
Some of the participants had brought
their favourite cookbooks with
extremely comprehensive indexes.
We then discussed the general
principles of indexing using examples
of how they relate to cookbooks.
Next came the basic components of
cookbook indexes such as structure,
categories, entries, inclusions
and exclusions. Sherrey and Lynn
showed us how to deal with special
considerations such as multi-language
recipe titles, subsidiary recipes and metatopics.
Having digested all of these ideas, we formed four groups
to index a selection of recipes which we had submitted earlier.
Panel Session: Essential ingredients
T
his was a fun session in which Panel members (Mary
Coe, Mary Russell, Shirley Campbell and Madeleine
Davis) and participants in the Cookbook Workshop
were invited to reveal the indexing aids they could not live
without. I also gathered wisdom from Index – L and colleagues
who could not attend.
Mary Coe kickstarted us off with the following:
Computer stuff:
• Cindex
• Dual flat screen monitors - good for embedding , Medline,
simple PDF files.
• Laser mouse (Comment - but what a mouse – it can
remember macros and other wondrous things!)
• DexEmbed (also WordEmbed)
• InDesign (indexing and conversion)
• ‘Cody Safe’ a portable apps manager - USB with Cindex
– acts as a file backup device for travelling. (Comment
- Mary takes Cindex with her on travels and downloads on
available computers to keep working; Madeleine lugs heavy
(old) laptop with Cindex installed on travels. Duhh!)
Infrastructure:
• Large corner desk and big office chair
• Entertainment unit with shelves for books in progress
• French doors, light, air, entertainment (see also a quiet
environment under Shirley below)
Internet and communication devices:
• Skype – for weekly meetings, informal chats, messaging
features
• Wireless – can work anywhere with laptop
4
This was speed indexing as we only had a limited time, rather
like the real world of deadlines to meet. We then compared the
four indexes. As to be expected, they were all different, each
having different points to recommend it.
Elisabeth Thomas devised a little competition to stir our
imaginations. She had brought along
a clear plastic tool that included a
peeler with other blades and cutters
for slicing and carving foodstuffs.
The prize went to the closest or most
inventive name suggested. The actual
name was ‘Kitchen Magic Food
Glamorizer’. Sherrey Quinn won with
‘Mum’s Kitchen Wizard’. Honourable
mentions were ‘Invisible Stripper’
by Geraldine Triffitt and ‘Spuddy
Duddy’ by Frances Paterson.
Thanks to Sherrey and Lynn for
a lively and engaging workshop. We
all participated very enthusiastically,
learnt a great deal about cookbook
indexing and came home with an
original cookbook as a bonus. Too many cooks certainly didn’t
spoil the broth!
Tricia Waters
Organizing tools:
• Diary – paper (Comment - Madeleine also confirms paper
diary – will change to online one day…)
• Google Calendar (as well – but necessary to work online
with overseas partners)
• Web Office and Quickbooks
• Excel and Cashflow Manager for accounting
Other:
• Highlighters
• Windows 7 Post-It Notes (see also under Madeleine below)
• Cat, dog, chicken (Comment - not sure we wanted to
enlarge on this…)
• Internet radio (see further comments under radio below)
Mary Russell pointed out that the most ‘Essential Ingredient’
was us! She went on to say:
• Take special care of yourself - eat good food, sleep and
exercise. I enjoy proper coffee, so I have an espresso
machine. I also buy fruit and vegetables from the Farmers
Markets
• I also consider my body and have an ergonomic set up,
with kneeling chair and electric height adjustable desk
that allows me to sit or stand at while working (Comment
– Mary did a fair pass at demonstrating this!)
• I try and reward myself with enjoyable time out, such as
visits to museums or craft shows. It is a way of returning to
the task refreshed.
(continued on next page)
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
(Indexing essentials, continued from previous page)
• Another thing I have is a PO Box. My parcel post often
doesn't arrive until late afternoon, so by having a PO Box
I'm able to pick up parcels in the morning
Shirley Campbell indicated that she must have:
• a quiet environment (Comment - Madeleine also indicated
that this was a high priority and gave a pathetic account of
her mother having to creep around the household when on
visits)
• a quality indexing reference tool. Shirley recommended The
Indexing Companion by Glenda Browne and Jon Jermey
with its accompanying workbook.
Madeleine Davis said that:
• she is ‘over the moon’ about her new BENQ LCD 60cm flat
screen monitor which allows PDF and Cindex files side by
side for cut and pasting (see Comment below)
• she also loves her screen Windows 7 Post It Notes – she
writes shopping lists while staring at her indexing text
Comment re macros to make cutting and pasting from
PDFs easier. Margaret Berson was mentioned – her website
at <http://edit-mb.com/megabit/> explains Megabit Macros,
third-party macros for indexers who work in Windows, to
speed up copying text from Adobe PDF files into an indexing
program. Glenda Browne has a home-grown keyboard macro
to work between Sky Index and PDFs.
Lindy Allen revealed her document holder/drafting aid (see
<www.ergonomicoffice.com.au/catalogue_list.asp?catID=27&
nav=copyholders>
Summary from Index-L and others:
• Really good budget!
• Radio – keeps a handle on the outside world during the
long hours of indexing!
• My super-comfortable office chair (I want to be buried in
it!)
• Indexing discussion lists (‘virtual water cooler’). I can't
imagine how freelancers coped with isolation prior to the
Internet!
• A monthly massage, aka ‘tune-up’
• SKY software, Acrobat Professional, MS Office
• Good lighting
• Good computer (and a laptop as backup was also
mentioned)
• A big, heavy music stand. I like to work with the text in
hard copy, so I print off the PDF my publisher sends me,
put it in a binder, and open it up on the music stand, which
I place right next to me on my left. When people come visit,
they ask me if I'm a musician
• A Page Minder, which holds books open. It’s like a hair
pick, four-pronged and made out of sturdy metal. The
prongs are set 3/4” apart. One inserts the prongs among the
pages at the top of the book to hold it open.
Madeleine Davis
Victorian Branch annual report peer review opportunity
A
s part of ANZSI’s Year of Indexing Annual Reports
the Victorian Branch decided to offer a peer review
opportunity for an index to an annual report, open
to any member of ANZSI. Twenty-two took part, 11 from
Victoria and the rest from Queensland, NSW, Tasmania, SA
and WA.
Participants were invited to index the 2008/09 report of
either Latrobe City Council or the National Gallery of Victoria.
Links to the PDF files were provided and the organisations
concerned were made aware of the exercise. They had three
weeks to complete the index.
The task was to be like a real job, with minimal guidance.
The only requirements given were that it was due at 9.00 am
on 17 April and NO extensions were possible. The indexer had
to decide the length of the index, the headings to use and the
style to be used in presenting the index.
The indexes were assessed against the criteria used for indexes
for Registration, with additional comments on layout and
presentation. Everyone indexes differently and no two indexes
to the same publication will be identical. They may have found
four references to an item, while I had five, or perhaps three.
This was a training exercise, so the aim was to give guidance on
how they could improve. I was more concerned that they had
indexed the key aspects of the annual report:
• How had they indexed the organisation’s goals or operational
•
performances?
Had they covered the key functions of the organisation?
Vol. 6, No. 7, August 2010
•
•
Were the internal workings of the organisation indexed?
and
How were the financial aspects indexed?
•
•
•
•
Were headings and subheadings appropriate?
Did they use see and see also references correctly?
If they used double postings, were the page numbers the same?
Was the index set out correctly?
I also looked at their indexing skills:
It was obvious that many indexers were outside their comfort
zone when they indexed the annual report. They were capable
of indexing names, works of art, exhibitions, etc. but were
not as confident when it came to the general workings of an
organisation. For example, some did not realise the importance
of vision, mission and value statements to an organisation;
some didn’t index freedom of information or whistleblowers;
others were very unsure how to index financial aspects.
This lack of organisational knowledge was a useful discovery
and assisted Max and me in writing Indexing your annual
report.
Participants were provided with a feedback survey form.
From the very favourable comments received, Victorian Branch
will offer the Annual Report peer review opportunity again in
2011, this time including a shareholder annual report as one
of the options. Next year’s exercise will be open to both those
who participated this time and any other interested ANZSI
members.
Mary Russell
5
Indexing degustation August 2010
IFLA Caterpillar Project
A
n association between IFLA and
caterpillars does not often spring
to mind, even after a bottle of
red. However, a scheme set up with
IFLA funding to supply books to rural
African communities has been named
the Caterpillar Project. The name arose
from the idea of using a folding box shelf
system to transport books to remote
communities.
The Caterpillar Book Box is a 1.8 m high folding case on
castors which holds about 100 books. The first box has been
used by an Adult Basic Education group at night, and a very
small school group in the daytime.
According to Ian Stringer, the pilot scheme is located in
Koekenaap, a very poor farming area where 60% of the adults
are illiterate and only 30% of nine year olds can read. They
are too poor to travel the 20 miles to the nearest library. The
Caterpillar Book Box is the only access that this community
has to books.
It is the aim of the Public Library Section to seed fund a
further 20 Caterpillar Book Boxes for Kenya, Swaziland and
Malawi, containing not only books but health information on
HIV and AIDS. There is even a Baby Cat for pre-schools.
Read more of Ian Stringer’s article at
<http://archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla73/papers/128-Stringer-en.pdf>.
Taxonomies and controlled vocabularies
Show me an indexer who is not fascinated by thesauruses and
the relationships between subjects. Hands up those who study
the LCSH in the loo. Oops, have I let the cat/feline out of
the bag? Most of us are happy with the concept of thesauruses
but glaze over when the terms taxonomy and ontology are
discussed. What are taxonomies and ontologies?
The American Society of Indexing has a Taxonomies
& Controlled Vocabularies SIG (Special Interest Group) at
<www.taxonomies-sig.org/> which gives a good definition of
these terms plus access to some articles on the subject.
I was particularly taken with the “glosso-thesaurus” which
helps address what Bella Hass Weinberg saw as ‘a singular lack
of vocabulary control in the field of controlled vocabularies’.
The glossary is more than a list of terms; it serves as an
illustration of what a controlled vocabulary looks like.
Take a look at the glosso-thesaurus at <www.boxesandarrows.
com/view/controlled_vocabularies_a_glosso_thesaurus>.
A thing of beauty is a joy forever (Keats)
Can an index be beautiful? Are index users hampered by an
ugly index? Indexers, by their very natures, are seen as creatures
of order, but do they always think about the visual impact of
an index?
Frances Lennie has written an absorbing article on the
subject. According to Frances, an index is a mixture of ruledriven and creative processes. Ways that indexers can adjust
the style of an index to improve usability are illustrated with
examples. The use of initial capital letters for all headings makes
6
it difficult for the user to distinguish topics from names. Does
one use prepositions? Never or with discretion? Defining the
level can be illustrated by the use of capitalised or emboldened
headings and em dashes before subheadings; Locators can be
in bold. Colour may help, especially in cook books. However,
the clients usually have guidelines which must be considered
and it may help to show the client the difference between the
indexer’s vision of usability and the client’s way. As Frances
says, whether this helps or not, the indexer can be satisfied
that every effort has been made to create an index that is ‘both
workable and winsome’.
Lennie, F. (2010). The visual appeal of indexes: an
exploration. The Indexer, 28(2), 60-67.
Interim indexes
An interim or preliminary index is created for a work in
progress to enable the author to keep track of the contents of
a manuscript before it goes to print. In other words, it is a
revision tool. The author generally creates the interim index
but sometimes a professional indexer is employed.
In an article for the March issue of The Indexer, Hazel Bell
writes of her experience of compiling such an index, rather
gloomily entitled, “Interim indexes and their fate.”
Hazel Bell compiled the index for the author Ian Norrie
who generally indexed his own books. The detailed index
was a great help to the author, but the version published in
the book was extremely limited. However, an extended index
based on Hazel’s work was available as a separate booklet from
the publishers. An author’s note at the head of the latter
index stated that he had made so many additions that he did
not think that the compiler would wish to own it. The fact
that only three copies of the extended index were sold was
due, according to Hazel, to the fact that an extremely detailed
index, while invaluable to the author, is unpopular with both
publishers and readers.
Bell, H.K. (2010). Interim indexes and their fate. The
Indexer, 28(1), 24-25.
ASAIB conference
The Association of Southern African Indexers and Bibliographers
held their annual conference, entitled The Indexer in Publishing,
on 7 May at Rietvlei Nature Reserve near Pretoria. In this
International Year of Biodiversity the environmental theme
was carried through with hand decorated paper conference bags
and green cushions. The lack of recognition given to indexers
in South Africa was a major discussion point at the conference
and a call was made to design a formal contract to standardise
the profession and to ensure that publishers accorded indexers
the status they deserve within the industry.
From ASAIB Newsletter <www.asaib.org.za/docs/ASAIB_
newsletter_June_2010.pdf>
Jane Purton
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
Reporting Awards 2010
T
he results for the 2010 Australasian Reporting Awards
<www.arawards.com.au> were announced in June
for the 2008–09 annual reports. Companies and
government departments submit their annual reports in one
of ten divisions: Financial Services. Community and Welfare;
Local Government; Health and Medical Research; Travel;
Legal, Regulatory and Administrative; Manufacturing and
Retail; Minerals and Petroleum; Services, Education and
Agriculture; Transport, Construction and Property.
The reports are assessed and winning reports earn gold, silver
or bronze medals. In 2007 the Victorian Branch successfully
lobbied the Australasian Reporting Awards to include an index
in their assessment criteria. So how many actually contain an
index? There were a total of 193 medal winners this year. I
looked at each of the winning reports on the web to see whether
they had an index or not. Those that I could not find on the
web are marked ‘unknown’.
Winners Has index No index Unknown
Gold
39
26
11
2
Silver
84
51
31
2
Bronze
70
23
42
5
193
100
84
9
Only 52 percent of award winning annual reports had
something labelled as an index, although many were more like
glorified contents pages. Two-thirds of gold and about 60 per
cent of silver medal winning reports have an index; however,
only about a third of bronze medal winners have one.
Looking at the winners State by State:
ACT
NSW
NT
NZ
QLD
SA
TAS
VIC
WA
Winners
22
52
2
10
30
3
4
62
8
193
Has index
20
29
2
1
13
1
1
29
4
100
No index
1
22
9
16
2
3
27
4
84
Unknown
1
1
1
6
9
The ACT winners were mainly Commonwealth
Departments, in which there is a requirement to include an
index in annual reports, so it is not surprising there is a high
indexing rate in ACT. Other state winners come from a wide
mix of industries and government departments.
The Promotion and Publicity Committee will be sending
each of the medal winners a brochure for the ANZSI publication
Indexing your annual report: a guide to try and raise awareness
of not only the importance of having an index in an annual
report, but highlighting what constitutes a good index. It is
hoped that next year a higher percentage of award winners will
have an index.
Mary Russell
News from Queensland Branch
S
even new trainees attended the Back-of-Book indexing
Part 1 & 2 training held in Brisbane last month.
They included one from New Zealand, and one from
Tasmania. Queensland Branch now has four new members and
New Zealand and Victoria a new member each – the offer of
membership and reduced training fees being the incentive.
Trainees enjoyed the first day of training at Vicki Law’s
home where Vicki put on a wonderful spread. That evening,
six of the trainees attended the Branch AGM, where a delicious
four course dinner was provided for the usual $2 supper fee,
prepared by Vicki Law, Rachael Harrison, Mei Yen Chua and
Moira Brown’s daughter Sarah.
As the President Moira Brown was unwell, Rachael
Harrison (voted as new Vice-President that evening) chaired
the AGM, ably assisted by Franz Pinz (Treasurer) and Vicki
Law (Secretary). Rachael and Franz are pictured at right.
Max McMaster was the Guest Speaker, giving his impressions
of the American Society for Indexing Conference held recently
in Minneapolis. Max also gave a brief discussion on the online
indexing course which he now teaches part-time from the
University of California, Berkeley Campus.
The second day of indexing training was held at Moira
Brown’s home, where all the trainees successfully completed an
index on their laptops. The training was thoroughly enjoyed by
all, and Max as usual had excelled himself as Trainer.
Vol. 6, No. 7, August 2010
The AGM voted in Moira Brown (President), Rachael
Harrison (Vice-President), Franz Pinz (Treasurer), Vicki Law
(Secretary) and Committee Members Mei Yen Chua, David
Mason, Jan Rees. Jean Dartnall is continuing as a Committee
Member and our Queensland Branch Regional contact in
Townsville.
Our new Committee Member, Jan Rees, is already spreading
word of our existence to the Mackay Region. Jan is soon to be
Guest Speaker on Indexing at the local Writers Club and is
using our ANZSI Queensland Branch brochures and ANZSI
bookmarks to market the Society.
Moira Brown, President, ANZSI Queensland Branch
7
Nuggets of Indexing Seminar – June 2010
Indexing in the ‘80s – the South African experience: presentation by Nikki Davis
branch had a copy of Norman Knight’s Indexing, the art of,
Getting into indexing
M
y first introduction to indexing
came during the early 1980s,
when I worked in the Book
Editorial Department of Reader’s Digest
(South Africa). Sadly, the book publishing
arm no longer exists, but at that time it had
a reputation for producing quality books
with local South African content, in a market that consisted
mostly of books imported from either the UK or the US.
The average time to produce a Reader’s Digest title was two
years, and a good index was considered to be a vital component.
Indexers were few and far between in South Africa at that time;
there was no indexing society, nor was there any indexing
training available in the country. A number of our titles were
indexed by Ethleen Lastovica, a librarian and freelance indexer.
In a paper titled ‘Trends in the Practice of Indexing’, presented
at a conference in Cape Town in 2003, she recalled her work as
an indexer during this period.
I can’t remember why I was attracted to indexing in 1978.
Perhaps it was because I had been a librarian for almost 20 years
and had always enjoyed the backroom jobs of cataloguing and
classification. To be equipped as a freelance indexer, I joined the
Society of Indexers in the UK (subscription £5) and registered
for their Rapid Results College course on indexing. I became
a Registered Indexer of the Society of Indexers based on the
assessment of my first index – a book on Shona Cosmology.
At that stage it was acceptable to submit an index to a
publisher on 5 x 3” cards delivered in a shoebox. However, in
1982 I purchased my first computer which had a memory of
64K. I still indexed on cards but used the computer as an electric
typewriter to prepare the index in laid-out style and then printed
the file with a dot matrix printer. (The computers we have in our
homes today are more powerful than those that put the first men
on the moon).
I attended the 4th Society of Indexers Conference in Durham
in 1985 and remember delegates clustering around an indexer
who showed how she was using a microcomputer and a cassette
tape to prepare indexes. I forget the process, but it seemed a
technique beyond reality, because few could see how computers
could assist in the art of indexing.
It was at that conference that Druscilla Calvert introduced
Macrex, the dedicated back-of-the-book software program, to the
public. Shortly afterwards I purchased the program and have used
Macrex for indexing ever since.
Ethleen was in high demand and not always available when
Reader’s Digest needed an indexer. This undoubtedly aided my
own entry into indexing. I clearly recall our managing editor
looking around the table at an editorial meeting and asking
which one of us would be willing to do an indexing course.
Without so much as giving it a second thought, I found myself
saying that I would.
After writing to the Society of Indexers for suggestions
on training options, I decided on the Book Indexing Postal
Tutorials course run by Ann Hall in Moffat, Scotland. This
course later became known as the Book Indexing Personal
Tutorials course, and I believe after many years, is about to
cease. I also discovered that Cape Town City Libraries’ main
8
and the South African Library (the equivalent of the National
Library in Canberra) had a subscription to The Indexer.
I borrowed Knight’s book over and over and over. Issues of
The Indexer I read during my lunch breaks while undertaking
editorial research at the library, as not surprisingly, they were
available for reference only.
As soon as I had completed my indexing course with
Ann Hall and began producing indexes for Reader’s Digest,
word seemed to get out and I began moonlighting for other
publishers, coming home to index their books after completing
a full day’s work at Reader’s Digest.
Tools and software
My first indexes were compiled with the aid of a cardboard
shoebox (or two), a heap of 5 by 3” index cards, and a
typewriter, which I still have. I wonder if oncologists married to
indexers have a special propensity for writing indexing programs
(Macrex, for example, being written by Hilary Culvert, an
oncologist) because my cancer specialist husband Sidney also
went down this path, writing an indexing program for me, after
he had finally had enough of watching me shuffling index cards
and noisily typing my indexes up, typexing out the errors. He
has forgiven me for making a later purchase of CINDEX.
Indexes created, indexes consulted
The Reader’s Digest Illustrated History of South Africa: The Real
Story launched another Reader’s Digest colleague of mine,
John Linnegar, into indexing. He recalls having to create the
index to this book ‘in an impossibly short time, and what a
hard job that was, but an amazing springboard to (eventually)
introducing a training course here. Anyone in SA who wants
a real qualification in indexing has to do the UK Society of
Indexers correspondence course (at great expense) and exam.
But few know about it, or can afford it. So I saw a gap and
produced a one-day introductory course, with the usual posttraining follow-up and handholding. Trainees on my course
spend a full day actually creating mini-indexes that enable
them to learn the theory and practicalities hands-on, and this
formula seems to be working well. Several librarians wanting to
retire, or ex-librarians, come on the course and take to it like
fish to water, of course.’
The publication of The Reader’s Digest Illustrated History
of South Africa also illustrates some of the challenges faced by
publishers in apartheid-era South Africa. Reader’s Digest was
pushing the boundaries as indicated the sub-title ‘The real
story’ by covering among other things the history of the African
National Congress (ANC), now the ruling party in the country,
but which at that time was a banned organisation.
During the project, our managing editor made contact with
the ANC office in London, while on a trip to the UK. Working
as a picture researcher on this title, I looked forward to
acquiring pictorial material that was not available to us within
South Africa. Unfortunately, the pictures which were sent to us
through the mail did not reach us, having been intercepted and
confiscated by the South African authorities.
(continued on next page)
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
(continued from previous page)
Besides creating indexes, I was also a frequent user of indexes,
particularly in relation to picture research work, for which they
were a vital tool in those pre-internet days. Some indexes were
on cards, for example, the Cape Archives which I would visit
in person to search. Other picture collections published their
indexes, for example, the Star newspaper and the Africana
Museum, both based in Johannesburg. These indexes were
available at the South African Library in Cape Town, although
to see the images, I still needed to travel to Johannesburg to
visit the collections. But they allowed me to create target lists
of images that I thought were potentially suitable.
Terminology
In searching indexes, I needed to be aware that terminology was
sometimes influenced by European attitudes and by the politics
of apartheid. For example, the protests in Soweto on 16 June,
1976, were commonly described as the ‘Soweto riots’. Others
avoided this term because of its implications of lawlessness
and anarchy, and used the alternative term, ‘Soweto uprising’,
which displayed instead empathy towards the frustrations being
felt by the Black students involved.
The word ‘kaffir’, meaning ‘heathen’ has its origins in Arabic
and was first used in South Africa by early European settlers.
While it was commonly understood as being derogatory, the
term could still be found in situations where early paintings
were indexed by their titles, and in which this term was
frequently used.
The term ‘Bantu’ is another example. In its innocuous sense
it refers to a sub-branch of Niger-Congo languages but it took
on a negative connotation when the Nationalist Government
came to power in 1948. The word ‘Bantu’ became a blanket
term that applied to all Black people and was actively used
by the government. For example, the nominally independent
‘homelands’ for Black people created under the apartheid
system, were known as ‘Bantustans’. While I was always aware
of the offensive nature of this term, it was widely used and
could not be dismissed as a search term.
Indexing on the back burner
One indexing skill that I was never able to acquire was that
of indexing with young children. I am in awe of women such
as Hazel Bell, who was able to index while being the mother
of three young boys. I thought I had the perfect career for
motherhood, until I had my two sons and found that it was
near impossible. Clearly Glenda Browne and Jon Jermey have
had to consider this as well, as they write in their book, The
Indexing Companion.
And then there are those who work with children at home…
Although freelance indexing can appear an ideal opportunity to
work from home while being with young children, it can be
very difficult to produce quality work with constant demands
for attention.
So indexing went on the back burner for me for a
number of years although my interest always remained. Instead
I decided to study librarianship through the University of
South Africa (Unisa), a large correspondence university. Apart
from the intellectual stimulation I thought it would provide
me with additional skills for work in research and indexing at
Vol. 6, No. 7, August 2010
some unknown time in the future. Ironically, Unisa would later
become the home of ASAIB.
It was also at this time in 1989 that I emigrated to Australia.
This was a particularly unsettling time in South Africa, with
bans placed on the media with regard to reporting on political
unrest. Correspondingly, countries such as Australia continued
to place pressure on the South African government. Australia
Post announced that it was considering stopping the handling
of mail to and from the country. This would naturally present
problems for me as a correspondence student living outside
of South Africa, so after consulting an Australian lecturer in
library and information studies, I later switched to a course at
Edith Cowan University.
From trade to profession
Besides the technological advances, one of the biggest differences
I have noticed between my two indexing careers, is that when
I left publishing it was referred to as a ‘trade’ but I have now
come back to a ‘profession’. I learnt about publishing through
inhouse, hands-on practice, guided by those around me with
more experience. I participated in brainstorming sessions to
come up with new concepts. I learnt how to locate information
and how to verify facts. I learnt how to undertake picture
research and how to manage copyright. I learnt how to write
copy and how to read typesetting instructions. I visited the
printing presses and watched our books going to press. I was
also fortunate to travel, visiting consultants, libraries and
museums around the country, as in those pre-internet days the
only way to access these was to visit them yourself. All of the
knowledge I gained about putting a book together has been
invaluable to me in my work today as an indexer.
A few years ago, the Australian writer Gideon Haigh caused
a controversy by saying that journalism went into decline the
day it ceased to be a trade and became a profession. Without
wishing to start another controversy myself, I think there are
probably some lessons in his observations for writers of indexes.
Hopefully in pushing indexing into a professional direction,
the art and craft of it will not be lost. I myself was quite pleased
to see that a recent ASI seminar in New York was titled Finetuning the craft.
Indexing in South Africa today
In 1994, the Association for Southern African Indexers and
Bibliographers (ASAIB) was formed with the aim of being ‘an
independent organisation to serve the interests of Southern
African indexers and bibliographers and to promote all aspects
of indexing and bibliographic activity.’ ASAIB runs indexing
courses regularly, and Unisa, where ASAIB is based, also offers
indexing units through its undergraduate librarianship course.
Ethleen Lastovica tells me that since she retired she has been
too busy to do much indexing, but she still indexes a book or
two a year. John Linnegar, besides being an indexing trainer,
is currently the national chair of the SA Professional Editors’
Group, and is on a mission to try and raise the standards of
editing in South Africa.
Nikki Davis
9
Letters to the Editor
From Shirley Campbell, President of ACT Region Branch. Shirley is writing here in her personal capacity.
n ‘ANZSI News – Incorporation of ANZSI’ in the July
it is the responsibility of every member to regularly check their
newsletter the President writes that one of the advantages
own entry. This is an issue of personal responsibility.
of incorporation is the protection of all members and office
The assumption is made in the hypothetical example that
holders against personal liability for debts and other legal
gaining Registration leads to increased income. Where is the
obligations of the organisation. She provides a hypothetical
evidence to support this statement? It is likely that an indexer
example of an indexer who discovers, 12 months after attaining
gains more work as a result of being Registered. At a meeting of
Registration, that this information has not been updated in
indexers and editors in the ACT last year the issue of Registration
their Indexers Available entry due to a clerical oversight, so
was discussed. The editors had no idea what Registration was
that person would have every right to sue for potential loss of
let alone that a Registered indexer might charge more for their
income. When a member is successful in gaining Registration
services. This highlights the need for additional marketing to
the Membership Secretary updates this information in the
editors and publishers of the importance of using Registered
members’ database (the Indexers Available information is part
indexers.
of this database). A member cannot make this change. However
Shirley Campbell
I
From Frances S. Lennie, President 2010–11, American Society for Indexing
on their endeavours. Each exam tests both their theoretical
wish to clarify some points made by Robin Briggs in his
knowledge and practical application of the indexing process.
Letter to the Editor in the ANZSI Newsletter, Vol. 6, number
If they are successful in all 3 exams within a three-year period,
6, July 2010, p. 5.
they are awarded ASI’s Certificate of Completion. This is
He is correct in saying that certification ‘is not sanctioned
different from ‘certification’ which would first require ASI to
by the American Society for Indexing (ASI) and has been
be accredited as a certifying body by one of several accrediting
strongly criticized by indexers on the index-l forum.’ Mr. Briggs
agencies in the United States.
further asks if ASI decided not to pursue certification because
Terminology used in this area of discourse – certification,
of ‘dangerous ground.’ In a sense he is correct: for financial,
registration, accreditation, certificate program – is often
legal, and moral reasons. First, undergoing accreditation in
confusing and conveys different meanings among the
order to become a certifying body would place a heavy financial
international indexing community. The path toward attaining
burden on the society, one that it could probably not support.
any of these achievements is likewise unique to each country,
Second, litigation against the society for an underperforming
just as each has it own index stylistic preferences. What matters
‘certified’ member would cause irreparable harm to the society.
most, however, is that we provide opportunities to acquire a
Lastly, ASI is a membership organization and we do not believe
standard set of indexing knowledge and skills, and continue to
we have the majority voice of the membership to pursue such
educate our clients on best indexing practices.
a course of action.
And one last point of clarification, only one of the founders
However, since late 2006 we have been offering a Training
of
the
Institute of Certified Indexers is currently an ASI officein Indexing Certificate Program licensed from the Society
holder, although all continue to serve and support ASI through
of Indexers (UK). This currently comprises three units of
their work on committees.
instructional content and self-assessment exercises. Students
Frances S. Lennie
may, and indeed are encouraged, to take a formal exam at
president@asindexing.org
the end of each unit of study, and receive extensive feedback
I
Indexing your annual report: a guide by Mary Russell and Max McMaster
T
published by ANZSI, 2010
his publication has been written for someone indexing
their first annual report. They may be an employee of
the company or organisation, a consultant employed to
prepare the annual report or an indexer.
Since no indexing experience is assumed in this
publication, various examples are given to explain how to
index and the ways indexing entries could be improved.
However, it is assumed the person will have organisational
knowledge.
Cost e-book (PDF) A$25, printed A$35. Available from
<www.anzsi.org/site/indexingyourannualreport.asp>.
10
Contents
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
What is an index?
Planning your index
What to index?
Headings
Subheadings
Page numbers
Compiling the index
Cross references
Specific parts of the report
Editing the index
Layout of the index
Where to get help
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
Book review
Hedden, Heather. The accidental taxonomist
Medford, NJ: Information Today, 2010. 442 p. US$39.50
You can see selected excerpts at <www.accidental-taxonomist.com>.
he title of this book completely belies the very technical
nature of the subject covered by Heather Hedden, which
she says in her introduction was written as an alternative to
creating a second and more advanced on-line course to the one
that she already teaches. That said, the book is written in plain,
easy to understand language, making it a useful text for readers
with varying levels of knowledge about the subject. I read the
book from the perspective of a book indexer creating ‘closed’
indexes, and with some theoretical knowledge of taxonomy
gained at library school.
The bulk of the book follows a ‘what, who, how’ approach,
clearly describing what taxonomies are, and who taxonomists
are before going on to describe how taxonomies are created. The
‘how’ element involves the explanation of numerous concepts,
many of which are accompanied by practical, real life examples.
For instance, a description of how facets are implemented is
well demonstrated with a view from the website of the clothing
retailer Land’s End. In addition to in-depth definitions in the
text for terms such as tagging, cataloguing and indexing, the
book has a comprehensive glossary.
Useful also, is the extensive information on education and
training options as well as networking opportunities and web
resources for taxonomists. Included are the experiences of those
working in the field, drawn from various surveys, which give
valuable insights and which add weight to Heather Hedden’s
argument that taxonomy is an ‘accidental profession’.
Whilst the book is a US publication, it has an international
focus. For example, Australian readers will find Australian
examples of records management software, and British readers
will discover that on-site training is available in London.
I found this to be an impressive resource, applicable to
taxonomists in areas as diverse as museum work and retailing.
And it’s impossible for me to end this review without mentioning
that I liked the book’s very clear and detailed index.
Nikki Davis
T
Membership Renewal
Reminder/Address Changes
embers are reminded that ANZSI membership
subscriptions are now due. You will have received an
email reminder containing a personalised secure link to the
payment facility to enable you to pay via credit card, plus a link
to the membership form that can be downloaded if you wish
to pay by cheque and post to the Membership Secretary at the
address on the form.
Please remember to update your personal contact details, in
particular your email address, on the ANZSI website and also
let your Branch know of any changes. If you have forgotten
your password (which allows you access to the Members
Area of the website) contact the Membership Secretary at
<bandoola1@bigpond.com>.
M
Vol. 6, No. 7, August 2010
11
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI)
ANZSI NEWSLETTER
Volume 6, number 8, September 2010
ANZSI News – President’s report 2009–10
W
hen I took over the role
of President in October,
I sat down and listed
all the present and future Council
tasks. It was a daunting list of
projects and included considering
incorporation and reviewing the
education policy, together with
slightly less daunting items such as
reviewing the recommended rate
and making Council papers accessible to members on the
website. Looking back at this list has provided me with a
clear indication of the achievements, for that is what they
really are, for 2009–10. These include:
• Provide members with easy access to Council Minutes
and documents by placing them on the website.
• Report on the review of education / mentoring /
training programs.
• Reviewed the recommended rate for indexing to A$65
and NZ$65.
• Extend payment facilities on the website to allow for
multiple payments for events and for the purchase of
publications.
• Modify the per capita grant formula to branches to
favour newer branches.
• Introduce requirements to have branch financial
statements scrutinised annually.
• Expand the ANZSI Newsletter to 12 pages, where
content demands, and publishing for 11 months of
the year.
• Publish the booklet Indexing your annual report: a
guide.
• Prepare the documentation and Constitution changes
required so Incorporation can be put to members to
vote on at the AGM.
This is the work of a group of very dedicated Council
members, without whom all this would not be achieved.
Branch Presidents, ex-officio members, also make sure
their branch’s input is considered by adding comments
to the Council Discussions on the website. To all of you
a BIG THANK YOU. Special thanks go to Sylvia and
Michael Ramsden for hosting the Council meetings each
month.
While Council’s work may be the obvious focus of this
report, it is important to remember that ANZSI also has
ISSN 1832-3855
Branches and State Contacts and to highlight some of
their achievements throughout the year:
• NSW Branch very successfully ran the 2009 ANZSI
Conference in Sydney.
• ACT Region Branch and NSW Branch combined to
hold an enjoyable workshop and dinner in Bowral.
• New Zealand produced a directory of NZ indexers
and distributed it to various publishers. They also
successfully lobbied Council to introduce a NZ
membership rate and a NZ recommended rate.
• Queensland Branch has held bimonthly meetings on a
variety of topics.
• Victorian Branch has continued with its monthly
Indexing Clinics and VIC meetings. They also held
a very successful weekend seminar called Nuggets of
Indexing at Sovereign Hill.
• Training courses have been held in Brisbane, Sydney,
Melbourne and Wellington with several participants
travelling a long way to attend.
• As part of the Promotions and Publicity Committee’s
drive for 2010 as Year of Annual Report Indexing
the Victorian Branch trialled a successful peer review
opportunity.
(continued on page 2)
WHAT’S
INSIDE
Newsletter, Web Manager and Registration details
NSW Branch AGM
New Zealand Branch news
NZ Branch AGM
ANZSI and Branch events
Indexing Indaba
The VIC in July: Indexing The Argus
The VIC in August: Museum Victoria
Indexes from the Victorian gold rush era
Peer review (Basic Book Indexing part 3)
The Indexer subscriptions and September contents
Tips and hints: indexing mailing lists
Final renewal reminder
Letters to the editor
Indexing your annual report (Russell and McMaster)
ANZSI and Branch Committee contacts
2
3
3
3
3
4
5
5
6
8
8
9
9
10
11
12
Deadline for the October issue: 1 October
PO Box 5062, Glenferrie South VIC 3122, Australia
Newsletter,
Web Manager and
Registration contacts
Editor: Peter Judge
<peter.judge@bigpond.com>
Web Manager: Mary Russell
<russellmf025@ozemail.com.au>
Website: <www.anzsi.org>
ISSN 1832-3855
This newsletter is published monthly 11 times
per year, with combined issues for January/
February. It is sent free to all members of
the Australian and New Zealand Society of
Indexers. Opinions expressed in the newsletter
are those of the individual contributors, and
do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the
Society.
It is your newsletter, and we are totally
dependent on contributions, both large and
small, from members. Please contact the editor
if you have any questions about the suitability
of items for publication. The editor reserves the
right to edit or abridge contributions.
Please send files via email in MS Word,
.doc files or .rtf, but NOT .html or .pdf. And
please, no images or footnotes embedded in
Word files.
Next deadline
1 October for the October 2010 issue.
Graphics
Image files can be accepted in most common
formats. Do not embed images in text files.
Camera-ready art and photos can be scanned
by the editor. Note that photos need to be
clear, sharp and contrasty if they are to copy
well in black and white.
Advertising charges
Full page A$200; half page A$100;
quarter page A$50.
Membership charges
A$75 per year (NZ members A$68)
from 1 Jul 2010.
Institutional membership A$100.
Subscriptions to the Newsletter A$55 p.a.
(President’s report, continued from page 1)
So what are some of the items on the
list of Council tasks for 2010–11?
• Hopefully we will be able to
progress with incorporation
of ANZSI. I say ‘hopefully’ as
I wrote this article the week
before the AGM.
• Review
of
Registration.
Registration and the criteria used
to attain it are not in question, but
the review is to cover issues such
as how to promote Registration
to members and outsiders; could
improvements be made to training;
could the name ‘registration’
be improved; is re-registration
required; and can the workings
of the Registration Committee be
improved.
• Update Indexers Available to
include additional fields, improved
categories and different layout.
• Finalise registration for database
indexers.
• Consider a different rate of
membership with additional
bonuses such as expanded entry in
Indexers Available or subscription
to The Indexer.
• Progress education / mentoring /
training programs.
• Survey members to see how
opinions have changed since
2007.
• Publish a booklet on Indexing your
family history.
• Lastly Victorian Branch is
organising the ANZSI Conference
in September 2011 with the title
‘Indexing see change’.
With this daunting list I remember
Paul Kelly and The Messengers’
song ‘From Little Things Big Things
Grow’. As you see Council has several
ideas growing and developing to help
ANZSI progress into the future. I
urge all members to consider and
discuss these ideas as they appear and
Council will welcome all comments.
After all it is YOUR professional
organisation.
Mary Russell
Postscript
Following the ANZSI AGM on 1 September, we can now announce
ANZSI Council for 2010/11
President: Mary Russell
Vice-President: John Simkin
Secretary: Michael Ramsden
Treasurer: Margaret Findlay
Committee members: Alan Eddy, Karen Gillen and Max McMaster
ANZSI to Incorporate
At the AGM on 1 September 2010, ANZSI members unanimously
voted for ANZSI to be incorporated. Full details in the October issue.
The Indexer
(international indexing journal)
Maureen MacGlashan, Executive Editor
<editor@theindexer.org>.
ANZSI Corresponding Member
Alan Eddy <aeddy2@bigpond.com>
To subscribe at the special rate for indexing
society members, go to <www.theindexer.org>
and click on the subscriptions link.
Registration
Shirley Campbell
Ph +61 2 6285 1006
<shirley.campbell4@bigpond.com> or
<www.anzsi.org/site/registration.asp>
Indexers Available
<www.anzsi.org/site/Indexers_available.asp>
2
Michael Ramsden and Margaret Findlay at the AGM
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
NSW Branch Annual General Meeting
Thursday 23 September 2010
At 6.00 pm (meeting); 7.00 pm (dinner)
House of Guanghzou
Level 1, 76 Ultimo Rd, Haymarket 2000
<www.yourrestaurants.com.au/guide/house_of_guangzhou/map/>
RSVP by 20 September to Frances Paterson
at <olivegroveindexing@bigpond.com> or
A
t the AGM we will be electing president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer and
committee members for the year. Branch members who wish to vote can find the
online versions of the nomination and proxy voting forms at:
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=162>
If you are unable to access the online versions of the nomination and proxy voting
forms, please contact the Branch Secretary to request printed copies. The NSW Branch
committee meets by teleconference once a month, so if you would like to join the
committee from wherever you live, all you need is a telephone to overcome the tyranny
of distance. New members will be very welcome.
Some minor changes to the NSW Constitution are proposed for adoption at this AGM.
Details will be circulated to all members.
New Zealand Branch news
New Zealand Branch AGM
he Branch conducted one of the workshop sessions at the
annual conference of the Archives and Records Association
of New Zealand in Wellington on 25 August. Thirteen people
from a variety of professions and workplaces attended and
asked plenty of questions.
Branch President Robin Briggs, assisted by Pam Strike, gave
a short ‘promo’ on ANZSI (and its website) before talking on
local and family history indexing.
We had invited the National Library’s Index New Zealand
section to contribute, and two of its staff, Kelvin Chote and
ANZSI member Nancy Fithian, described and demonstrated
their indexing of information in periodicals, etc, for on-line
use. Robin then talked on the indexing of Māori names.
Robin Briggs
he New Zealand Branch will hold its Annual General
Meeting at 2.30 pm on Saturday, 11 September, at Raumati
Beach, north of Wellington. The address is 54 Wharemauku
Rd, the home of the Branch Vice-President, Tordis Flath. We
hope the choice of Saturday afternoon will give us more time
for informal contact than the usual 5.30 weekday timing.
Members have been notified by email (and by mail where
thought necessary), but anyone still in the dark or wishing
further information is welcome to contact Robin or Tordis (see
back page).
Robin Briggs
T
T
ANZSI and Branch events
Date and time
Organiser
Name of activity
Venue
Contact details
Sat 11 Sept
2.30 pm
Tues 21 Sept
6.00 for 6.30 pm
Thurs 23 Sept
6.00 pm
Wed 6 Oct
6.00 pm
NZ Branch
NZ Branch AGM
Qld
Branch
NSW
Branch
General meeting
Hazel Bell on DVD
NSW Branch
AGM
The VIC:
‘Show & Tell’
your indexing work
54 Wharemauku Rd
Raumati Beach
Carindale Library
Carindale, Brisbane
House of Guangzhou
Haymarket
Kew Holy Trinity
Anglican Church
Details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=164>
Details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=163>
Details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=162>
Details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=143>
Vic
Branch
Vol. 6, No. 8, September 2010
3
Indexing Indaba
More on magpies
S
pring has sprung, bringing
with it the annoying hazard
of swooping magpies. Links
between magpies and indexing
have come up for discussion
a fair bit lately (see Indexing
Indaba, May 2010) so here’s
another one…the Magpie Map.
In Victoria, the Department of
Sustainability and Environment
is encouraging members of the public to report swooping
hot spots, in order to compile the ultimate gazetteer of
danger zones. Go to its home page at <www.dse.vic.
gov.au:80/DSE/nrenpa.nsf/Home+Page/DSE+Plants~
Home+Page?open> and click on ‘Swooping birds’.
Once you’ve planned
which streets to avoid, you
might like to give yourself
some extra protection by
printing off one of a choice
of three pairs of eyes. Stick it
on your bike helmet or your
hat and you’re on your way.
There are similar websites
for other States in Australia.
Election 2010
As I write this, Australia is still in limbo as regards to who
is going to form government. Antony Green, the ABC’s
election analyst might not think of himself as an indexer
but his Election Calculator,
<www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2010/calculator/>
is the perfect index to all the parliamentary seats.
If, like me, you’re mystified as to why polling booth
staff insist on ‘how to vote’ cards being placed into recycle
bins instead of being reused by another voter, you’ve
probably thought about retention schedules for our
paper-based election material.
On its website, the Electoral Knowledge Network
<http://aceproject.org/electoral-advice/archive/questions/
replies> compares the retention schedules for various
countries. Australian election material is kept for six
months, while in the US material is kept for 22 months.
Any controversy of course, can result in these schedules
being extended, so material related to the electoral dispute
in the 2004 US elections is still being retained.
extended lengths of time. Silvia’s record for one such
book (returned anonymously in a white envelope) was
ten years.
With zoos being few and far between, isolation is
another issue. Silvia’s nearest colleague is in Melbourne.
In 2003, Silvia was instrumental in restarting the stalled
ARAZPA (now ZAA) Libraries Network to overcome this
and to allow for the sharing resources.
Besides giving a wonderful insight into zoo libraries,
this article is accompanied by delightful pictures of some
of the animals that like to make use of Silvia’s library.
The right address
Recently, a book publicist friend of mine suggested that
my home address should not be included in my email
signature. I’ve decided not to heed her advice, having
received some work from an author who decided that our
working relationship was clearly fated, after she noticed
that I happen to live next door to an address where she
spent some of her childhood and of which she has very
fond memories.
Tail end
From the deadly serious: ‘NURSES: You can’t live
without them’, to the crude: ‘Plumbers know their ****’,
we’ve all spotted those bumper stickers that give us a clue
as to what our fellow commuters do for a crust.
ASI members are in on the action too with an array of
bumper stickers advertised in their newsletter Key Words.
The Mid and South Atlantic Chapter has come up with
‘Ask me about Indexing’ and ‘INDEXERS know where
to locate it’, while New England Chapter members have
‘Indexers...look us up’ adhered to their vehicles.
The pick of the bunch can be seen below. It was on the
tail end of one ASI member’s car at: <http://arnoldzwicky.
wordpress.com/2010/04/21/the-information-retrievalbumper-sticker/>.
Nikki Davis
At the zoo
ANZSI member, Silvia Muscardin had an article on zoo
libraries published last month in inCite (Vol. 31, No. 8).
Silvia is the Librarian at Adelaide Zoo and she wrote of
the challenges facing libraries at zoos.
Limited staffing presents problems for circulation,
particularly with books sometimes going AWOL for
4
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
The VIC in July
Indexing The Argus – a volunteer’s perspective
T
he project began in 1980, with sponsorship from
the History and Heritage Committee of Victoria’s
150th Anniversary Board Committee. A member
of the Committee, John Hirst, History Department,
LaTrobe University, became coordinator of the project.
A partial index already existed: John Feely, Chief
Librarian of the State Library, had compiled an index
from 1840 to 1859; Argus staff continued from 1910 to
1957 when the paper folded, leaving a gap of 50 years.
The purpose of the index is to facilitate the work of
researchers involved in family history, social history and
the humanities. In fact, anything of interest from the
past.
I had been looking for a project since I had left the
volunteer service at Vision Australia and when John
came to University of the Third Age and gave his series
of lectures on the History of the World, he mentioned
the need for volunteers for the Argus project and this
appealed to me. I am much happier with words than with
numbers.
The method of retrieval of information was greatly
simplified by the detailed instructions that Diana Phoenix,
who is mentor to the volunteers, was able to provide. Our
searches concentrate on every reference to Victoria, both
local, interstate and overseas, with particular attention to
editorials, letters to the editor, activities of governors and
local dignitaries and visitors of importance. All of these
items give an overall picture of the life, thoughts and
moods of the population.
Court cases are reported briefly, mentioning names
– ‘accused-crime-sentence’ – this also applies to civil cases
e.g. insurance frauds and bankruptcies, of which, I am
afraid, there were many.
Reviews of books, theatres, concerts and recitals were
important and columnists such as ‘Notes and Comments’
and ‘Passing Show’ provide an insight into the mores of
the community. Profiles and obituaries are described and
references to aboriginals must be included. A Women’s
Column started in 1899 with a fairly limited content –
‘tennis is in vogue’ or ‘velvet is the latest fashion’ but 1908
introduced a column by ‘Vesta’ and this was a precursor
to present day magazines.
In general sport was not mentioned unless some
event was a news item in itself. The armed forces were
often mentioned: overseas postings for training, rifle and
sporting competitions and, of course, armaments.
Vol. 6, No. 8, September 2010
Country news has its own section but not every town
is reported. It is important to note accidents, deaths of
local notables, outbreaks of plant and animal disease and
bushfires.
We can ignore advertisements, mining shares, births,
deaths and marriages, weather, shipping news unless there
is a noteworthy episode. Parliament is covered by Hansard
but all references to Federation must be included.
Since I was not educated in Victoria, I find the
librarians most useful and obliging when I am unsure of
an item but, if doubt persists, I include the information
knowing that Geraldine Suter will make the decision.
Further information is available at <www.nla.gov.
au/apps/argus>.
Judy Thomas
The image of the first edition masthead was taken from
<http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/180797>
The VIC in August
Museum Victoria
T
he VIC continues to be very successful, with two
excellent meetings in July and August. For the July
meeting we had a guest speaker, Judy Thomas,
who is a volunteer on the Argus indexing project. Judy has
summed up her talk for us and this is published in the
adjacent column. In August, the VIC went on a behindthe-scenes tour of Museum Victoria. Peter Lillywhite
showed us around the Entomology Department and
Wayne Longmore took us through the Birds and Mammals
Department.
A highlight was the H L White (not to be confused
with the Commonwealth Librarian of the same name
although he was a relative of the writer, Patrick White)
birds egg collection. This is a virtually complete collection
of eggs from Australian birds, all but about half a dozen
species. It is housed in a magnificent 1920s purposebuilt cabinet, which along with some other old Museum
cabinets, attracted a good deal of attention from our
members. Museum Victoria staff know who to put on the
suspects list if they should disappear in the near future.
Nikki Davis
5
Indexes from the Victorian gold rush era
T
his paper is based on a talk given at the Victorian
Branch Seminar Nuggets of Indexing on Sunday
6 June. The Seminar was held at Sovereign Hill,
with its display depicting Ballarat’s first ten years after the
discovery of gold there in 1851. I thought it would be
interesting to examine some books of the era to answer
the following questions: What sort of books had indexes?
What did the indexes look like? What indexing styles did
they use? Would we consider them ‘good’ indexes?
To find suitable books I searched the State Library
of Victoria’s catalogue for books published between
1850 and 1870 that contained the words ‘index’ and
‘Melbourne’ in one of the fields. From a set of 52, mainly
legal or political publications, six books were selected for
their general appeal.
1. The Australian manual of horticulture
Daniel Bunce’s Manual of Practical Gardening appeared
in twelve monthly parts from July 1837 to June 1838. It
was the first gardening book published in Tasmania and
the third in Australia. It was the first Australian gardening
book to deal with the flower garden as well as the fruit
and vegetable garden. A revised second edition was
entitled Australian Manual of Horticulture (Melbourne,
1850). It is the 3rd edition, published in Melbourne by
Daniel Harrison in 1851, that has an index.
Daniel Bunce (1813-1872) arrived in Hobart Town
in 1833 from England. He established one of the earliest
garden nurseries and possibly produced the first garden
nursery catalogue in Australia. Moving to Port Phillip he
was appointed the first Curator of the Geelong Botanic
Gardens in 1857.
There is a six-page index to this 130 page book. All
headings begin with capital letters. The headings are not
in alphabetical order under the initial letter and the order
of the subheadings is unusual. The first subheading to
be created appears directly after the main heading. There
doesn’t appear to be any logic to the order of subsequent
subheadings. There are no page ranges. Some entries have
long strings of page numbers. For example:
C
Celery, planting of 96, 112, 117
Saving for seed 39
Earthing up 3, 96, 122
Sowing of 39, 56, 70, 88
Cabbage, sowing of 3, 17, 61, 94, 112
Saving, for seed 4
Planting of 4, 17, 25, 40, 61, 73, 103, 116, 121
2. Bush wanderings of a naturalist
This was written by ‘an old bushman’, who has been
identified as Horace William Wheelwright and published
in London by Routledge, Warne & Routledge in 1862.
Horace William Wheelwright (1815–1865) migrated
to Australia from England in about 1852. Unsuccessful
at the diggings, he became a professional game shooter to
6
supply the Melbourne market. His book gives information
on local animals with details on shooting and even
suggestions for the preservation of game.
There is a four page index to this 272 page book. The
headings consist of common names of animals followed
by their scientific names. Dashes have been used as
leaders to subheadings. But there are no page numbers !!
See illustration below, downloaded from <www.archive.
org/details/bushwanderingsa00wheegoog>.
The facsimile edition published by Oxford University
Press in 1979 is a true facsimile as the index still does not
contain page numbers.
3. The Cordial and liqueur maker’s guide and
publican’s instructor
‘The Cordial and liqueur maker’s guide and publican’s
instructor: containing upwards of 200 receipts (‘receipt’
is the archaic form of ‘recipe’) for the manufacture of
cordials and liqueurs in the greatest perfection: with a
variety of miscellaneous receipts of great practical utility,
and some of which have never before appeared in print;
the whole forming the most valuable hand book ever
offered to the trade.’
It is not clear who wrote the publication, but it was
published in Melbourne by Henry Tolman Dwight
in 1867. Born in London and after experience in the
London book trade, Dwight migrated in about 1855 to
Melbourne, bringing with him a large stock of secondhand books. He set up his business at 234 Bourke Street
(continued on next page)
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
(Indexes from the gold rush era, continued from page 6)
East in competition with George Robertson and Samuel
Mullen.
There is a three-page index to this 34 page publication.
The headings refer to the recipes. Quotes are used to
denote repeated initial words. If there are several pages
numbers they are not in order and the symbol ‘&’ is used
before last page number. Page ranges are not used. For
example:
Rum, to improve 11
Rosolis de Turin 33 & 15
Rosolis 29, 27 & 20
Ratifia de Violette 23
“ de Benjoin 23
“ de Cerisos 30
4. Guide for excursionists from Melbourne
This publication ‘Dedicated to All in Search of Health,
Recreation and Pleasure’ was published in Melbourne
by H. Thomas in 1868. It claimed that it was ‘the first
attempt at publishing, in this shape, some account of
what may be seen in and about the colony’. It normally
appears in green cloth with rustic gilt lettering OUTS on
the front cover. The ‘outs’ were outings, which included
fishing, picnicking, shooting, riding and rambling around
the suburbs and in the more distant regions of the State.
Some advice if travelling on to the Grampians: ‘The
distance between Ballarat and Ararat is the least interesting
part of the journey. We advise the tourist between these
two points to go to sleep, if possible’.
There are two indexes to this 256 page book. The first
is a location index. The second is an animal index for
hunters with animals such as Crayfish, Flying squirrels,
Emu, Kangaroo, Murray Cod and Wild Turkey. There are
no page ranges.
5. The gold fields and mineral districts of
Victoria
Written by Robert Brough Smyth, this was published in
Melbourne by the Government Printer in 1869. At 644
pages this is a very detailed look at the gold fields and
mineral districts. There are chapters on the various sorts
of rocks, unexplored tracts, discovery of gold, various
method of gold mining, movement of the population at
the gold fields, laws affecting mining interests, supplying
water to the gold fields and a section on other metals.
Appendices include notes and tables on the gold fields
and rewards to discoveries of gold fields. There is also a
glossary of mining terms.
Described as a geologist, mineralogist and writer
on aborigines, Smyth came to Victoria in 1852 and
was for a short period on the goldfields before entering
the Victorian survey department as a draughtsman. In
1854 he was placed in charge of the meteorological
observations, and in 1860 became Secretary for Mines.
There is an 18-page index to this 644 page book. All
headings begin with a capital letter. Subjects tend to be
Vol. 6, No. 8, September 2010
grouped under main headings. For example, company
names under ‘Companies’ occupy 3½ pages, but are not
double posted. However, the subheadings under Leads
are double posted. The same grouping style applies to
common subheadings. For example, under the heading
‘Analyses of ’ is Antimony, but Analysis is not a subheading
of Antimony. Similarly under the heading ‘Heights above
sea-level of ’ are place names, but height above sea-level is
not a subheading of the place. There are some long page
runs after place names.
6. A boy’s voyage round the world
Full title: A boy’s voyage round the world: including a
residence in Victoria and a journey by rail across North
America, was edited by Samuel Smiles and published in
London by John Murray in 1871. The ‘boy’ was Samuel
Smiles, junior. The book is the two year narrative of his
voyage from February 1869 to March 1871 and includes
lengthy details of his time in Victoria, particularly the
gold diggings around Majorca (between Clunes and
Maryborough), Timor and Melbourne.
While we are able to determine that the book was
written by Samuel Smiles, junior, the youngest son of a
family of five, comprising three daughters and two sons,
further details of his life are difficult to find. When he was
16 he had an inflammation of the lung and the London
physicians encouraged his father to send him on a long
sea voyage. The boy’s book is edited by his father, Dr
Samuel Smiles (1812-1904), a Scottish surgeon and later
the editor of the Leeds Times. He wrote several biographies
including several on engineers.
There is a four page index to this 304 page book. It
covers places as well as subjects. All entries start with a
capital letter. There are page ranges. See references are
used, for example, ‘Victorian climate see Climate of
Victoria’. Subheadings are used and prefaced with a colon
and separated with a semi-colon.
There are double postings. For example:
Climate of Victoria : summer, 117
Summer in Victoria, 117
Heat in summer, 117
References to Notes are indicated, for example,
‘49(note)’. Ships are denoted in quotes,with port of
registration. One oddity is ‘Bush-Animals’, but no
heading under animals. All in all quite an elaborate and
detailed index.
With these six books you can see there was a variety in
the indexing styles used. Would we consider them ‘good’
indexes? The index to A boy’s voyage round the world would
definitely be a contender.
Mary Russell
(see also editor’s footnote on next page...)
7
Peer review for novice indexers (Basic Book Indexing part 3)
Y
ou have completed one of the Basic Book Indexing
courses offered by ANZSI – but how do you build up
your indexing skills so that you become more proficient, and
know that you are up to the required standard. This peer
review activity is being run by Victorian Branch, but it is
open to all, whether ANZSI members or not.
You will be given a link to a PDF publication about
housing which is relatively straightforward and requires no
specialist knowledge. The text is only 115 pages in length,
and you will have three weeks to prepare and submit your
index. The criteria for assessment will be the same as that
used by the Registration Committee.
So that participants don’t feel totally isolated whilst
compiling their index they will have the opportunity to
post any questions associated with indexing the text on
the ANZSI website discussion list (which requires member
login). Max McMaster as coordinator of this exercise will
answer questions online, but other participants are free to
provide input as well.
The cost of the peer review will be A$80 (inc. GST)
and payment will be required by 15 October. During the
weekend of 16–17 October you will receive an email with a
link to the PDF files of the publication. Indexes will need to
be submitted by 9.00 am Monday, 8 November.
Written feedback will be provided on every application.
There is no need to come to Melbourne, as all
communication will be done by email. You will receive the
link to the publication via email and send your index via
email, so you can work from anywhere!
Further details about the peer review, including assessment
criteria and application form are available from <www.anzsi.
org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=161>.
Max McMaster
(Editor’s footnote to A boy’s voyage round the world)
The Indexer subscriptions
I
n an article on indexes, Mary necessarily gives only a few
lines to the father who edited and indexed his son’s book.
Although not much more is known about young Samuel,
his father, Samuel Smiles senior, became one of the most
celebrated Victorians. Although he qualified as a medical
doctor, he was invited at the age of 26 to edit the Leeds Times,
to which he had been contributing articles on parliamentary
reform while still a student. Only four years later he was
appointed Secretary successively to two railways.
Known as a reformer (among other causes he supported
women’s suffrage in the 1840s, when it was far from
popular!), he achieved his greatest fame with his book Self
Help, advocating individual self-improvement. He believed
that ‘Knowledge is of itself one of the highest enjoyments.
The ignorant man passes through the world dead to all
pleasures, save those of the senses ... Every human being
has a great mission to perform, noble faculties to cultivate,
a vast destiny to accomplish. He should have the means of
education, and of exerting freely all the powers of his godlike
nature.’
Self Help was initially rejected by Routledge and John
Murray, but in 1855 Smiles published it at his own expense,
retaining the copyright and paying John Murray ten per
cent commission. It sold 20,000 copies within a year of
publication and by the time of Smiles’ death in 1904 it had
sold over a quarter of a million. It was Self-Help that elevated
Smiles to celebrity status – he suddenly became the fashion
and was deluged with requests that he should lay foundation
stones, sit for his portrait, present prizes to orphan children,
make speeches from platforms.
He was a prolific writer – five books on self-help topics
and 15 (some of them multi-volume) on biographical topics
mainly to do with engineers – so we shouldn’t be surprised
that he gains Mary Russell’s accolade for his index to his
son’s book.
Peter Judge
(From < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Smiles>)
8
W
E are still trying to get our house back in good
order following the glitch earlier this year over
renewal notices. If you think you have renewed your sub
but are still not getting the missing issues, please contact
Paul Machen <subscriptions@theindexer.org>.
If you haven’t taken out a subscription but are tempted
(perhaps by Jane Purton’s enthusiasm in the August
ANZSI Newsletter about a couple of articles from the
June issue), then visit the website <www.theindexer.org>
and follow the instructions.
Maureen MacGlashan
The Indexer, September 2010
Table of Contents
Editorial Maureen MacGlashan
Image indexing Tomasz Neugebauer
Headings in indexes: revisiting the relationship
between mains and subs Glenda Browne
Christian history: 3,000 years and an author’s
indexing thereof Diarmaid MacCulloch
Obituary: Richard Northedge
One index, two formats: print versus web indexes
for political debates in British Columbia
Julie McClung
The KindleTM and the indexer Pierke Bosschieter
eBooks at the London Book Fair Hilary Westwood
Browser Bar Pierke Bosschieter
The universal index: forerunning Google
Maureen MacGlashan
Educating indexers: ANZSI reviews its policies
Michael Ramsden
Around the world Glenda Browne
Indexes reviewed
Edited by Christine Shuttleworth
Book reviews Edited by Christopher Phipp sand
Michael E. Jackson
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
Tips and hints:
indexing mailing lists
T
here are many mailing lists of value to
indexers. Australian indexers should start with
aliaINDEXERS (http://lists.alia.org.au/mailman/
listinfo/aliaINDEXERS). This list has little traffic, but
is important for making sure you hear announcements,
e.g. about upcoming training or social events. The list
is hosted by ALIA (Australian Library and Information
Association) but you don’t have to be a member of ALIA
(or ANZSI) to join. Non-indexers and overseas indexers
are welcome. aliaINDEXERS is moderated by Stuart
Hughes, a database indexer at ACER (Australian Council
for Educational Research).
The main international list for discussion of a range
of indexing topics is Index-L. I have gleaned many useful
hints from this list, and I ask questions there when seeking
a range of views on a topic. As with all lists, there is no
guarantee that answers will be correct or appropriate, but
you often get enough responses to allow you to choose
one that works for you.
There are also lists for each of the three main
dedicated indexing software packages, lists for students,
lists for people who want to feel free to speak their
minds (IndexCafe and IndexBar), and lists for people
who index in specific formats (eg, Web Indexing). In
addition, there are temporary, limited-scale lists, eg, as
used in the ANZSI NSW Intermediate/Practical course.
For a comprehensive list with URLs see http://www.anzsi.
org/site/emaillists.asp.
Other online networking opportunities include:
• Ning Indexers’ Network (indexing.ning.com)
• Facebook (search for ‘Indexing’ to find ASI, some
individual indexers and an ‘Indexing’ page)
• Linked-In (there are two relevant groups here
(unfortunately) – Indexing and Indexer Network).
Glenda Browne
Last chance to renew!
Final renewal reminder
I
F you have not yet paid your 2010-11 membership this
will be your last newsletter. Payment can be made on
the ANZSI website – go to the members’ area. If you have
forgotten your password please contact:
Membership Secretary, Joanna McLachlan
<bandoola1@bigpond.com>
Vol. 6, No. 8, September 2010
9
Letters to the Editor
Ongoing training and professional development for indexers
I
’ve been reading three reports – one as a result of the Vic
Branch Annual Report Peer Review, one resulting from
my (unsuccessful) application for registration, and the other
being the recent report of the Education Policy Committee.
The first two contain lots of helpful (and justified) comments
which I appreciate very much, but leave me with a
number of questions as to why some of the decisions and
comments were made. Apart from my mistakes, which I
take full responsibility for, I had made various decisions
that seemed to me reasonable and justifiable, and there was
no mechanism for me to give feedback and ask for deeper
explanations. It’s a very one-sided process in an occupation
which has many areas where the literature agrees that there
is more than one way to handle the issue.
I was, therefore, very pleased to read the Education Policy
Committee Report, especially the sections on tutoring.
What I need (and I suspect others will agree with me) is
feedback on the indexes I am creating for publishers, help
with specific problems as they arise, and opportunities for
ongoing learning. There are many mentions of ‘development
to a level at which a commercially acceptable index can
be produced’ but no definition of what such an index is.
I’ve never had an index knocked back, and I’ve asked for
feedback from clients but never had a negative comment.
That could well be because of time constraints in the hurlyburly of getting the book out, leading to acceptance of
whatever index comes in, I suppose.
The categories of assessment used during registration
assessment are laid out quite clearly, but there’s still room
for individual interpretation of what they mean. I’ve been
wondering what might be done right now to help improve
this situation, and I have a couple of suggestions. One is to
give oral feedback to registration applicants and peer review
respondents, either in person (the most desirable) or by
phone. I think that would result in much better learning
than just a written report with no right of reply.
The other is for ANZSI to assemble a collection of books
containing what are regarded as commercially acceptable
indexes, covering a variety of subject fields, and arrange
for them to be mailed out on loan to anyone who wants to
compare their own work with a ‘standard’ work. I imagine
many books could be donated by experienced indexers who
have obtained copies of their own work. Perhaps publishers
would agree to donate some books for this purpose. Such a
scheme should not cost too much and postage is relatively
cheap. I guess postage both ways could be met by the
borrower, as this is something which will benefit them.
An example of something that I need to learn more
about is the relationship between a Table of Contents and
the index to a book. I have searched the literature and I can’t
find anything that will give me guidance on this. I would
turn to the Table of Contents to find out what’s in large
chunks of a book, and to the index to find out where to
find the detail. Some bits of the literature exhort us not to
produce a glorified Table of Contents, but including parts of
the T of C seems inescapable if the index must contain the
locators for the main topics of a book. How do experienced
indexers handle this? Looking at some good book indexes
would certainly help me to work out what to do.
Don Jordan
More on Registration
S
hirley Campbell’s letter in the August issue of the
newsletter has prompted me to continue the discussion
of Registration. I know that Sherrey Quinn, Chair of the
new Registration Panel is preparing a report for Council,
which I do not want to pre-empt, but, for what they are
worth, here are some personal thoughts on the background
and use of the term ‘registration’.
To begin with, what does the word ‘register’ mean?
What are its roots and history? My trusty old shorter OED
of 1975 tells me that a ‘regest’ comes from the late Latin
regesta, ‘a list’, formed from the past participle of Latin
regerere ‘to enter’, ‘transcribe’, ‘record’. Among its definitions
of a ‘register’ are: ‘a book in which regular entry is made
of details of any kind sufficiently important to be exactly
recorded’; ‘a written record thus formed’. The verb ‘to
register’ is defined as ‘to set down formally in writing’.
So far so good. From this I understand ‘registration’ to
mean that ANZSI has a register of the names of people who
have submitted a published index to a panel of experienced
indexers who, by the use of a formal set of guidelines, have
agreed on the competence of the indexer and have provided
a written report on the reasons for their decision. As part
of the registration process, the society gives that indexer
permission to indicate their competency by using the
adjective ‘registered’. But registered as what? A more exact
description might be something like ‘registered by ANZSI
by peer review as a competent indexer’.
Shirley notes that editors have little idea about registration.
As a step towards increased understanding, I have decided
to expand my own use of the term. Up until now, on my
letterhead, I have simply used the term registered, as though
all has been made clear. Now I will say: Registered by
ANZSI by peer review as a competent indexer.
Frances Paterson, President of NSW Branch,
Member Registration Panel.
(continued on next page)
10
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
Institute for Certified Indexers
T
he four founding members of the Institute for Certified
Indexers (ICI) read with interest the recent letters to
the editor regarding certification of indexers in the USA,
and we would like to add a few points of clarification.
Certification, registration, or whatever one chooses to call
it – any method by which one tests and verifies indexing skills
and experience – has indeed been quite controversial in the
USA – ASI has been debating the issue since at least 1993 –
but not just in indexing circles. Most professional bodies now
have some sort of certification program, and in most cases
experienced considerable member resistance to it. We have
talked to teaching professionals, human resource/personnel
specialists, security services providers, acupuncturists, and
others, all of whom have set up credentialing systems which
initially encountered considerable initial hostility. And the
hostility is understandable. Most of us are already educated
up to our eyebrows. Why take another test? What will it
prove? Why spend the money? But all the professionals we
have talked to have walked the same road that indexers in
the U.S. are walking now: how do we show clients that we
are the ones they want to hire?
This problem does not cause great consternation for
those of us with experience. The managers of ICI all have
over 20 years as indexers and a healthy stable of clients; we
don’t need certification. But we have heard, consistently,
from younger and newer indexers that, aside from their
basic training, they have few ways to demonstrate their
expertise to clients. Membership in the American Society
for Indexing (ASI)? It means they wrote a check. While it
shows some dedication to the profession, ASI membership
does not indicate any sort of quality as to one’s indexing
skills. Moreover, with indexing now a global profession, U.S.
indexers are competing with indexers overseas who are able
to establish their credentials through established programs.
We set up ICI to meet a real need. If you visit our website
at <www.certifiedindexers.com>, you will see that we have
established rigorous standards for ICI-certified indexers.
So far we have several US indexers committed to the
process. (Interested readers might also like to check out the
interview by Denise Getz about ICI with Pilar Wyman, at
<http://blog.access-indexing.com/2010/05/03/certificationfor-indexers-an-interview-with-pilar-wyman/>.)
Certification is not, unfortunately, an inexpensive
procedure. It involves administrative overhead, grading,
feedback, etc. Paperwork must be completed, indexes must
be evaluated by more than one person, test papers have to be
scored; and the ICI managers are all working professionals.
For the first three years, the costs total US$560, which
averages to US$187 per year. The following three years, the
costs are US$150, which average to US$50 per year. The
cost of ICI certification is comparable to that of registration
in other countries.
We have set up ICI in such a way as to be complementary
to ASI, not competitive with it. Three of us have been
president of ASI, we have all served on the ASI board, one of
us is currently a board member, and we are all active in ASI
committee work and intend to continue doing so. But we
see a real need in our profession that ASI is not currently
meeting, and as teachers and practitioners we don’t want
to see it go unmet.
Enid Zafran, Pilar Wyman, Kate Mertes, Fred Leise
Indexing your annual report: a guide
T
by
Mary Russell and Max McMaster
his publication has been written
for someone indexing their
first annual report. They may
be an employee of the company or
organisation, a consultant employed to
prepare the annual report or an indexer.
Since no indexing experience is
assumed in this publication, various
examples are given to explain how to
index and the ways indexing entries could
be improved. However, it is assumed
the person will have organisational
knowledge.
Cost e-book (PDF) A$25,
printed A$35. Available from
<www.anzsi.org/site/
indexingyourannualreport.asp>.
Vol. 6, No. 8, September 2010
Contents
• What is an index?
• Planning your index
• What to index?
• Headings
• Subheadings
• Page numbers
• Compiling the index
• Cross references
• Specific parts of the report
• Editing the index
• Layout of the index
• Where to get help
11
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI)
ANZSI NEWSLETTER
Volume 6, number 9, October 2010
From the Vice-President
T
he President is currently away
at the Society of Indexers
Conference, so it falls to me
to write this column.
Committees
At the September meeting of
Council, the four Committees –
Awards, Education, Promotions and
Publicity, and Registration – were
confirmed, chaired by Alan Walker, Michael Ramsden,
Max McMaster and Sherrey Quinn.
The Education Committee is in process of setting
up two working parties, one led by Max McMaster to
deal with Mentoring and Professional Development, the
other led by Glenda Browne to deal with Curriculum
Development.
Sherrey Quinn, chair of the Registration Committee,
has tabled a detailed review and report on Registration
Process and Procedures which will be referred to branches
for comment to the November Council meeting.
Members would do well to follow this report and others
coming from the Education Committee as they will have
important implications for professional development,
qualifications and the status of our profession into the
future.
Non-branch contacts
The contact persons for the Northern Territory, South
Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia and northern
Queensland have been reappointed. I have agreed to act
as the liaison between these contacts and Council. South
Australia and Tasmania now have almost the ten members
needed to form a branch. I believe that the more isolated
members would welcome visits by members of the
branches should they find themselves in the vicinity.
Conference 2011
It is now less than 12 months to the ANZSI Indexing
see Change Conference and you should be planning to
be there. Watch the website for up-to-date news of this
event. I particularly appreciate the picture of Brighton
beach where, in younger days and before the opening of
the hole in the ozone layer, my friends and I used to laze
in front of those bathing boxes.
ISSN 1832-3855
Show and Tell
This is the title of the next Victorian Indexing Club
(VIC) meeting. Apart from the exchange of help on
knotty indexing questions, which is a regular feature of
VIC, there will be descriptions of some unusual projects
which members have been engaged in.
This reminds me of what was probably the most
successful meeting in the early days of AusSI (as it was
then). In the late 1970s we held a question and answer
session at the CSIRO building in East Melbourne. Over
35 members came. Jean Hagger and one or two others
provided answers to a range of practical questions.
Remember, there was then no Internet, and most of us
were using typewriters, or even handwriting and cards.
The first indexing software hadn’t yet hit Australia,
although within a year or two Stephen Lansdown, an
AusSI member, launched Index 4 (as I think it was
called).
Nowadays there is much more help, in manuals
such as Glenda Browne and Jon Jermey’s The Indexing
Companion and Glenda’s Workbook, as well as courses
at various levels. The work of the Education Committee
looks to be moving towards interesting developments in
this area.
John E. Simkin
WHAT’S
INSIDE
Newsletter, Web Manager and Registration details 2
NSW Branch social lunch
2
New Zealand news
2
NSW Branch President’s report
3
Branch events
3
Indexing degustation
4
ANZSI incorporation
5
Letter from China
6
ANZSI ACT Region Branch AGM
7
Letter: registration procedures and processes
8
Victorian Branch annual report
9
Professing a profession
10
ANZSI and Branch Committee contacts
12
Deadline for the November issue: 29 October
PO Box 5062, Glenferrie South VIC 3122, Australia
Newsletter,
Web Manager and
Registration contacts
Editor: Peter Judge
<peter.judge@bigpond.com>
Web Manager: Mary Russell
<russellmf025@ozemail.com.au>
Website: <www.anzsi.org>
ISSN 1832-3855
This newsletter is published monthly 11 times
per year, with combined issues for January/
February. It is sent free to all members of
the Australian and New Zealand Society of
Indexers. Opinions expressed in the newsletter
are those of the individual contributors, and
do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the
Society.
It is your newsletter, and we are totally
dependent on contributions, both large and
small, from members. Please contact the editor
if you have any questions about the suitability
of items for publication. The editor reserves the
right to edit or abridge contributions.
Please send files via email in MS Word,
.doc files or .rtf, but NOT .html or .pdf. And
please, no images or footnotes embedded in
Word files.
Next deadline
29 October for the November 2010 issue.
Graphics
Image files can be accepted in most common
formats. Do not embed images in text files.
Camera-ready art and photos can be scanned
by the editor. Note that photos need to be
clear, sharp and contrasty if they are to copy
well in black and white.
Advertising charges
Full page A$200; half page A$100;
quarter page A$50.
Membership charges
A$75 per year (NZ members A$68)
from 1 Jul 2010.
Institutional membership A$100.
Subscriptions to the Newsletter A$55 p.a.
The Indexer
(international indexing journal)
Maureen MacGlashan, Executive Editor
<editor@theindexer.org>.
ANZSI Corresponding Member
Alan Eddy <aeddy2@bigpond.com>
To subscribe at the special rate for indexing
society members, go to <www.theindexer.org>
and click on the subscriptions link.
Registration
Shirley Campbell
Ph +61 2 6285 1006
<shirley.campbell4@bigpond.com> or
<www.anzsi.org/site/registration.asp>
Indexers Available
<www.anzsi.org/site/Indexers_available.asp>
2
ANZSI NSW Branch social lunch
Lake Heights
Saturday 27 November, 12.00 for 12.30 pm
he ANZSI NSW Branch is holding an end of year informal get-together.
Everyone is welcome to have lunch at Frances Paterson’s house, 100 Lake
Heights Road, Lake Heights, Wollongong. RSVP to Frances at <olivegroveinde
xing@bigpond.com> or (02) 4274 2600 by Wednesday 24 November.
We are asking everyone to bring a plate of food and a drink (soft or hard),
but please no peanuts or peanut products or brazil nuts (traces of nuts are OK).
Spouses/partners are also welcome. If the weather is fine and people wish, we
can go for a scenic walk around part of Lake Illawarra.
Lake Heights is about 20 minutes south of Wollongong and if coming by
train on the South Coast line, it is about an hour and a half from Central
Railway Station to Wollongong. We will need to pick you up from Wollongong
Station so please let us know if you are coming by train. There is a train from
Central at 9:40 am which arrives at Wollongong at 11.21 am. (NB just check
if there will be any track work on the day <www.cityrail.info/index.jsp>. If you
are coming by car, the journey should take about an hour and a half from the
CBD; you can come via Botany, via the Princes Highway, or via Silverwater
and Menai.
As you reach Wollongong, the route is well signposted. Follow the signs to
Nowra, turn left to Berkeley on Northcliffe Drive, and continue towards the
eastern end of the lake. Watch out for Lake Heights Road on your left up a
steep hill. The house is at the top of the rise, just around a left-hand bend on
the left-hand side of the road (the downhill side).
This will be a great opportunity to network and generally catch up with
each other and what has been happening in our indexing world. We hope to
see you there.
Frances Paterson
T
New Zealand news
T
he New Zealand Branch had a healthy turnout of nine at its Annual
General Meeting in Raumati on 11 September. Three of this year’s new
members were among them, and our secretary, Julie Daymond-King, travelled
all the way from Helensville for the meeting.
The financial report showed Branch finances in a healthier state than last
year, and expenditure on new books for the Branch library was confirmed. The
list of material available is to be updated and circulated to members.
The outgoing office-holders were re-elected and the Committee was
expanded with four extra members.
We reviewed our mentoring scheme, confirmed amendments to the
guidelines, and discussed possibilities for publication of mentored indexes.
Work already begun on this will be taken further by a sub-committee.
We decided to update the Branch’s Freelance Directory and again send it to
New Zealand publishers.
In discussion of training opportunities, we covered the difficulty of holding
viable courses in New Zealand and the accessibility of courses in Melbourne
and Sydney. However, we decided to examine the possibility of a course or
seminar on database and related indexing in Wellington early next year.
Further information on the AGM will be available on the website.
Our thanks go to Tordis Flath for hosting the meeting.
Robin Briggs
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
NSW Branch President’s report
Annual General Meeting, Thursday 23 September
Meetings
any thanks to each member of the NSW Branch
Committee for their contributions during the
year: Glenda Browne, Vice-President; Mary
Coe, Secretary; Sue Flaxman, Treasurer; and Madeleine
Davis, Lorraine Doyle and Elisabeth Thomas, Committee
members.
The Committee met by teleconference in November
2009 and in February, March, April, May, June and
August 2010. We thank Lorraine Doyle and Thomson
Reuters for providing their teleconferencing system which
has made our meetings enjoyable and efficient, with a
great deal of travelling time saved.
At September 2010 the Branch has 56 members, with
twelve new members joining this year.
M
Branch activities
15–17 October 2009. Members of the NSW Branch
and Committee and the ACT Branch made up the
Conference Committee, convened by Madeleine Davis
and Alan Walker, which organised the 2009 ANZSI
Conference ‘The Practice of Indexing’ held in Sydney. A
report on the conference will be tabled at this AGM.
29 November 2009. We held our end-of-year social
function, kindly hosted by new member Helen Enright in
Petersham and attended by eleven members and friends.
11 & 12 March 2010. A Basic Book Indexing
workshop was presented by Glenda Browne at NSW
Writers’ Centre, Rozelle. The course was fully booked and
attended by ten students.
8 April–7 May 2010. An Intermediate/Practical
indexing course was conducted by Glenda Browne
online. This was the first time NSW Branch has offered
a course using electronic media. Six people took part
and the course culminated in a face-to-face session at
Thomson Reuters on 8 May followed by a lunch. Glenda
designed and presented participants with an Intermediate
Certificate of Attendance.
24 July 2010. NSW and ACT Branches held a oneday conference at Craigieburn, Bowral in the Southern
Highlands. ‘Recipes for Success’ was presented by Lynn
Farkas and Sherrey Quinn. Participants combined to
produce an index to a cookbook of recipes submitted by
attendees. Madeleine Davis then chaired a panel discussion
on essential indexing aids. The conference dinner at
Montfort’s was attended by the 22 participants, with
partners and friends. Thanks to Sue Flaxman for organising
the venue and to Elisabeth Thomas for organising a
cooking utensils exhibition and competition.
Sydney PEN Centre
NSW Branch became a corporate member.
NSW Webpage
NSW Branch minutes and end-of-year financial reports
are posted to the NSW page on the ANZSI website. The
NSW Constitution has also been posted to the web and
can be viewed by members.
Honorary Life Membership
Alan Walker was honoured with Honorary Life
Membership of ANZSI at the 2009 Conference.
ANZSI Newsletter and The Indexer
Glenda Browne has now resigned from ANZSI Newsletter’s
‘From the Literature’ page, which she has written since
August 2003; and also as the Australian contributor
to ‘Around the World’ in The Indexer, which she has
compiled since April 2005.
Indexers’ Medal
Awarded to Frances Paterson in 2009.
Liaison with ANZSI Council
NSW Branch supported Council’s successful move to
incorporate ANZSI at its September AGM.
Congratulations to Council which has been highly
active this year; we have responded to a number of
Council proposals and papers including Branch financial
allocations, membership dues, the paper on database
registration, and the Education Policy Committee
Report.
Frances Paterson
Branch events
Date and time
Organiser
Name of activity
Venue
Contact details
Tues 26 Oct
6.30 pm
ACT
Region
Branch
Vic Branch
AGM
The Brassey of
Canberra
Details on page 7
Tour of the
Melbourne Cricket
Ground Library
Social lunch
MCC
Nikki Davis
Ph: +061 3 9528 2216 or 0414 758 712
Lake Heights
Details on page 2
Wed 10 Nov
2.00 pm
Sat 27 Nov
12.00 pm
NSW
Branch
Vol. 6, No. 9, October 2010
3
Indexing degustation
Glosses and when to stop
have been following an interesting
string on index-l about adding
additional information to names
when the person has married, or
become one of several wives and
a stepmother. The possibilities are
endless. However, after studying all
the options offered, the reader is
in a position to select the one that
appeals. It is worth subscribing to
index-l for little gems like this. Go to
<www.indexpup.com/index-list/faq.html#subscribe>
By the way, what is the origin of ‘gloss’ as an indexing
term?
I
[Editor’s note: The Oxford English Dictionary gives as one
meaning of ‘gloss: ‘A word inserted between the lines or in the
margin as an explanatory equivalent of a foreign or otherwise
difficult word in the text; hence applied to a similar explanatory
rendering of a word given in a glossary or dictionary. Also, in a
wider sense, a comment, explanation, interpretation.’ Its earliest
example of this use is: ‘1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. xxiii.
108 Like as by a glosse ye subuerte the commaundement.]
Looking at eBooks
The rise of the eBook cannot be ignored by anyone even
remotely concerned with books. Will the eBook signal
the end of a cosy world where ‘books do furnish a room’,
where a reader can inhale the heady scent of paper and
ink and consult a solid and familiar-looking index? What
of the indexer?
Pierke Bosschieter has been looking into the impact
of the eBook on readers and indexers. She had been
looking for an eReader to save space on her bookshelves.
The first step is to buy an eReader device or software. The
latter enables the reader to view the eBook on a variety of
appliances such as computers, laptops, and phones, but
at present only the dedicated eReader is able to compete
with a ‘proper’ book in terms of an enjoyable read.
The chief problem with eReaders is the variety of
formats and the requirement for a specific program for a
product, e.g. Kindle eBooks can only be read on Kindle
programs. However, EPUB, a free and open eBook
standard created by the International Digital Publishing
Forum is developing into a universal eBook format which
is being adopted by Apple’s iPad and Barnes and Noble
among others.
The problem format is PDF due to the inflexibility of
the text. Adobe is fixing this by adding a ‘reflow’ facility to
its Acrobat Reader software, and eReaders such as Kindle
are able to support the PDF format. The drawback is
that the document must be marked for reflowing from
its creation.
Pierke tried the BeBook One and the Kindle DX.
The former uses EPUB files and reflowable PDF which
4
allows font changes and wrapping, chapters, zoom and
bookmarking. In comparison, the Kindle DX had a
screen twice the size which made reading PDF easier (but
only if the original font was large enough). However,
books in Kindle’s AZW format were a ‘pleasure to read’.
The user can change font, switch to landscape, search and
make notes, highlight text and bookmark. AZW works
with locations rather than pages, e.g. Mulvany’s Indexing
Books has 3,737 locations instead of 320 pages.
How are eBooks indexed? According to Pierke,
publishers do not believe that an orthodox index is
necessary because there is a search function, ‘a view that
is not being challenged’. There is no way of finding out
pre-publication if an eBook has a decent index. Browne
and Jermey’s The Indexing Companion has a linked index
but the Mulvany book’s index is for the printed version
and useless on the Kindle.
Pierke uses Kindle DX for reading an indexing
assignment away from her desk and may use it for a
second screen while indexing when the PDF files can be
manipulated. Pierke still finds in easier to look up hard
copy reference books than to wade through the Kindle.
Bosschieter, P. (2010). The Kindle and the indexer. The
Indexer, 28(3), 116-118.
Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary, the concise version
of which is the favourite bedside book for midnight
dabblers, will not be published in print again. The next
full edition, which will take about ten years to complete,
will be published in electronic format only. The internet
has rendered the hard copy unprofitable. OUP will still
print the single volume Oxford Dictionary of English
which contains contemporary words such as vuvuzela.
Printed dictionaries have a shelf life of about another
thirty years due to the increasing popularity of e-books.
Read more at
<www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/7970391/
Oxford-English-Dictionary-will-not-be-printed-again.html>
The OUP has a vault containing millions of rejected
dictionary words, one of which is xenolexica which means
‘a grave confusion when faced with unusual words’. These
unfortunate rejects, some more than 100 years old, are
written on cards and stored alphabetically for you never
know. Some examples include
• Accordionated: Being able to drive and refold
a road map at the same time
Wibble: The trembling of the lower lip just shy
of actually crying
One imagines the former precedes the latter.
See more at <http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/08/05/oxfordvault-contains-millions-of-rejected-dictionary-words/>
•
(continued at foot of next page)
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
ANZSI incorporation
W
ednesday 1 September
2010 was an important day
in the life of the Society.
On that day the Annual General
Meeting passed unanimously the five
resolutions relating to incorporation.
As the officer authorised by the
members to incorporate the Society,
I am now taking steps to give effect to the decision taken
at the AGM.
The Society will incorporate in Victoria under the
provisions of the Associations Incorporation Act 1981
(Vic). We are incorporating in Victoria because that is
where the Executive is located at the moment. This does
not preclude the possibility of the Executive moving in
the future to another state or territory and such a move
would entail no legal step.
There are only two implication of incorporating in
Victoria. The first is that the public officer must always
be a member resident in that state. The second is that the
Society must have a registered address (which may not
be a PO Box number) in Victoria. The Society intends
initially to use the Treasurer’s address as the Society’s
registered address, as that is the address registered with the
bank. Should the executive in future move from Victoria
the registered address could be that of the public officer.
This does not preclude the use of a PO Box, in Victoria or
any other State or Territory, for ordinary correspondence.
The public officer is the person responsible for
acting as a conduit for communications with Consumer
Affairs Victoria (as the government body responsible for
administering the Act). He or she has legal responsibilities
for submitting documents to Consumer Affairs Victoria,
and is the official contact person for the organisation. The
public officer must be aged eighteen or over and must be
resident in Victoria. The first public officer is the person
lodging the application. Any change of public officer
must be notified to Consumer Affairs Victoria within
fourteen days.
Under the Act the name of the Association in official
documents must include the word ‘Incorporated’ or
the abbreviation ‘Inc’. This will extend to all such
documents issued by branches which will be required to
add ‘Incorporated’ (or ‘Inc’) to the name of the Society
though not to the name of the branch. For example:
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers Inc.
Queensland Branch
This provision applies to all notices, advertisements
and other business documents and official publications
of the incorporated association and its branches. ‘Business
documents’ includes official letters, advertisements,
invoices, cheques, receipts and contracts. ‘Official
publications’ includes conference programs, newsletters,
pamphlets, brochures and notices and minutes of general
meetings.
The first step in incorporating the Society is to
lodge the application with Consumer Affairs Victoria.
For any members interested a copy of the application
form may be found at <www.consumer.vic.gov.au/
CA256902000FE154/Lookup/CAV_Forms_Associations/$file/
bus_ia_form01.pdf>. This will be accompanied by the
statutory fee. There are two alternative fees: $59.80 or
$119.50. ANZSI will be liable for the higher fee as we
are adopting our own rules (Constitution). The reasons
for this decision were explained by the President in the
July 2010 issue of the Newsletter.
The application will also be accompanied by the
revised Constitution which was adopted unanimously at
the Annual General Meeting. A copy of this document
will be posted on the ANZSI website and may be found
by following the link from ‘Constitution’ in the index.
By the time you read these words the application will
be well under way. We will keep you informed of its
progress.
Michael J Ramsden, Secretary
(Indexing degustation, continued from previous page)
Safe haven from magpies
Nikki’s intriguing piece on the Magpie Map brings to
mind a similar map listing public lavatories. The National
Toilet Map is funded by the Australian Government
Department of Health and Ageing as part of the National
Continence Management Strategy. The map shows the
location and details of more than 14,000 accessible loos.
When your Magpie Map and treble set of eyes let you
down you will always be perfectly placed to find refuge in
the nearest lavatory: <www.toiletmap.gov.au/default.aspx>.
Jane Purton
Vol. 6, No. 9, October 2010
5
Letter from China
Wednesday 22 September
i Hao from Shanghai!
I have been fortunate to be
the guest of the Chinese
Society of Indexers (CSI) with
Maureen MacGlashan, editor of The
Indexer, for the last two days in
Shanghai.
On Monday we were taken to
the Shanghai Library to learn about
their newspaper and journal database on the Republic of
China (1911-49) with references pre-1911, full text, for
free and growing. It was explained by Wu Peijuan, author
of an article in The Indexer Sept 2009, and her English
speaking colleague.
Touring the work areas of the Library I was surprised
to see all the staff had trays of kiwi fruit on their desks
from New Zealand. The management had given all staff a
tray for the Moon festival holiday starting today.
In traditional Chinese style we were given a banquet
lunch with the Deputy Director of the Library He Yi. We
spoke on e-books. Shanghai Library is a public library and
they give their members eBook readers with the eBooks
loaded. He agreed that there is lot of variety between
readers and formats and many are not good for scientific
literature. He was looking forward to the delivery of the
iPads they had on order. I asked about their rare books
and was later taken on a tour of an exhibition of these
books. Exchanging gifts, I presented a copy of the Annual
Report booklet.
Database indexing is the main sort of indexing done
here as the concept of book indexing is ‘foreign’ to them.
They also do a lot of academic/research work in indexing.
They are only just starting to index their books here.
This is for several reasons. Firstly their early scholars were
expected to learn the contents of books by heart and
hence the concept of an index shows laziness. Secondly,
and more importantly, what order do you put the words
in? The concept of alphabetical order is difficult with their
characters. This was explained in more detail in Liqun
Dai’s article in The Indexer in 2006.
I’m not sure if you have seen how old Chinese books
are bound. They do not have formal covers, but have
exposed stitching, soft covers and, if several sections, are
sometimes stacked in a protective case, but not attached
to the case. The title can be on the top outside edge of
the pages (i.e. not the spine) as the books are stacked flat
in cases with this top part to the front. The other thing
about Chinese books is they bind the edges of the folded
page, not in the fold of the page. This means all ‘pages’ are
double with opening in middle. Try folding a bit of paper
and bind close where the two halves meet. This means
they are folding the text at the outside edge of the book
and hence saving paper. Also when they print their pages
N
6
they are only printing one side of the page. This saves lots
of hassles with our folded and double sided printing.
When someone owns a book they stamp it with their
seal, using red ink. This is sort of like their equivalent of
book plates. Since they read their books last page first,
these appear at the rear of the book. They also annotate
their books in spaces at top and bottom of page or near the
spine. Some books have a contents page, but since books
have no page numbers, it is really only section headings in
order. All text is written in vertical columns and the start
of a new section is only obvious by a character in heavier
and perhaps larger type.
Modern Chinese books are like ours, but the guides
were interested to learn that our early books were also in
the Western style.
On to Shanghai Museum. I was delighted to also see
an exhibition on Catherine the Great from the Hermitage
Museum as well as all the Chinese treasures.
Our translator, Tracy, used to work for a restaurant
review section of a local magazine, so she took us to
a small family run restaurant which was also a gallery.
All the art was by the owner and all the furniture and
table wear was for sale. Wonderful contrast to the usual
Chinese mass market restaurants.
On day two we went to Fudan University to meet with
seven key personnel from CSI including Zhang Qiyu
who is in his 80s. The Indexer published an article by him
on term selection again in Sept 2009. It was a privilege
to meet him and he gave us both signed sets of his books.
I presented him with our Annual Report booklet. I also
gave CSI members our bookmarks and the 2011 ANZSI
Conference bookmarks in Chinese, thanks to Hugh
McMaster, which went down well.
They were very interested to learn the differences
between CSI and ANZSI and the English Society of
Indexers, particularly how we tend to work from home
and have volunteer organisational staff. But basic indexing
issues are common to all – the impact of the internet and
how humans are still needed for a good index.
Another banquet lunch with CSI, was followed by
a tour of the University and a visit to the University
museum, including their early computer. Fudan is strong
in Maths and Sciences and has recently taken over the
Shanghai Medical University. We met the University
Vice-President, then went on to their new campus and
dinner at a posh restaurant.
CSI was embarrassed that they inconvenienced us
when they changed the dates for the Conference to
October. They certainly made up for it and I think in
many ways this was a much better arrangement, as we
met and discussed with all these personnel as a group
rather than in a conference setting.
(continued on next page)
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
(Mary in China, continued from previous page)
I am quite glad to pause this morning and take stock.
Maureen and I are going to the World Expo later today
as we gather it is cheaper and less crowded.
Shanghai has changed a lot in the nine years since
I was last here. Firstly only a few bicycles! Lots of cars
and a lot less construction work, as all the major road
works and building the Metro have been finished. It is
now very much a western city, but there are still pockets
of old Shanghai.
My only grumble is the weather. Mid to high 30s,
with humidity to match!
I now need to find a post office to send all these
Chinese books home.
WARM regards,
Mary Russell
PS The weather was much cooler for my last few days in
Shanghai. Maureen and I had a wonderful time exploring
a small section of Expo. We used our passports to jump
the queues into the Australian and UK pavilions.
I am now in Amsterdam, before the SI conference in
Middelburg and then go on to speak at the DSI meeting
at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Back row from the left：Guoqiang Wen, Vice Secretary-general of CSI; Zhaolu Wu, Executive Vice Director
of CSI, Deputy Director of Fudan University Library; Yongqing Ge, one of the founders of CSI, Advisor of
CSI; Ge Wu, Executive Member of CSI, Chief Editor of China Indexer; Dehua Fu, Executive Member of
CSI, Professor of History Department of Fudan University; Sunan Liu, Vice Director of CSI, CEO of 114
Company Affiliated to China Telecom; front row from the left: Maureen MacGlashan, Editor of The Indexer;
Qiyu Zhang, one of the founders of CSI, Advisor of CSI; Mary Russell.
ANZSI ACT Region Branch
Invitation to the AGM, Tuesday 26 October 2010
at
The Brassey of Canberra, Barton, 6.30 pm
Join your colleagues for dinner ($40 for choice of two courses, complimentary wine)
Our speaker, Will Raymont, will inform and entertain us on a topic of interest to all:
‘The good, the bad and the ugly: the real story behind home sustainability assessments’
Contact Eleanor Whelan: <eleanor.whelan@bigpond.com> or ph
Vol. 6, No. 9, October 2010
7
Letter: registration procedures and processes
I
n the September issue (page 10) Don Jordan refers
to his unsuccessful registration application, and
comments that while the Assessor’s report was
helpful, it left him with a number of questions about
interpretation of the assessment criteria and a wish for
further discussion of his decision-making as an indexer.
He states that ‘… there was no mechanism for me to
give feedback and ask for deeper explanations. It’s a very
one-sided process in an occupation which has many areas
where the literature agrees that there is more than one
way to handle the issue.’ Later he refers to having ‘…no
right of reply’.
I was very surprised to read this statement, and think
it is misleading. All registration assessment reports are
accompanied by a letter from the Receiving Officer
(Registration) asking that she be contacted if the applicant
has any queries or comments. In at least one case this year
this has resulted in an applicant having a very useful
discussion with an assessor about the indexer’s approach
and the assessor’s view of it. Because the registration
assessment process is confidential, only the Receiving
Officer can put the applicant and assessors in contact
with each other (each application is judged by at least
two assessors). It is a pity that your correspondent did not
choose to take the opportunity offered.
Don also made some interesting points about learning
from ‘commercially acceptable indexes’, and suggested
that the Society assemble a collection of appropriately
indexed books, for loan to members. I suggest another
approach – that members could consult the lists of
award and medal winners on the ANZSI (and other
indexing society) websites; identify which libraries hold
those books, via the National Library’s free Trove service
<http://trove.nla.gov.au/>; and arrange with their local
public library to borrow the selected books on interlibrary loan.
T
his publication has been written
for someone indexing their
first annual report. They may
be an employee of the company or
organisation, a consultant employed to
prepare the annual report or an indexer.
Since no indexing experience is
assumed in this publication, various
examples are given to explain how to
index and the ways indexing entries could
be improved. However, it is assumed the
person will have some organisational
knowledge.
Cost: e-book (PDF) A$25, printed
A$35. Available from<www.anzsi.org/site/
indexingyourannualreport.asp>.
8
Don concluded with a question about the relationship
between a Table of Contents and an Index, and where he
might find guidance on this.
Pat Booth’s book, Indexing: the manual of good practice
(Saur, 2001) has a succinct discussion of this topic. Do
Mi Stauber also discusses it in Facing the text (Cedar Row
Press, 2004).
Nancy Mulvany provides this quote ‘Whereas …the
Table of Contents provides a logical, structured view, a
good index provides an intellectual view of the content
unavailable by any other means. It is the result of an
intelligent reading by an indexer trained in recognizing
and documenting the interrelationships of the intellectual
content; the indexer not only notes topics and subtopics,
but also makes judgments about them, selecting the most
important and relevant sections to direct readers to.’
(Indexing books, 2nd ed, p. 6, citing The Columbia guide
to digital publishing, 2003).
There are also discussions on Index-L. M Bennett
(posting on 11 Feb 2009), wrote of the need to ‘cutagainst-the-grain’ and that ‘The author provides access to
the text through well-organized information presented
with an outline – a table of contents. The indexer’s
competing weapon is an A–Z collection of keywords.
Your index must provide an *alternative* to the TOC.’ A
search of the archives should identify similar postings.
At the request of Council I have recently written a
report on Registration procedures and processes. It has
gone to branches for comment and I encourage members
to read it and to make constructive comment. Council, the
Education Committee and the Registration Committee
are concerned to have a cohesive approach to training
and credentialing and to provide opportunities (such
as tutoring, mentoring and peer review) for continuing
education for indexers and improvement in indexes.
Sherrey Quinn, Chair, Registration Committee
Contents
• What is an index?
• Planning your index
• What to index?
• Headings
• Subheadings
• Page numbers
• Compiling the index
• Cross references
• Specific parts of the report
• Editing the index
• Layout of the index
• Where to get help
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
Victorian Branch annual report
September 2009 – August 2010
G
ood evening fellow indexers and friends, welcome
to the 2010 Annual General Meeting. We now
have 87 members in our branch, which includes
members from the Northern Territory, South Australia
and Tasmania. When I was president in 2008 our
membership was 74 so we are growing.
As you know, our branch is a very active one and this
year has been no exception. I shall give a brief account of
the year’s activities.
Training
Max McMaster conducted basic book indexing courses
for the Branch – part 1 in September 2009, attended by
12 (including three from New Zealand), and part 2 in
April 2010 attended by 20.
Annual Report Peer Review opportunity
Members took part in this exercise, overseen by Mary
Russell. Twenty-one people registered, including eleven
from interstate. For a fee of $75 they were offered a
choice of two annual reports to index, or for a further $75
they could index both reports. After completing the index
the compiler received very useful and detailed feedback.
Max McMaster and Mary Russell compiled a booklet
entitled Indexing your annual report, the content of which
was influenced in part by the efforts of the peer review
participants. The booklet was released on 1 August and is
available in print and in PDF from the ANZSI web site.
Thank you Mary and Max for making this opportunity
such a success.
Events and activities
We have enjoyed a wide variety of activities during the
past twelve months. A very successful innovation has
been The Victorian Indexing Club (The VIC) which is
held on the first Wednesday of each month at the Trinity
Church Hall in Kew.
A clinic where members may discuss indexing
problems precedes a talk on an aspect of indexing. This
year the subjects have included creating a large index of
names, news from the 2009 ANZSI conference, indexing
Christmas carols, marking up (or not), indexing quilts
and databases, thesaurus construction and classification
of mythical animals, and The Argus Project. NonKew events included a Christmas get-together at Max
McMaster’s house and a visit to the Museum of Victoria’s
natural history collection. Noelene Bridge, on a preconference detour to Melbourne, gave a talk on Indexing
in the Frozen North at the Melbourne State Library
Conference Centre.
The Victorian Branch held the very successful
Nuggets of Indexing Seminar at Sovereign Hill, Ballarat,
4–6 June. Interesting and practical sessions were leavened
by wonderful food, a trip down a mine, the sound and
Vol. 6, No. 9, October 2010
light show and a visit to the Gold Museum.
I would like to thank all the speakers, ANZSI members
and guests, for their hard work in creating such a range of
very interesting talks.
Promotion
The Victorian branch is working hard to promote the value
of indexing to a range of associated groups and societies.
To this end ANZSI bookmarks have been distributed
to bodies such as The Victorian Writers’ Centre at the
Wheeler Centre at the State Library, various conferences,
and the Bookseller + Publisher which included a bookmark
in an issue. Members of other ANZSI branches have also
taken on the task of distribution. A banner measuring
two metres by 85 centimetres, featuring our slogan Life is
easier with an Index, was unveiled at The VIC in May and
will stand proudly at all future events. Thanks go to Max
and sons for designing the layout of the banner. Lanyards,
featuring the ANZSI logo and acronym, were first used at
the Nuggets seminar.
Mary Russell reached an even wider audience when
she was interviewed on indexing by Ramona Koval on
Radio National’s Book Show on 18 May. A spike in
the number of hits on the ANZSI website reflected the
interest taken in the broadcast. A podcast has been made
available on the show’s website.
2011 ANZSI Conference
The Victorian branch will run the next conference,
Indexing see Change, at the Brighton Savoy, Brighton from
Monday 12 to Wednesday 14 September 2011.
Victorian Branch Committee
I would like to thank the Committee members for all their
hard work during the past year. Max McMaster, Margaret
Findlay, Nikki Davis and Mary Russell have been very
generous with their time and energy, and this has without
a doubt helped to make all our ventures such a success.
Bev Mills, who started the year as President, resigned
from the committee in February, much to our distress.
I would like to thank Bev for the valuable contribution
she made to our Committee and its endeavours.
I would also like to thank Max and his family for
their generosity in making their house available for our
meetings and our festive get-together.
Thank you to all our members, for without you
we would not have a Branch. Thanks must also go the
partners and friends of members who attend events and
dinners with, I hope, enjoyment rather than resignation
because we cherish their company too.
We have had a great year. Thank you.
Jane Purton
9
Thinking about words – professing a profession
O
The professions of these persons, so unfortunately drowned, were: 1, a Haberdasher;
2, a Taylor; 3, a Sadler; 4, a Barber; 5, a Waterman. Shirburn Ballads, 1616
nce again your Editor offers a short piece of
his own as a filler. He’d much rather include
something of yours, preferably some photos
– this issue has far too many slabs of unrelieved text.
What follows was originally written for editors, but
by substituting a word here and there most of it seems
equally relevant to indexers ...
Are you a professional indexer? Are you sure? If your
major source of income is from indexing, you probably
feel justified in calling yourself an indexer. But professional?
What does that mean? And has its meaning changed with
time? You would certainly count yourself
at least the equal of a haberdasher or
waterman. Intuitively, of course you are a
professional! But is intuition enough to
base your status on?
Our word profess comes from the Latin
verb profiteor, meaning to declare or promise,
and until around the year 1500 was very
much limited to its religious application:
you professed your faith – and this was a
very solemn and significant act. Indeed,
a monk or nun would be professed when
they took their vows, and this passive form
of the verb followed from the old grammarians’ insistence
on keeping the structure of English as close as possible
to its Latin roots, the past participle of the passive verb
profiteor being professus.
The oldest profession in terms of the English language
– forget what you sniggered about in your primary
school! – was therefore divinity, although from the
evidence on clay tablets and papyruses it is likely that
land surveyors and statisticians were right up there with
the early priesthood. The divines were closely followed
by the lawyers and the medicos, and their professions
shared a number of common features. They were all
learned professions, involving years of study in schools
or apprenticeships to certain masters. They were closed
associations, and you could claim to be a member of
one only if you were accepted as such by your peers
after rigorous tests. The constantly developing nature of
the subjects required lifelong learning, and so you were
constantly under the scrutiny of your peers through local
networks or branch associations to ensure that you kept
up to date.
With the emergence of the universities, these professions
became closely linked to academic activity and teaching.
It is no surprise that doctor originally just meant someone
qualified to teach – the word comes from the Latin docere,
‘to teach’. Master, similarly, was from magister, originally
‘an important person’ (the ‘magis’ part is a Latin adverb
meaning ‘more’) but which has now diversified to mean
10
someone in authority, a ship’s commander, an employer,
a school teacher or a person who owns and controls an
animal. Doctoral or Masters degrees are no longer seen as
licences to teach, and the terms Reader or Lecturer are now
often used for the lower rungs of the academic ladder.
But, closer to our theme, what about professor? These days
a university professor outranks the others, but in early
European usage he (it would always be a ‘he’!) would have
been just another teacher, more or less synonymous with
doctors or masters, having earned the right to teach his
subjects publicly in the schools of his faculty.
Which brings us back to the development
of our present-day use of profession. When
the word was still so narrowly confined to
the three learned professions, whatever else
you did was your occupation, employment,
business, calling or trade, and these usages
go back to at least the 14th century.
Likewise craft – although there the link
to the German Kraft, meaning strength, is
a little obscure – the transfer of meaning
to ‘art, skilled occupation’ seems to be
peculiarly English, but important because
it saw the dawn of specialisation, with craft
guilds the early trade associations.
At first towns had a single guild, the merchant guild,
regulating all the trade in the town and maintaining
a solid front against outrageous taxation. Soon skilled
artisans wanted their own associations and before long
there was a great variety of these craft guilds aiming to
regulate prices and ensure honest work.
Around the turn of last century snobs distinguished
between professions and trade, and looked down on the
‘tradesmen’, usually shopkeepers. But had you realised
that trade originally shared a root with tread, and more
often meant a path, a track, or especially the course of a
ship? The ‘trade’ winds weren’t blowing your ship towards
your merchandise, but simply in a steady or predictable
direction. From that sense it became something you
did in a regular or routine way, and so to your usual
occupation, by which you earned your living. Nowadays
skilled tradesmen are in great demand and command
great rewards, as you realise every time you call in an
electrician or a plumber.
The number of callings recognised as professions
increased little by little after about 1500, but still
maintained the requirements of training, assessment and
peer acceptance into a restricted association. Towards the
19th century you could add dentistry, civil engineering,
architecture and accounting. Later, in a more technological
age, came occupations such as pharmacy, nursing,
(continued on the next page)
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) Newsletter
(Professing a profession, continued from previous page)
teaching, librarianship, veterinary medicine and social
work. According to a Wikipedia article, most of them
shared certain attributes, including:
* skill based on theoretical knowledge
* a professional association
* an extensive education
* testing of competence
* institutional and/or continuing training (such as
internship or mentoring)
* licencing of practitioners
* a code of professional conduct or ethics
* self-regulation
* monopoly and legal recognition
* control of remuneration and advertising
* high status and rewards.
The Wikipedia article also included ‘male-dominated’
as a feature of the highest status professions, pointing out
that the rise in the number of women school teachers
coincided with the decline in the status of the teaching
profession, and that women are being admitted into
the priesthood as the church is becoming relatively
less important. You may choose to disagree with these
assertions – they are obviously false in relation to
medicine and the law – but if we suggest that certain
professions seem more attractive or better suited to
women because of their ‘more caring natures’ and to fit
in with family-oriented priorities we risk being accused of
political unsoundness.
In the light of these ramblings, a ‘professional
sportsman’ seems the ultimate oxymoron. If you take up
golf, you have lessons and perhaps buy your gear from
‘the professional’, somebody skilled in the game who is
employed as a paid performer/servant. In 19th-century
cricket they distinguished between ‘gentlemen’ (all
amateurs) and ‘players’ (the professionals – John Wisden,
the begetter of cricket’s bible, Wisden’s Almanach, came to
prominence as a professional in the 1850s). Clearly, the
coinage of the term professional has been debased – or at
least, its currency much modified – in recent applications,
and the public may be justifiably confused.
If we are to call ourselves professional, as I hope we do
and will continue to do, it is up to us to set the highest
professional standards, make them widely known and
maintain them most rigorously. ANZSI is setting out to
do this. But what do you think?
Peter Judge
Sources: The Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on
CD-ROM v.3.0. Information on craft guilds from New Catholic
Dictionary online at <www.catholicforum.com/saints/ ncd03775.
htm>. Article ‘Profession’ from Wikipedia at <en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Profession>. ‘The haberdasher’ from Glasgow University
library at <special.lib.gla.ac.uk/images/ exhibitions/month/bv212/
Bv.2.12_b2rwd.jpg>.
Vol. 6, No. 9, October 2010
11
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers Inc. (ANZSI)
ANZSI NEWSLETTER
Volume 6, number 10, November 2010
ANZSI news
Indexing for digital technology
ndexes are often forgotten by
publishers. This was highlighted
by Robin Derricourt, Managing
Director of UNSW Press at the ANZSI
2009 Conference, when he gave cost
estimates for publishing a printed book
versus an ebook and completely forgot
to include the costs of indexing. I don’t
need to convince members of ANZSI that a book without an
index is a censored book, but how do we convince publishers
to remember to include indexes in their ebooks? What does
the trend for digital publishing mean for indexes? Is extra
work required for an indexer for a publication published as
an ebook? How do the different ebook formats cope with
indexes? Do indexes to ebooks work efficiently? These are
some of the many questions that spring to mind when you
mention indexing and digital publishing in the same breath.
So what are the answers to these questions and how do we
have our views listened to?
In February the Minister for Innovation, Industry,
Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr announced the
Book Industry Strategy Group (BISG) and asked it to make
recommendations that develop strategies to help Australia’s
book industry meet the challenges and opportunities
presented by digital technologies. Chaired by The Hon
Dr Barry Jones AO, the BISG has the following terms of
reference:
1. What digital platforms for books are available in Australia,
how they work, what features they offer, and how extensively
they are used.
2. How fast the market for digital delivery of books will grow
in Australia and internationally, what factors might slow
or hasten that growth and what is the relative position of
printed books.
3. The potential size and structure of the Australian digital and
printed book markets, taking into account (a) demand from
individuals, libraries, government agencies, and research,
educational and cultural institutions; (b) the needs of the
aged and people with disabilities; and (c) the needs of
regional and remote communities.
4. How the supply chain for trade, educational, scholarly,
scientific and technical books has been and will be affected
I
ISSN 1832-3855
5.
6.
7.
8.
by digital technologies, taking into account the impact
on authors, publishers, printers, wholesalers, retailers and
consumers.
Options for encouraging efficiencies in the supply chain for
printed books, integrating it with digital delivery of books
on a global scale, and increasing the overall competitiveness
of the Australian book industry.
(a) How business models are likely to change in the digital
environment; (b) how this is likely to affect business models
for printed books; and (c) what can be done to facilitate
these changes.
Opportunities for the Australian book industry to participate
more actively in the global marketplace for printed and
digital books over the next decade, including by creating,
adopting, and using new technologies.
How existing Commonwealth programs and activities can
be refocused to support the industry’s adaptation to new
technologies.
Assistance required
The BISG is trying to gain an in-depth understanding of
the issues facing industry and consumers as the Australian
book industry transitions to digital technologies. To help
them gain information they are conducting a public
submission campaign. While you are welcome to make your
own personal submission, I will be compiling an ANZSI
(continued overleaf )
WHAT’S INSIDE
Newsletter, Web Manager and Registration details 2
NSW Branch social lunch
2
ACT Region Branch AGM and dinner
3
Branch events
3
Ebook readers and ebooks
4
Discussion: indexing inserts
5
ANZSI medal 2010
5
Indexing indaba
6
New Zealand Branch President’s report
7
VIC: Getting into taxonomy
8
Frankfurt Book Fair
10
ANZSI and Branch Committee contacts
12
Deadline for the December issue: 1 December
PO Box 5062, Glenferrie South VIC 3122, Australia
Newsletter,
Web Manager and
Registration contacts
Editor: Peter Judge
<peter.judge@bigpond.com>
Web Manager: Mary Russell
<russellmf025@ozemail.com.au>
Website: <www.anzsi.org>
ISSN 1832-3855
This newsletter is published monthly 11 times
per year, with combined issues for January/
February. It is sent free to all members of
the Australian and New Zealand Society of
Indexers. Opinions expressed in the newsletter
are those of the individual contributors, and
do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the
Society.
It is your newsletter, and we are totally
dependent on contributions, both large and
small, from members. Please contact the editor
if you have any questions about the suitability
of items for publication. The editor reserves the
right to edit or abridge contributions.
Please send files via email in MS Word,
.doc files or .rtf, but NOT .html or .pdf. And
please, no images or footnotes embedded in
Word files.
Next deadline
1 December for the December 2010 issue.
Graphics
Image files can be accepted in most common
formats. Do not embed images in text files.
Camera-ready art and photos can be scanned
by the editor. Note that photos need to be
clear, sharp and contrasty if they are to copy
well in black and white.
Advertising charges
Full page A$200; half page A$100;
quarter page A$50.
Membership charges
A$75 per year (NZ members A$68)
from 1 Jul 2010.
Institutional membership A$100.
Subscriptions to the Newsletter A$55 p.a.
The Indexer
(international indexing journal)
Maureen MacGlashan, Executive Editor
<editor@theindexer.org>.
ANZSI Corresponding Member
Alan Eddy <aeddy2@bigpond.com>
To subscribe at the special rate for indexing
society members, go to <www.theindexer.org>
and click on the subscriptions link.
Registration
Shirley Campbell
Ph +61 2 6285 1006
<shirley.campbell4@bigpond.com> or
<www.anzsi.org/site/registration.asp>
ANZSI NSW Branch social lunch
Lake Heights
Saturday 27 November, 12.00 for 12.30 pm
he ANZSI NSW Branch is holding an end of year informal get-together.
Everyone is welcome to have lunch at Frances Paterson’s house, 100 Lake
Heights Road, Lake Heights, Wollongong. RSVP to Frances at <olivegroveindexin
g@bigpond.com> or (02) 4274 2600 by Wednesday 24 November.
We are asking everyone to bring a plate of food and a drink (soft or hard),
but please no peanuts or peanut products or brazil nuts (traces of nuts are OK).
Spouses/partners are also welcome. If the weather is fine and people wish, we can
go for a scenic walk around part of Lake Illawarra.
Lake Heights is about 20 minutes south of Wollongong and if coming by
train on the South Coast line, it is about an hour and a half from Central Railway
Station to Wollongong. We will need to pick you up from Wollongong Station so
please let us know if you are coming by train. There is a train from Central at 9:40
am which arrives at Wollongong at 11.21 am. (NB just check if there will be any
track work on the day <www.cityrail.info/index.jsp>. If you are coming by car,
the journey should take about an hour and a half from the CBD; you can come via
Botany, via the Princes Highway, or via Silverwater and Menai.
As you reach Wollongong, the route is well signposted. Follow the signs to
Nowra, turn left to Berkeley on Northcliffe Drive, and continue towards the
eastern end of the lake. Watch out for Lake Heights Road on your left up a steep
hill. The house is at the top of the rise, just around a left-hand bend on the lefthand side of the road (the downhill side).
This will be a great opportunity to network and generally catch up with each
other and what has been happening in our indexing world. We hope to see you
there.
Frances Paterson
T
(ANZSI news, continued from page 1)
submission. I would appreciate your advice and answers to the questions I posed
above. If you can give me any examples that would be wonderful. As submissions
are due to BISG by 10 December 2010, comments to me by 1st December
would be appreciated, either to the discussion I have set up at <www.anzsi.org/site/
discussions.asp?task=view&id=39> or to me directly at <mruss@ozmail.com.au>.
Further information on BISG can be found at <www.innovation.gov.au/bisg>.
What is happening in ANZSI?
Have you wondered what your Branch Committee or ANZSI Council are doing?
Did you know that the minutes for most Branch Committees are available on the
website at <www.anzsi.org/site/branch_minutes.asp>. All papers to Council and
Council minutes are available at <www.anzsi.org/site/council_mins.asp?>. You will
need to login to the website to see the minutes.
And, if you have sharp eyes, you may have noticed that the newsletter’s
masthead and page footer have changed slightly: they now read as you see on
page 1 and below. With incorporation, we are required to put the ‘Inc.’ after
the society’s name in all official documents and publications. Our abbreviation
‘ANZSI’ remains unchanged.
Mary Russell
Indexers Available
<www.anzsi.org/site/Indexers_available.asp>
2
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers Inc. (ANZSI) Newsletter
ACT Region Branch AGM and dinner
T
he Annual General Meeting was held on 26 October
2010 at The Brassey of Canberra, attended by
thirteen members. The President, Secretary and
Treasurer were re-elected for 2010–11. Geraldine Triffitt
retired as a committee member after sixteen years of
meritorious service, several as Branch President. Geraldine
was instrumental in the formation of the ACT Region
Branch and her outstanding contribution was recognised
and acknowledged by all present. Helen Frame and Tracy
Harwood join the committee for the coming year.
We were joined by others for dinner, during which
we enjoyed the presentation of our guest speaker, Will
Raymont, who spoke to us about the real story behind home
sustainability assessments. This proved to be a consciousnessraising exercise and we were in turn informed, alarmed and
amused.
President’s Report 2009-10
Committee meetings
My sincere thanks go to committee members Eleanor Whelan
(Secretary), Sherrey Quinn (Treasurer), Barry Howarth (Past
President), Edyth Binkowski and Geraldine Triffitt for their
work and commitment over the past year on behalf of ACT
members. Particular thanks are due to Eleanor who has
carried the main burden of organisation of the Branch and
this she has done willingly, reliably and effortlessly. Thank
you also to Edyth for her hospitality in offering her home as
the venue for our meetings.
The dates of committee meetings were set to precede
Council meetings so that the committee could discuss
items on the agenda and the accompanying papers for the
forthcoming Council meeting.
The Branch currently has 36 members.
Branch activities
The first activity for the 2009–10 year was the Christmas
barbecue held at Lennox Gardens on 6 December. This is
always an enjoyable end-of-year function held in a delightful
setting.
On 16 February 2010 nine members visited the National
Sports Information Centre at the Australian Institute of
Sport. Our host was the Librarian, Greg Blood, who told us
that the NSIC definition of sport is ‘human activity suitable
for achieving a result, requiring physical exertion and/or
skill, by nature competitive’. A report of this visit appeared
in the March 2010 ANZSI Newsletter.
The Committee decided that it was not feasible to run
training sessions in indexing in Canberra when excellent
courses were offered by the NSW Branch in Sydney. The
ACT Region Branch offers individual members a $50
subsidy if they attend a course in Sydney. As well the NSW
Branch offers a discount to interstate members.
The ACT Region Branch joined with the NSW Branch in
planning and delivering a weekend workshop at Craigieburn
in Bowral on 24 July 2010 titled ‘Cooks who Index; Indexers
who Cook’. This interactive workshop addressed key aspects
of the indexing process and was invaluable to all indexers,
not just those interested in cooking. The presenters for the
session ‘Recipes for success’ were Sherrey Quinn and Lynn
Farkas and this session was followed by a panel discussion
‘Essential Ingredients’. It was pleasing that the ANZSI
President Mary Russell attended this workshop. A report
of the workshop appeared in the August 2010 ANZSI
Newsletter.
ANZSI Council
The Branch Committee discussed Council matters at each
meeting. We have actively responded to Council papers and
appreciate the efforts of the ANZSI President in recognising
and discussing our areas of concern.
ACT Branch member Sherrey Quinn has been a member
of the Education Committee and Chairperson of the
Registration Committee. Besides carrying out her role as an
assessor on the Registration Panel, she has researched and
written a comprehensive report for Council on ‘Registration
Process and Procedures’.
We look forward to working constructively with Council
in the coming year.
Shirley Campbell, President
Branch events
Date and time
Organiser
Name of activity
Venue
Contact details
Wed 10 Nov
2.00 pm
Vic Branch
MCC
Nikki Davis
Ph: +061 3 9528 2216 or 0414 758 712
Sat 27 Nov
12.00 pm
Wed 1 Dec
VIC at 6.00 pm
Get-together at
7.45 pm
NSW
Branch
Vic Branch
Tour of the
Melbourne Cricket
Ground Library
Social lunch
Lake Heights
Details on page 2
The VIC: Indexing
Xmas cards
followed by
Festive get-together
The VIC at Kew Holy
Trinity Anglican Church
Get-together at La Q
Restaurant, Kew
Details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=145>
Vol. 6, No. 10, November 2010
3
Ebook readers and ebooks
I
set myself the task at the Frankfurt Book Fair to see
what sort of ebook readers were available. Individual
ebook reader suppliers had exhibits scattered around the
halls and there was a section where several ebook readers
were set out for you to examine. It was interesting to see the
variety. There was iPad, Kindle, Sony Pocket, iRiver Story
and Cover Story, Sony, Bookeen models including latest
Cybook Gen 3, BeBook Neo, Acer, Kobo, Hanvon models,
Ectaco models, enTourage eDGe, with dual screens, Aiptek
StoryBook Incolour, for children, as well as several Chinese
readers. Being able to examine them side-by-side was good,
but you often had the next person keen to have a go, or the
reader was set on Chinese, or you couldn’t work out how to
get the screen to change, so closer examination was limited.
I picked up as many brochures as I could find on the
various reader. Here are my observations based on examining
about 20 readers:
• The trend is for touch screens. For example the latest iRiver
no longer has their tiny QWERTY keyboard.
• Some, such as Hanvon models or BeBook Neo, require a
stylus to operate or for making annotations.
• Most have monochrome e-ink screens, which make reading
text easier than colour screens.
• Screen sizes vary from 10 inches to 5 inches, but most
are about 6 inches. Like TV screens the convention is to
measure the screens in inches and on the diagonal.
• The size of the actual reader varies depending on if it has
a small QUERTY keyboard at the bottom or additional
buttons, but those with touch screens are often not much
bigger than the actual screen.
• They can weigh as much as about 1.4kg for the dual screen
enTourage eDGe, to as little as 165g for the jetBook mini.
• All support multiple file formats.
• Some promote the fact you can rotate the text so it can be
viewed as landscape.
• All seem to be able to enlarge the font size. Some have more
font size options than others.
• Several have built-in dictionaries and some even include
language translators.
• Several have the ability to make notes or highlight words.
This is done with a stylus or else with either a small keyboard
or a touch screen keyboard.
• A few advertise the ability to take snapshots to copy and
paste. I assume of the text, rather than taking photos.
• Having wi-fi enables you to download a new book direct to
the reader. Without wi-fi you need to plug the reader into a
computer to download books.
• A few have G3 or are Bluetouth enabled.
• Many promote extra features such as ability to listen to MP3
files or record voice.
• A couple promote additional functions such as an integrated
calendar or contact list.
• Some are available with coloured cases – pink, red, green,
blue or yellow – instead of the usual black or white.
4
• Since there was limited access to files on the display models
it wasn’t possible to examine different file formats.
• Some were set for Chinese, highlighting how they coped
with different language formats.
• I was surprised that some only have 1GB of memory. This is
small compared with cheapish memory sticks that can now
store 4GB or even 8GB. Some claim this represents 1,000
books, but that assumes file size is only 1MB.
• To add more memory several take SD memory cards.
• Many advertise they come loaded with classics and bestsellers
and, since targeting a European market, in several languages.
Numbers of books pre-loaded vary from 125 to 150 – or
even 1,000, for one of the Hanvon models.
• In several cases the ebook reader supplier will also provide
you with more recent ebooks for a fee via their website.
• Battery life is often quoted in page view, at typically 9,000
to 11,000 pages.
• Not many gave prices, but one of the smallest with a 5 inch
screen and few added features, the Ectaco’s jebtBook mini,
is advertised at US$99.95.
• A more detailed review of readers can be found at
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_e-book_readers>.
Back in Australia you realise just how few ebook readers
are actually available here and how often it is the older
model. Some ebook reader suppliers have set up deals with
bookshops for the purchase of the latest ebooks. Don’t be
fooled – you do not need to purchase their ebook reader to
read the ebooks supplied by the store. Read the fine print
and you will see that the formats available can be read on
any device.
As with all things you need to determine exactly what
you want and how you are going to use it. It is tempting to
purchase the one with all the ‘bells and whistles’ but that
often means it will be bulkier and hence heavier. Is this what
you want?
When I went to the local library in Middelburg to check
my email I was interested to see a table with four ebook
readers attached. They were for anyone to examine and
compare the different models and see the same file formats
on different readers. I thought this was an excellent idea as
you are also free of the sales person breathing down your
neck.
Ebooks
So you have a reader, what is available in ebook formats? Old
books, free of copyright restrictions, are being scanned and
are available for free via the web. Recent releases are slowly
becoming available soon after being released in print form,
but often at a similar price.
A survey of Australian publishers in the November
issue of Bookseller + Publisher questioned Allan & Unwin,
HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan, Penguin, Random House,
Simon & Schuster and Text Publishing about ebooks.
(continued on next page)
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers Inc. (ANZSI) Newsletter
(Ebook readers and ebooks, continued from previous page)
All said they would be publishing ebooks simultaneously
with printed books, or aim to, depending on if they have
the rights. All were digitalising backlist titles and all were
creating apps/enhanced ebook editions. Responses to the
question ‘Price of epub ebooks?’ was mixed. Allan & Unwin,
Random House and Text Publishing said ‘in line with
print price’; HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan and Simon &
Schuster said ‘20% less than current print edition’; and there
was no comment from Penguin.
Also in the November issue of Bookseller + Publisher, an
examination of the books listed on the recent Get Reading
catalogue revealed that 22 of the 50 titles were unavailable as
ebooks. While some publishers already had ebook versions,
they were not prepared to advertise them in the catalogue.
For some it was due to overseas ebook editions restricted
here due to territorial rights.
So where can you purchase the latest books in ebook
formats? From various websites here and overseas. Bookshops
are being encouraged to set up ebook stores. This has already
stared in the bigger bookshop chain stores, and independent
bookshops are being encouraged to follow. Publishers
are doing deals with the large ebook suppliers as well as
encouraging independent bookshops to set up additional
facilities to sell ebooks. Smaller bookshops are finding this is
difficult as customers will expect ebooks published overseas
as well as local via a secure website, which is a big financial
commitment.
One of the complaints from the Frankfurt Book Fair
was the lack of reliable statistics on sales of ebooks. The
main reason for this is that tradition packages used to record
book sales do not all have the facilities to record ebook sales.
Another factor is the big ebook suppliers are not making
their sales figures available.
So will I be purchasing an ebook reader? No. Why? I can’t
see a need for one at the moment. If I was commuting to
work, I might consider one. Then again I am a talking book
fan. For my trip I downloaded the latest Stieg Larsson book
in MP3 format for free from my local library’s webpage and
enjoyed listening to that as the world whizzed by. A cheaper,
lighter and I think more enjoyable option than reading the
book in paper or ebook format.
Mary Russell
Discussion: indexing inserts
Photographs set between two pages with no exact page references, or unpaged photographs
• Two options for indicating ‘following p. 112’ in the
recently indexed two books, each with two inserts of
locator itself: using a plus sign (112+) or a page range
photographs. One of my mentees is currently indexing a
book with an insert between pages 80 and 81.
(112-113) in italics.
I came up with several options and would be interested to
I would be interested to hear any suggestions or opinions
hear if anyone has tried other options, or has an opinion on
at <indexing@paradise.co.nz>. I will report back with any
how best to deal with this.
useful suggestions and comments.
Tordis Flath
For one insert: You can put 80-81p as the page reference
and then a note at the start of the index saying: p denotes
photographs in the insert between pages 80 and 81.
If you have an insert as well as photographs on other pages
within the text: pic denotes photographs in the insert between
he Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers’
pages 160 and 161; italics denotes photographs in the text. So
Medal is offered annually to the most outstanding
an entry can be
index to a book or periodical compiled in Australia or
Nelson, Mike pic, 12, 53, 76, …
New Zealand.
For two or more inserts: We tried using I1 and I2 but we
This year only two entries for the Medal were received,
found the I very hard to read so the next book used P1 and P2
which was disappointing after last year’s strong field of
with: P1 denotes photographs in the first insert, after page 96;
eight entries. The judges were unanimous in considering
P2 denotes photographs in the second insert, after page 192.
that neither of the entries was sufficiently outstanding to
I browsed Index-L and found these suggestions:
warrant the award of the Medal.
• ‘following p. 112’ to go in the locators or leaving out ‘p.’
The panel of judges this year again consisted of Alan
(‘following 112’) or even ‘photograph following p. 112’
Walker, indexer (convener); Garry Cousins, indexer and
• Maybe just doing the previous page locator in italics
librarian; and Dr Jeremy Fisher, of the University of
or bold and using photograph(s) consistently as a
New England, an experienced compiler, editor and user
subheading every time. With the obligatory introductory
of indexes. All three judges are previous winners of the
note added.
Medal.
• ‘112p’ where the ‘p’ here stands for plates.
The judges encourage Australian and New Zealand
• Just ‘photo’ italicised or in parenthesis.
indexers who are working on significant indexes to submit
• Make all ‘photograph(s)’ as subheadings, with ‘following
their work for the Medal next year.
p. 112’ in italics.
Alan Walker
I
ANZSI Medal 2010
T
Vol. 6, No. 10, November 2010
5
Indexing Indaba
In the beginning…
E
very beginning indexer knows how
difficult it can be to secure that
first ‘real’ indexing job. The Pacific
Northwest Chapter of ASI has produced
a vibrant PDF booklet in which some of
its members recount tales of their newbie
experiences. It includes colour portraits,
and subscribers to Index-L are certain to
recognise many of the names of those whose stories are shared.
<www.pnwasi.org/marketing.htm>
Those with higher aspirations may also be interested in
reading the profiles of prize-winning indexers on SI’s website
at: <www.indexers.org.uk/index.php?id=492>
Visual Book Objects (VBOs)
The Alpine Club is also noted for its Himalayan Index,
which contains records of over 7 500 ascents of, or attempts
on 3 500 of Asia’s loftier peaks. In addition, the index includes
the names of some 38 000 climbers. Information for this
amazing resource is drawn from across the vast collection of
journals, magazines and books in the Club’s Library. <www.
alpine-club.org.uk/hi/about-hi.htm>
Another impressive piece of work is the American Alpine
Journal Index 1929-2009. Apart from book reviews (which
have been indexed in the American Alpine Journal Book Reviews
Index 1929-2009), this is a complete cumulative index to the
American Alpine Club’s journal. A Google search reveals that
the compilers of these comprehensive indexes, Ralph Ferrara
and Eve Tallman, are no strangers to climbing themselves.
Perhaps this active pair strayed into the more sedentary
world of indexing out of necessity, given the common and
often essential need to research
the sort of ascents of which
most of us can only dream.
<www.americanalpineclub.org/
americanalpinejournal>
Established a year ago, the Harvard
Library Innovation Laboratory
is working on some interesting
projects, with implications for the
university’s (and other) libraries
in the future.
What flower is that?
One of these is the development
Still on things natural, in an
of Visual Book Objects (VBOs).
article in the September issue of
These are intelligent graphical
The Indexer Maureen MacGlashan
representations of books in a
looked at Index Kewensis, created
portable data format that will
by Joseph Dalton Hooker and
provide information well beyond
funded by Charles Darwin. It
that of the library catalogue
was aimed at being a ‘compilation
record as it is known it today.
of an Index to the Names and
The graphical representation,
Authorities of all known flowering
Mount Index, Washington State, USA. Photo by David Dye,
<www.officepansy.net/mt index.htm>
or form, of the VBO is derived
plants and their countries’, and
from bibliographic information
continues today as the IPNI
in the catalogue record of the book on which it is based. For
(International Plant Names Index).
example, the width of the graphical representation will depend
Another plant enthusiast, Glassford Sprunt, recently
on the number of pages contained in the book.
completed a cumulative index to the Scottish Rock Garden
The VBO’s extensible metadata fields make it ‘intelligent’
Club Journal. Despite its name, the eighty-year-old Club
and information contained in them will enable users to ask
draws members from across the globe. The introduction to the
questions of the VBO, for example, “Who wrote you?” or
index includes a description of what appears to have been a
“Can you point me to other books like yourself that I might
mammoth labour of love for a seemingly accidental indexer.
like?”
Sprunt writes: “This Index has been through a long
In the future, two-way communication between a VBO
gestation period. It started as a personal project, born of a
and its ‘mother library’, will see the VBO continuously gather
dislike of having to look through three part Indices [Muphry’s
information along with the book’s usage.
law, say no more], plus the supplementary Volume Indices,
<librarylab.law.harvard.edu/projects/visual-book-objects/
when any information was sought. It has weathered spells of
index.php>
enthusiasm for the project and spells when the whole project
seemed too daunting.”
Ain’t no mountain high enough
Clearly enthusiasm won in the end, with the index being
The remarkable legacy of climbing achievements left by South
made available at: <www.srgc.org.uk/index/content.html>
African climber, John Moss, inspired me to look at the way
Information seeking and index usability
that alpining activities are documented.
At the recent SI Conference in Middelburg, Michaël
Much of this is done through mountain club journals,
Steehouder, Professor of Technical Communication at the
such as that of Britain’s Alpine Club, the oldest in the world.
University of Twente, spoke on how people search for
It has been publishing the Alpine Journal since 1859, and
information, particularly in relation to computer manuals. In
produced the first index to its early volumes in 1892.
(continued on next page)
6
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers Inc. (ANZSI) Newsletter
(Indexing Indaba, continued from previous page)
a seven step information seeking process he identified two steps
- problem definition/formulation and locating information that can be applied to the way that indexes are used.
In the area of problem definition/formulation, users
don’t always use, or know, the right words for what they are
looking for. Cross-references are useful for this, with research
suggesting that the average user will search for two alternative
terms, which if unproductive, will see them give up. Computer
users may receive a little more help in this area in the form of a
keyword cloud (pick the one you meant), user tagging (add an
explanation) or automated problem recognition from natural
narrative language.
The relationship between the layout of indexes and their
usability has a vital role to play in the way that users locate
information in an index. Steehouder’s research shows that
users search faster with a run-on index, and less accurately
with right-justified locators. Interestingly, a line of dots
running from a heading to a right-justified locator enables
users to find information more quickly and more accurately.
<http://adelef.wordpress.com/>
Other Indaba
Silvia Muscardin (see September’s Indexing Indaba) tells
me that South Australia’s Monarto Zoo offers an overnight
education program at their beautiful facility called Indaba
Bush Camp. (Search ‘indaba’ at <www.zoossa.com.au>) Along
with ‘vuvuzela’, which blasted its way into the Oxford
Dictionary of English this year for the first time, the word
‘indaba’ continues to make its mark outside of Zululand.
Nikki Davis
New Zealand Branch President’s report
I
welcomed members to the sixth Annual General Meeting
of the Branch. Although we don’t yet have definite
membership figures after the recent annual renewals, we
believe that we have lost one or two members and gained four,
so that at 18 September the number was 22.
We’ve had some achievements during the year. After the
suspension of the general ANZSI mentoring program, we
revived our own Branch scheme early this year to help new
book indexers at the stage after their first training courses.
Three members are working on projects at present, and we
thank Tordis Flath as mentor, Susan Brookes as coordinator
and the Branch treasurer, Jill Gallop, for implementing the
program.
ANZSI’s new education committee is charged with
reintroducing mentoring programs at two levels, one basic,
which they mean to call tutoring, and a higher level of
‘mentoring and professional development’. I am a member of
that committee, and would be happy to receive any comments
from Branch members. For the immediate future, we will
continue our own program.
The Branch also completed the second New Zealand
freelancers’ directory and emailed it to more than 60 people
in the publishing industry. Tordis and Julie Daymond-King
did most of the work to complete the 2010 edition. We would
welcome feedback from all indexers in the directory on how
fruitful it was.
The committee has also worked to raise the profile of
professional indexers among record-keepers and users. In
December Tordis and I spoke at a session of the annual
gathering of the Professional Historians’ Association of New
Zealand in Wellington. Last month the Branch conducted
an indexing session during the ‘workshop’ day preceding the
Archives and Records Association of New Zealand’s annual
conference. Pam Strike supported me there, and Nancy
Fithian presented the National Library’s ‘Index New Zealand’
database operations.
The ANZSI council approved a recommended rate for
indexing in New Zealand of NZ$65 an hour and a lower
Vol. 6, No. 10, November 2010
membership subscription for New Zealand members, reflecting
the lower rates paid to indexers in New Zealand. The $65 rate
is higher than most of us are paid, but it is a target to work
towards. The skills of good indexers should be rated as highly
as those of copy editors. I would welcome information from
members on their pay rates.
ANZSI has now been incorporated in the state of Victoria.
This seems to have had no negative effects on the New
Zealand Branch and your committee took a neutral position
on it. The committee sees no need to incorporate in New
Zealand, where the Accident Compensation system means
we avoid some of the Australians’ concerns, and our financial
commitments are very limited. ANZSI is examining the whole
range of its educational activities, including course curricula
and the registration system, and we expect that Branches will
be asked to comment.
Our finances are still limited, but we plan to acquire more
books for the Branch library. We have compiled a list and
hope to have some available about the end of the year.
During the year, members who live in the Kapiti region
have met informally several times, finding the contacts useful
as well as friendly. If members in Wellington cared to initiate
similar meetings it could be worthwhile, and some of us from
Kapiti and the Wairarapa might attend too.
The Branch has not held a training course this year, but
several members have flown to Australia for courses there.
We need to cater for members working in the database areas
as well as back-of-book indexers, and we hope to provide
something for them in Wellington early next year..
My thanks to Tordis for hosting this meeting, and to all my
fellow committee members –Jill, Julie, Pam, Susan and Tordis
– for their support during the year. It is not easy to operate
a body whose membership and leadership is so scattered, but
we have had our achievements and I look forward to more in
the next 12 months.
Robin Briggs
7
Victorian Indexing Club - October
The theme for October’s meeting was ‘Show and Tell’ and was a lively event with indexing experiences shared by Les
Kneebone, Jenny Restarick and Bernadette Vaughan. Bernadette spoke on her work as a taxonomist and has written up her
presentation on this fascinating area.
M
Getting into taxonomy, Part 1
y introduction to taxonomy
came in July 1999 when I moved
out of corporate libraries into
taxonomy-based roles, and for the next
six years, I was employed in two different
online and print directory businesses.
CitySearch
The first of these businesses was CitySearch Australia (CSA),
a web-based and hardcopy directory business with editorially
enriched content. The business, at that time, was owned by
F2 (known today as Fairfax Digital), which is the online
division of the Fairfax newspaper group that publishes ‘The
Age’, ‘Sydney Morning Herald’, and other publications.
My prime areas of responsibility for its web and print
based products were:
• Creating and/or editing controlled vocabularies in relation
to A to Z industry classifications. These classifications
(approximately 2600 classifications initially) underpinned
the print and online products, so that advertisers could be
reliably retrieved.
• Creating and editing taxonomies to assist search and
navigation.
This included:
• Categorising and cross referencing online advertising for
small to medium sized businesses, as well as editorial content
that focused on city-based entertainment and lifestyle
profiles.
• Populating search engines with relevant keywords for
particular topics and business classifications, thereby
connecting search queries to relevant database content.
• Mapping classification codes for content feeds into print and
online products, being mindful, however, of the different
mappings needed for different cities. For example, Sydney
had commuter ferries, but not Melbourne.
Relevant vocabulary lists would ideally strive to incorporate
different words and phrases relevant to a particular concept
or business, international spellings, abbreviations and
acronyms, singulars and plurals, and various word endings.
Lists would also handle with care those single words which
denoted multiple concepts, such as ‘towers’ (as in towing
services) versus ‘towers’ (as in telecommunication towers).
Search engine population
In the classification ‘Liquor stores – Retail’, logical keywords
might include ‘bottleshop, bottle shop, bottle-shop, offlicence store, off-license store, off licence store, off license
store, liquor outlet’ and so on, as well as the plurals for
these concepts. Another classification ‘Car hire & minibus
rentals’ might include ‘hire car, loan car, rental car, car rental,
minibus hire, mini bus hire, mini-bus hire’ and so on, as well
as the plurals for these concepts. Search engine population
also included different word endings, so the classification
‘Timber – W’sale’ might include ‘wholesale timber, timber
wholesaler, timber wholesalers, timber wholesaling’ etc.
Plurals, however, would need to be applied with a clear
understanding of each any every specific context. In the
classification ‘Glass merchants & glaziers’, care would be
taken to NOT pluralise the term ‘glass’ because ‘glasses’ (as
well as not being relevant to that business context) changes
the meaning from a sheet of glass to either a drink container
or person’s spectacles.
Taxonomy development
A review of classifications from a housekeeping and
revenue perspective saw the business trim back a number
of classifications to retain approximately 2200, this exercise
being a database ‘clean-up’ that was progressively implemented
after review and consultation with key stakeholders. For the
remaining classifications, one large taxonomy task was to
sort and categorise them all into 12 major verticals (or
themes) such as ‘Fashion & Beauty’, ‘House & Garden’,
‘Motoring’, ‘The Arts’, ‘Visitor Guide’, ‘Food & Wine’, ‘Film’
etc for both print and online products, with slight variations
in each one.
Each of these verticals was further divided and subdivided into smaller categories, and relationships and cross
references devised to link between them. Some classifications
attracted vigorous discussion as to what was, in fact, their
best placement. For example, are wedding dresses best placed
within ‘Fashion & Beauty’ or ‘Parties & Occasions’?
The year 2000 saw Australia host the Sydney Olympics,
so another aspect of the taxonomy role was identifying
relevant database content, then working with editorial
staff to develop the Sydney CitySearch site with content
attractive and relevant to international visitors. For example,
promoting hotels and various accommodation types, tourist
attractions, travel agents. tour operators, transport services
(bus schedules, ferries, trains, airlines and airport buses),
pubs, bars and cafes, live music venues etc.
Mapping content
As CitySearch products were print and web-based,
content feeds had to position and map each classification’s
alphanumeric code and print classification name to its web
node and web classification name. For example, ‘Coffee
Lounges’ in the hardcopy directory might be renamed ‘Cafes’
in the online product, and ‘Bridal wear – Retail’ might be
renamed ‘Wedding dresses’.
(continued on next page)
8
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers Inc. (ANZSI) Newsletter
(Getting into taxonomy Part 1, continued from previous page)
Changes to the database from which all product content
was derived had to be carefully scheduled, so as to not
cause havoc to the publishing program of the hardcopy
directory. While the web product could have its classification
names changed from day to day if desired, changes to the
print product were much more restricted, and had to be
progressively implemented via a carefully planned city by
city schedule. For example, modernising the classification
name from ‘Motor vehicles – Retail’ to simply ‘Cars – Retail’
was not undertaken via a single point-of-change, but
systematically achieved, city by city, in accordance with each
city’s publishing schedule.
Defining CSA’s classification system
One aspect of managing the underpinning classification
system was documenting and co-ordinating the multidisciplinary review process which examined requests for
changes to this system and its related taxonomy framework.
This responsibility included researching advertisers’
indexing-related requests (in varying levels of complexity),
ensuring the agreed review process operated effectively,
communicating changes to key stakeholders, and ensuring
intranet pages accurately recorded the work practices
adopted. Sales staff who sold customer advertising into one
or more classifications relied on up-to-date sales collateral,
so any classification changes had to be promptly transposed
into sales documentation.
Another aspect of defining the classification system was
compiling suitable definitions for restricting when and
where a classification should be applied. For example, the
editorial classification ‘Late dining’ (to be applied as part of
a restaurant review) might state something like ‘Kitchen will
accept meal orders until 10.00pm’, and ‘Disabled facilities’
might state something like ‘Includes disabled toilet as well
as ramp or lift for access’.
Other tasks as Headings & Reference System
(HRS) Indexing Manager
• Smaller taxonomy projects for specific customers e.g.
devising taxonomy structures for a Melbourne CBD print
retail guide, and also a shopping centre's website.
• Resolving search queries forwarded on by Sales or Customer
Care staff. For example, ‘Why is this business appearing
here?’ or alternatively, ‘Why isn’t this business appearing here?’
Resolution involved examining the various tools (mapped
keywords, freetext keywords, editorial keywords) which
collectively impacted upon the placement of a customer’s
advertisement.
• Testing new navigation structures, content and functionality
on the development server, prior to going live.
• Re-classification of advertisers i.e. responsibility for
scheduling and implementing re-classification exercises by
three HRS Indexers for the re-classification of business
listings due to changes in the underpinning classification
structure.
Vol. 6, No. 10, November 2010
Sensis
In May 2002, CitySearch Australia’s online business was
bought by Sensis, the company that produces Yellow
Pages, White Pages, Whereis, and Trading Post. The
print publication ceased, and my role, while retaining its
operational responsibilities for the CitySearch product,
diversified to incorporate additional tasks in relation to other
Sensis products and projects. My core responsibility was
an advisory and implementation role for classification and
taxonomy structures in relation to web-based content, and
keyword population of search engines.
One significant project I was involved in around that
time was the major relaunch and upgrade of Yellow Pages
Online (YPOL) i.e. a project to make words in print display
ads become searchable keywords for the web-based product,
thereby delivering deeper, more relevant search results for
users and advertisers. This enriched content included details
such as business operating hours, methods of payment,
brand names, specialty products and services etc, and
resulted in keywords increasing from 50,000 to more than
500,000.
My role was to:
• Review and analyse pilot data delivered by our business
partner
• Define and document the ‘Key Processing Principles’ for
analysing, labelling and displaying advertising content such
as:
* Naming conventions for brands, makes, models and
organisations
* English spelling rather than American
* Display format for abbreviations and acronyms
* How to navigate the core classification structure
underpinning all advertising content
* Review and refine definitions for further sub-division of
content.
• Visit our external business partner to:
* Observe, review and modify the process by which
advertising content was analysed and sorted
* Identify key Sensis reference documents required for
underpinning the data analysis
* Document the process, and help train our partner’s staff
in navigating key reference documents
• Source, train and manage four contract indexers for ongoing
data quality review and content analysis.
Bernadette Vaughan
The second part of Bernadette’s presentation will appear next
month.
9
Frankfurt Book Fair
I
was warned the Frankfurt Book Fair was large, but large
isn’t the word for it, it is massive!! You read there are over
7000 exhibits, but you don’t think about how much space
must be needed for all these exhibits. The Fair is spread over
six buildings, or more accurately aircraft hangers, most with
several levels, adding up to about 13 aircraft hangers. The
buildings are connected by enclosed walkways. As you study
the map of the site you realise the Book Fair actually doesn’t
occupy all the available space on the site as there are a couple
of buildings that were not used!
The webpage <www.buch
messe.de/en/fbf/> reveals that
for the 2010 Fair there were
more than 7300 exhibitors from
100 countries, 3000 events and
279,325 visitors!
Each year there is a Guest
of Honour and this year it was
Argentina. They had a large
display in Hall 1, promoting
the country as well as their
authors and books. Building 3
(Building 2 wasn’t used) was two
levels and was mainly German
publishers of fiction and nonfiction with sections on children’s
books, comics, religion, tourism
and gourmet. Building 4 has
three levels and covered mainly
academic books, with sections on art books, education
books, audio books and non-books. Most were German, but
occasionally other languages as they related to the subject
group. Non-books turned out to be greeting cards, wrapping
paper, bookmarks and similar items you are likely to find
in bookshops. Buildings 5 and 6 contained five floors of
international publishers covering all languages other than
English and German.
I found it fascinating to see all these books from other
countries. In many cases it was frustrating they were in
another language as I wanted to know more. What was the
picture of, what was that dish made of, etc. It was interesting
to see translated versions of English books, particularly
children’s books. While I checked several for indexes and some
had them, in hindsight I should have done a more deliberate
survey to see what proportion of non-English books had
indexes.
Building 7 wasn’t used. Building 8, furthest from the
entrance, was where the English language publishers were
located.
Large publishers occupy a large area, smaller publisher
either had a small exhibit or joined forces with others to
represent their country. Exhibits were mainly book publishers
with displays of their books. Books are not actually for
sale as the purpose of the Fair is to promote their books
to booksellers, journalists and negotiate rights and licenses
10
worldwide. There were exhibits for digital publishers as well
as book printing, from types of paper to use, to the large
machines that print and bind books on demand. Antiquarian
books are also represented in small building in the courtyard.
Some individual graphic designers and illustrators had exhibits
as well. But wait there is more! Not only are there the usual
range of meeting rooms, restaurants and cafes scattered
around the site there was a hairdresser, a supermarket and out
in the courtyard there are craft stalls.
According to Think Australia
2010: your guide to the Australian
book trade produced by ThorpeBowker and handed out at
the fair, there were about 60
Australian publishers, literary
agents and exhibitors at the
Fair. This list doesn’t include
international companies such
as Penguin, Macmillan or
Cambridge University Press
with offices in Australia. Several
of the publishers were grouped
in a large Australian Publisher
Association stand. There was
also a selection of New Zealand
publishers grouped together.
The guide has some useful
statistics about publishing in
Australia:
• A total of 18,757 new titles were published in Australian in
2009 up 18% on the previous year.
• A total of 4355 Australian publishers were granted ISBNs in
2009.
• About 70% of these were self-publisher of a single title.
• More than 90% were in the ‘small press’ category, releasing
fewer than five titles each.
• There were 28 very large publishers releasing 100 or more
titles.
• There are over 2200 book retail outlets.
• Top ten markets for Australian rights sales in 2010 are
Germany, United States, United Kingdom, France, Korea,
Brazil, China, Spain, Netherlands and Japan.
• Frankfurt Book Fair is the most important conduit for selling
international rights.
• ‘Children’s book category was slightly above nonfiction as
the highest selling category for rights sold overseas, with
adult fiction barely given an mention. In children’s books,
young adult (ages 12 and upwards) fiction led the way, which
was followed by picture books…In the nonfiction category,
biographies were the most popular, followed by reference,
then science.’
If there had been an award for the most photographed
exhibit it would surely have gone to the Australian publisher
Millennium House. Their stand displayed the platinum
(continued on the next page)
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers Inc. (ANZSI) Newsletter
(Frankfurt Book Fair, continued from previous page)
edition of Earth, the ‘world’s largest book’ – 1.8 m x 1.4 m
– with fabulously large maps and pictures of the world. It is
limited to 31 copies and sells for US$100,000.
Sections of the halls were set aside for ‘Hot Spots’, areas
where talks and discussions were held on topics related to the
exhibits nearby. There were also several conferences held in
rooms around the halls. It was obvious that seasoned visitors to
the Fair had done their homework and planned which events
they wanted to attend well in advance. They also remember to
allow plenty of time to get to the required venue.
If you go to the Fair go with a mission. Mine was to
examine ebook readers (see other article). Otherwise I think
you would be prone to wander around and not get much out
of it. Allow yourself a couple of days as there is no way you
can cover the whole Fair in one day unless, like a couple of
younger attendees, you bring your fold up scooter or rollerskates. Scan the website to see what events or conferences are
on and plan what you want to attend. Some require you to
book in advance.
So was it worth the visit? Yes. Why? The Frankfurt Book
Fair is one of those events you hear about and going gives you
a tangible idea of how popular books still are. The published
book is very much alive and well. Digital publishing may be
growing, but books are still being enjoyed.
Mary Russell
Vol. 6, No. 10, November 2010
11
ANZSI contacts
ABN 38 610 719 006
PO Box 5062, Glenferrie South VIC 3122
<ANZSIinfo@anzsi.org>
President: Mary Russell
Ph: 0408 952 710
<russellmf025@ozemail.com.au>
Vice-President: John Simkin
Ph: +61 3 9752 6972
<simmo27au@yahoo.com.au>
Secretary: Michael Ramsden
Ph: +61 3 9735 4235
<rivendell5@westnet.com.au>
Treasurer: Margaret Findlay
Ph: +61 3 9818 1760
<mafind@bigpond.net.au>
Council members: Alan Eddy, Karen Gillen, Max
McMaster. Branch Presidents (ex officio): Moira
Brown, Robin Briggs, Shirley Campbell, Jane
Purton, Frances Paterson
ANZSI officials
Registration Committee
Contact: Shirley Campbell
<shirley.campbell4@bigpond.com>
Awards Committee
Contact: Alan Walker
<alan.walker@s054.aone.net.au>
Education Committee
Contact: Michael Ramsden
<rivendell5@westnet.com.au>
Promotions and Publicity Committee
Contact: Max McMaster
<max.mcmaster@masterindexing.com>
Web Manager: Mary Russell
<russellmf025@ozemail.com.au>
Newsletter Editor: Peter Judge
Ph: +61 2 6296 6211
<peter.judge@bigpond.com>
Membership Secretary:
Joanna McLachlan
<bandoola1@bigpond.com>
ACT Region Branch
GPO Box 2069, Canberra ACT 2601
President: Shirley Campbell
Ph: +61 2 6285 1006
<shirley.campbell4@bigpond.com>
Secretary: Eleanor Whelan
Ph: +61 2 6257 7749
<eleanor.whelan@bigpond.com>
Treasurer: Sherrey Quinn
ph: +61 2 6257 9177
<sherreyquinn@gmail.com>
Committee members: Edyth Binkowski, Helen
Frame, Tracy Harwood and Barry Howarth
New South Wales Branch
President: Frances Paterson
Ph: +61 2 4274 2600
<olivegroveindexing@bigpond.com>
Vice-President: Glenda Browne
Ph: +61 2 4739 8199
<webindexing@optusnet.com.au>
Secretary: Mary Coe
Ph: +61 2 9452 5174
<mary.coe@potomacindexing.com>
Treasurer: Sue Flaxman
Ph/fax: +61 2 4861 3589
sueflaxman@bigpond.com
Committee members: Madeleine Davis, Lorraine
Doyle, Helen Enright and Elisabeth Thomas
New Zealand Branch
President: Robin Briggs
<rm.briggs@farmside.co.nz>
Vice-President: Tordis Flath
<indexing@paradise.net.nz>
Secretary: Julie Daymond-King
<jaydayking@yahoo.co.nz>
Treasurer: Jill Gallop
<jmgallop@ihug.co.nz>
Committee members: Nelly Bess, Susan Brookes,
Edith Hodgen, Lee Slater, Pam Strike and
Meredith Thatcher
NT contact
Contact: Frieda Evans
<Frieda.Evans@nt.gov.au>
Queensland Branch
President: Moira Brown
Ph/Fax: +61 7 3893 1252
<brown5moira@yahoo.com.au>
Vice President: Mo Dickson
Ph: +61 2 6687 4940
<mo.dickson@internode.on.net>
Secretary: Rachael Harrison
<legoullon1@bigpond.com>
Treasurer: Franz Pinz
Ph: +61 7 3848 3698;
<franzpinz@yahoo.com>
Committee Members: Mei Yen Chua, Jean
Dartnall, David Mason, Jan Rees, Diane Josey
North Queensland
Contact: Jean Dartnall (Townsville)
<jeandartnall@hotmail.com>
SA contact
Contact: Jane Oliver
<janeoliver@ozemail.com.au>
Tasmanian contact
Contact: Vivienne Wallace
<vivienne@accessindexing.com.au>
Victorian Branch
ABN 58 867 106 986
PO Box 1006, Caulfield North, VIC 3161
President: Jane Purton
<jane.purton@gmail.com>
Vice President: Margaret Findlay
Ph: +61 3 9818 1760
<mafind@bigpond.net.au>
Secretary: Nikki Davis
Ph: +61 3 9528-2216
<bookindexing@gmail.com>
Treasurer: Max McMaster
Ph: +61 3 9500 8715
<max.mcmaster@masterindexing.com>
Committee members:
Alan Eddy, Terri Mackenzie, Mary Russell,
Bernadette Vaughan
WA contact
Contact: Linda McNamara
<linda.mcnamara@bigpond.com>
Australian and New Zealand
Society of Indexers Inc.
PO Box 5062 Glenferrie South
VIC 3122 Australia
ANZSI Council 2009–10
Postage
paid
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers Inc. (ANZSI)
ANZSI NEWSLETTER
Volume 6, number 11, December 2010
ANZSI News – December
ANZSI Newsletter
W
elcome to the first December
issue of ANZSI Newsletter.
This has been a bumper year
for the Newsletter with all but the
March issue (and this one!) extending to
12 pages and for the first time we have
issued 11 Newsletters in a year. I would
like to thank Peter Judge, the editor, for
all his hard work during the year to help
make this a successful year for the Newsletter.
Volunteers
ANZSI wouldn’t operate without dedicated volunteers. I
thank all volunteers for their devoted service to ANZSI
in 2010. Geraldine Triffitt and Joanna McLaughlan have
stepped down during the past months, and I would
particularly thank them for their great contributions over
many years.
Geraldine Triffitt
As Shirley Campbell mentioned in her report on the ACT
Region Branch AGM in the last Newsletter, Geraldine was
instrumental in establishing the ACT Region Branch in
1992. ANZSI was established as the Australian Society of
Indexers (AusSI) in Melbourne on 27 April 1976. In 1989
the NSW Branch was formed and on 22 October 1992
Geraldine organised the inaugural meeting of the ACT
Branch. She was their first president from 1993 to 1998,
with a second term as president from 2002 to 2006, and
she was on the Committee until she retired at their October
AGM. I would like to thank Geraldine for all her many years
dedicated to the ACT Region Branch.
2011 ANZSI Conference, Indexing see Change
12-14 September, Brighton, Victoria
Planning is well under way for the 2011 ANZSI Conference,
to be held at the Brighton Savoy. As the saying goes, a
change is as good as a holiday. This conference is providing
the change by doing things differently. Conference papers
will be spread over the three days. The workshop sessions
and the conference dinner will be included in the price.
Topics covered will point to changes in indexing, changes in
the types of material being indexed and changes in what you
might consider to be indexing.
More overleaf, and for the latest information visit <www.
anzsi.org/site/2011Conference.asp>
Overseas Conferences
While I’m talking about conferences perhaps you might
like to consider attending one of these overseas indexing
conferences:
• ASI 28-30 April in Providence, Rhode Island.
• ASAIB 13 May in Johannesburg
• ISC/SCI 27-29 May in Vancouver.
• SI 2-4 September at Keele University, Staffordshire.
March 2011 Council Meeting
Council is bringing the Branch Presidents to Melbourne
for the March 2011 Council meeting. This will be an
opportunity for a face-to-face meeting, enabling our
ex-officio members to raise and discuss their concerns.
As 2010 concludes I take this opportunity to wish all
members and their families a happy, safe and healthy festive
season and look forward to 2011.
Mary Russell
WHAT’S INSIDE
Membership Secretary
Joanna McLaughlan has shown that being based outside a
capital city doesn’t mean you can’t assist ANZSI. For the
past seven years Joanna has been the ANZSI Membership
Secretary. During that time she has seen her work change,
particularly with upgrade of the website to include online
payment facilities and automated renewal emails. She
has taken all these changes in her stride and gladly assists
members who have forgotten their password. She has
decided to step down and I wish her well for the future. The
new Membership Secretary will be Karen Gillen.
Newsletter, Web Manager and Registration details
NZ Branch news
Superannuation for independent contractors
Branch events
Jottings from the 2011 SI conference
The VIC – visit to the MCC
Indexing degustation
Letter to the editor
Jeremy Fisher to be a director of CAL Cultural Fund
ANZSI and Branch Committee contacts
ISSN 1832-3855
PO Box 5062, Glenferrie South VIC 3122, Australia
2
2
3
3
4
5
6
7
7
8
Deadline for the October issue: 1 October
Newsletter,
Web Manager and
Registration contacts
Editor: Peter Judge
<peter.judge@bigpond.com>
Web Manager: Mary Russell
ANZSI Conference 2011
<russellmf025@ozemail.com.au>
Website: <www.anzsi.org>
ISSN 1832-3855
This newsletter is published monthly 11 times
per year, with combined issues for January/
February. It is sent free to all members of
the Australian and New Zealand Society of
Indexers. Opinions expressed in the newsletter
are those of the individual contributors, and
do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the
Society.
It is your newsletter, and we are totally
dependent on contributions, both large and
small, from members. Please contact the editor
if you have any questions about the suitability
of items for publication. The editor reserves the
right to edit or abridge contributions.
Please send files via email in MS Word,
.doc files or .rtf, but NOT .html or .pdf. And
please, no images or footnotes embedded in
Word files.
Next deadline
28 January for the February 2011 issue.
Graphics
Image files can be accepted in most common
formats. Do not embed images in text files.
Camera-ready art and photos can be scanned
by the editor. Note that photos need to be
clear, sharp and contrasty if they are to copy
well in black and white.
Advertising charges
Full page A$200; half page A$100;
quarter page A$50.
Membership charges
A$75 per year (NZ members A$68)
from 1 Jul 2010.
Institutional membership A$100.
Subscriptions to the Newsletter A$55 p.a.
The Indexer
(international indexing journal)
Maureen MacGlashan, Executive Editor
<editor@theindexer.org>.
ANZSI Corresponding Member
Alan Eddy <aeddy2@bigpond.com>
To subscribe at the special rate for indexing
society members, go to <www.theindexer.org>
and click on the subscriptions link.
Registration
Shirley Campbell
Ph +61 2 6285 1006
<shirley.campbell4@bigpond.com> or
<www.anzsi.org/site/registration.asp>
Indexers Available
<www.anzsi.org/site/Indexers_available.asp>
2
B
Indexing see Change, Brighton, Victoria
righton is a bay side suburb about 13 km from the centre of Melbourne on
the Sandringham train line. The conference venue, the Brighton Savoy, is just
across the road from the beach and the colourful bathing boxes. Look at that view!
A great place to make the change – make sure those dates, 12–14 Sptember, go
down in your brand new diary NOW!
New Zealand Branch news
T
he New Zealand Branch will hold training courses and a meeting with the
ANZSI President, Mary Russell, in Wellington on Saturday and Sunday,
26–27 February.
The courses will be conducted by Mary and will cover Database Indexing
(10.00 am–1.00 pm Sat), Thesauruses and their construction (2.00–5.00 pm Sat)
and Embedded Book Indexing (10.00 am–1.00 pm Sun). Details of course content
are on the ANZSI website at < www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=169>,
<...id+170> and <...id=171>. People interested in the Saturday subjects are advised
to attend both sessions, as the topics are closely linked.
The courses provide a rare opportunity to receive high-level training on these
subjects in New Zealand and deserve a ‘not to be missed’ label. The Branch meeting
<...id=172>, beginning at 2.00 pm on the Sunday will be a valuable opportunity to
discuss ANZSI’s activities and indexing in general with the society’s president.
Australian ANZSI members interested in attending would be most welcome.
Slightly lower fees are offered to members outside the Wellington area.
Robin Briggs
Photographs
M
y apologies to some of you who sent photographs and expected to see them in
this issue. Unhappily, many pictures were too dark or too contrasty. A photo
that appears fine in colour may simply not work at small size in black and white.
I do my best to correct exposure and contrast, but this can only go so far. Ed.
T
his publication has been written for
someone indexing their first annual
report. They may be an employee of the
company or organisation, a consultant employed
to prepare the annual report or an indexer.
Since no indexing experience is assumed in
this publication, various examples are given to
explain how to index and the ways indexing
entries could be improved. However, it is assumed
the person will have organisational knowledge.
Cost e-book (PDF) A$25, printed A$35.
Available from
<www.anzsi.org/site/
indexingyourannualreport.asp>.
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers Inc. (ANZSI) Newsletter
Superannuation for independent contractors
A
recent article in the Australian Financial Review
[‘Super risk of contractors reinforced’, 15 September
2010] flagged the possibility of superannuation
payments to independent contractors, who make up one in
ten of the workforce, after recent cases in the Administrative
Appeals Tribunal and the Federal Court. One book publisher
I work for has already begun making super payments,
essentially deducting 9 per cent from invoices and making
the payments to my super fund. Their Finance Director
told me that their legal advisors insist that superannuation
is due if the contract is essentially for labour. Some of their
freelancers have queried this with the Australian Taxation
Office, and the ATO have confirmed the arrangements.
Other publishers may decide to follow suit. This has been
a grey area for some years but indexers who are contractors
may start to see these arrangements come into force.
The arrangements will not apply if you operate as a
company, trust or partnership; however, whether or not you
have an ABN, or whether or not you charge GST, won’t
make any difference.
There is a tool at <www.ato.gov.au/businesses/content.
asp?doc=/content/00095062.htm> that you can use to
calculate whether an employee is a contractor. This tool is
meant for employers but you can fill it in from your own
side of the relationship. Note that the closest pre-listed
occupations are librarian or journalist.
One Ruling that is relevant is SGR 2005/1 Superannuation
guarantee: who is an employee?
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal decision involved
the Associated Translators and Linguists Pty Limited (ATL).
A commentary on the decision, in favour of the ATO, is
available from the website of legal firm, Hayes Knight,
at <www.hayesknight.com.au/archives/2111>. The case
report is available at <www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/
AATA/2010/260.html>.
In the matter before the Federal Court, the On-Call
Interpreters and Translators Agency Pty Ltd (OCITA) are
challenging their superannuation obligations on the basis
that the interpreters they engage are independent contractors
and not common law nor deemed employees under s 12
of the SGAA. OCITA claim they are not liable to pay
the superannuation guarantee charge in respect of persons
contracted by it to provide interpreting services.
Roy Morgan is currently challenging its superannuation
liability for interviewers on similar grounds.
Frances Paterson
NSW Branch committee
At the lunch (left to right): Helen Enright, Mary Coe, Glenda Browne, Sue
Flaxman, Jon Jermey, Frances Guiness, Alan Walker, Elizabeth Thomas and Oran.
We held our end-of-year social lunch at
my house in Lake Heights, just south
of Wollongong. Some came down the
scenic south coast line by train and
some by car, with new face, Frances
Guiness coming all the way from near
Bathurst.
The rain held off until Sunday,
so we were very comfortable out on
the balcony. Our thanks to Oran and
Elisabeth for ferrying train travellers to
and from Wollongong Station, and to
everyone for the delicious food.
Happy Christmas to everyone.
Frances Paterson
Branch events
Date and time
Organiser
Name of activity
Venue
Contact details
Wed 2 Feb
6.00 pm
Sat 26 Feb
10.00–1.00 pm
Sat 26 Feb
2.00–5.00 pm
Sun 27 Feb
10.00–1.00 pm
Sun 27 Feb
2.00 pm
Wed 2 March
Vic Branch
The VIC
NZ Branch
Database Indexing
course
Thesauruses
construction course
Embedded Book
Indexing course
Branch meeting with
ANZSI President
The VIC : Visit to
3MBS radio station
Kew Holy Trinity
Anglican Church
See website
Details to follow
Contact Nikki Davis on 0414 758 712
Details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=169>
Details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=170>
Details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=171>
Details at
<www.anzsi.org/site/calendar_details.asp?id=172>
Details to follow
Contact Nikki Davis on 0414 758 712
NZ Branch
NZ Branch
NZ Branch
Vic Branch
Vol. 6, No. 11, December 2010
See website
See website
See website
1 St Helier St
Abbotsford
3
Jottings from SI 2010 Conference in Middelburg
Wednesday 29 September – Friday 1 October
M
iddelburg is a charming place. It is almost an island
in Zeeland in the south of the Netherlands, about
one and a half hours via train from Amsterdam.
An introductory meeting of International delegates brought
together representatives from UK, USA, Canada, South
Africa, Italy, Netherlands, Germany and Australia, giving
us an inkling of just how international this conference was
going to be. Of the 75 delegates, less than half came from the
UK, the rest from the other countries mentioned and also
France. The venue was distractingly beautiful, as the photos
demonstrate – the Roosevelt Academy, which was actually
the old 16th century town hall, in the town’s main square.
Although the building was destroyed during WWII, it had
been lovingly restored. All the art and tapestries around the
rooms were original, and we were urged to take care.
The International meeting is a chance to consider
indexing on a world scale. One item that will be investigated
further is the possibility for all members of ANZSI to have
access to each of the other Society’s newsletters via the secure
area of the website.
The conference was opened by John Sutherland,
SI Honorary President, talking on ‘The invisible indexer’.
A regular contributor to The Guardian, John lamented at
how difficult it is to have something published on indexing.
Indexes are often rendered invisible by what he called
‘typographical abuse’ – the use of small typefaces.
Professor Michaël Steehouder is a professor of Technical
Communication from University of Twente in Enschede, the
Netherlands, and also Vice President of IEEE Professional
Communications Society. He spoke on ‘What does research
tell us about the way people search for information?’ Michaël
described seven steps of information seeking: problem
awareness, problem definition or formulation, choice of
medium/source/message, locating the relevant information,
understanding the information, inferring a solution and
evaluating the solution. The origins of information needs are
impasse, surprise, uncertainty, confusion, and curiosity.
4
He reminded us that in formulating a question we
frequently tell a story and do not actually ask a question. To
illustrate with my own example ‘I went to use the machine
and it took my card. I was unable to get it back’. Instead of
‘How do I get my card back?’
He pointed out that we are looking up problems not
solutions. Think of a user manual, you are looking for
answers to problem you are having, such as flashing red
lights. You look in the index for flashing red lights, not
knowing it indicates the cartridge is empty and needs
replacing. It is therefore important to index the symptoms
of a problem as well as the cause and solution. So for this
example you need to index the three things, flashing red
lights, empty cartridges and replacing cartridges.
After dinner speaker was Femke Ijsseldijk. She spoke
on ‘How to be a green indexer’. She challenged us to think
about what would be more sustainable. As an example, she
encouraged us to use Ecofont, a font with holes in it that
saves on ink or toner (but you can see the holes only under
really high magnification, as in the sample below).
The market comes to Middelburg on Thursdays.
Sophisticated trucks arrive and let down their sides to reveal
a wide range of deli type stalls. The market also has the usual
assortment of fruit, vegetables, plant, haberdasheries, and
hardware stalls.
The next day started with Harry Bego demonstrating
the software Textract. This produces a type of concordance
which can then be modified to produce the index.
Paper by Rudy Hirschmann described the Einstein
Papers Project being done by the Californian Institute of
Technology. This is one of those projects with will take a
lifetime, as they collect and index all of Einstein’s papers.
(continued on next page)
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers Inc. (ANZSI) Newsletter
(Middleburg, continued from previous page)
I attended the workshop session on indexing modern
Islamic/Middle Eastern materials run by Joed Elich from
publisher Brill and Caroline Diepeveen. This is an area I
know very little about and I found it very useful to learn
some of traps involved in indexing in this area, where to go
for assistance, as well as what font works best for Islamic
characters.
Max McMaster presented a session on how to handle
illustrative material. As is often the case with Max’s
presentations, it was followed by an animated discussion
which helped to underline the key points.
After dinner the Wheatley Medal was awarded to Jan Ross
for her index to A J. Zuckerman et al. (eds), Principles and
Practice of Clinical Virology (6th edn, Wiley-Blackwell,
2009). Unfortunately there wasn’t a copy of the book
available to examine the index.
The presentation was followed by a talk by Harry van
Waveren, member of the daily board of Zeeland Province
on Zeeland–UK relations over the centuries. It provided a
useful historical background to the location and relations
with the UK.
Stephanie Manfroid, archivist at the Mundaneum in
Mons, Belgium, spoke on the Mundaneum and the work of
Paul Otlet, described as the man who wanted to classify the
world. I was familiar with Paul Otlet when I was a librarian
using his Universal Decimal Classification scheme in a
specialist library. UDC has been modified from Dewey.
The final session was the International session, with the
theme of marketing indexing. Representatives from each
of the Societies spoke for a couple of minutes on how they
market indexing. Some useful tips were shared.
The conference concluded with optional excursions. I
chose to visit Neeltje Jans, an artificial island constructed
to facilitate the construction of the Oosterscheldedam,
the largest of the 13 ambitious Delta works series of dams
designed to protect the Netherlands from flooding. This
really brought home just how much protection was needed
if you choose to live below sea level.
Mary Russell
The Victorian Indexing Club (The VIC)
D
uring November, Vic Branch
members visited the Melbourne
Cricket Club Library at
Melbourne’s MCG. This is undoubtedly
one of the world’s leading sports libraries
with a collection of 40,000 monographs,
periodicals, newspapers, programs and
ephemera, as well as microfilms, videotapes and CDROMs. Strengths of the collection lie in cricket, Australian
Rules football, Olympic Games, tennis, golf and 19th and
early 20th century Melbourne newspapers including the
Australasian, Melbourne Punch and Melbourne Leader. Trevor
Ruddell, the Assistant Librarian, is seen in the photo with
a bound newspaper volume. The cricket collection focuses
mainly on biographies, histories of clubs and competitions,
and statistical material. There is also a large rare book
collection dating from the 1600s.
The sporting enthusiasm of the library’s five staff and
fifteen volunteers is very evident. In addition to assisting
researchers, some staff and volunteers research and produce
articles on their special areas of interest. The efforts of this
research can be seen in the library’s quarterly journal, The
Yorker. MCC archivist, Trish, is just as passionate about the
social history of the club. Members were most interested
in her collection of letterbooks, large volumes into which
letters were pasted, each with a note added to an index at
the front.
Vol. 6, No. 11, December 2010
Mention has to be made of the library’s beautiful setting,
perched above the trees with sweeping views from its large
picture windows across the Melbourne skyline. Librarian
David Studham noted that it can be a tad unnerving on big
sporting days. It seems that each of these special occasions
begins with the sight of a jumbo jet flying straight towards
you before making its flyover, seemingly to announce the
start of the game.
Nikki Davis
5
Indexing degustation
T
his month’s degustation concerns
authors and their disconcerting lack
of awareness about indexers and their
craft. Kathleen Fitzpatrick is a great advocate
for our profession after indexing her own
book, while indexer Andrea McKay proposes
an awareness campaign to educate authors about indexing
after discovering that writers are generally blissfully ignorant
about our skills and services.
Author!
In an article entitled How to Index Your Book (And Why I’ll
Never Do It Again), author Kathleen Fitzpatrick relates the
horrors of indexing her own book, an experience which she
remembers vividly even five years later. Colleagues advised
her to hire an indexer but, being ‘possessive’ about her first
book and curious about the process, she chose to do it
herself.
Kathleen Fitzpatrick has a fine appreciation of the value of
a good index. She is aware that although books are becoming
increasingly searchable in electronic formats, the metadata
that is provided by a good index has a major influence on
the usability of the book. As she says, good indexing is more
than an alphabetical list of terms, it is the way of thinking
about the terms that adds value for reader.
After consulting a fellow author who had indexed her
first book, Kathleen developed the following method: (and
I quote)
• Read line by line through the manuscript until you come to
a proper name or key term that needs indexing.
• Type that name/term in the proper alphabetical spot in the
text file that contains your list, and add the page number.
• Search the PDF for all instances of that name/term.
• Check to make sure that all the instances that come up really
refer to the right name/term. If so, add the page numbers to
the entry.
• Attempt to think of other ways that the person/concept
referred to by that name/term might be phrased.
• Search for those variants and add them to the entry.
• Repeat, ad nauseam.
• Realize about a third of the way through that there’s a key
concept that needs indexing that you’ve overlooked. Go
back to the beginning.
• Realize about halfway through that there’s another key
concept that you’ve missed because it doesn’t really have a
term that can be searched for, per se, but is more amorphous
than that, and yet is super important and is the kind of thing
people will be looking for. Go back to the beginning.
• And so on. (close quote)
After a month of exhausting and frustrating work the
index was completed. So many decisions to be made; how to
describe abstract concepts, trying to imagine what the reader
really wanted to find, was it under or over indexed, and how
to tell the difference.
6
Of course, these are matters of concern to professional
indexers too, though experience blunts the raw edges of
anguish. Kathleen was happy to have been through the
experience but has decided that once is enough. She will
hire an indexer for her next book. Some of her colleagues
have indexed their own books because they could not afford
an indexer. Others believed that the indexer’s fee would eat
into the royalties, a view that Kathleen thought ridiculous
when a frustrating ‘month’s worth of working time’ was taken
into account.
Kathleen is a great advocate for the indexing profession,
for, as she says, professional indexers are professionals for a
reason. They have the skills to find the relevant concepts and
their relationships quickly and the experience to know what
a reader would search for. The indexing fee, she believes, is
‘an investment in the book’s future usability (not to mention
preserving my own sanity)’ and well worth it.
Read Kathleen’s article and the responses to her question
‘Do you have an indexing system you’d stand by? Or an
argument for using professional indexers?’ at
<http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/how-to-index-yourbook-and-why-ill-never-do-it-again/28697?sid=wc&utm_
source=wc&utm_medium=en>.
Author! Author!
Canadian indexer Andrea McKay is mounting a campaign
to promote indexing awareness among authors. Indexing is
a skilled service that adds value to an information resource,
a value that is largely unknown or ignored within client
communities. Marketing is required to promote awareness
of indexes, their value and the effort and skill involved
in their creation. As it is impractical for individuals to
promote the profession, Andrea would like to put forward a
proposal that the ISC could work as a representative voice in
a nationwide campaign. The Internet could be used to relay
information to targeted client groups, such as publishers and
author organisations for little cost.
Andrea attended a non-fiction authors’ group in Ottawa
and asked about the process of having a book indexed.
Some authors had published many books or worked with
publishers, but only one person knew that skilled indexers
existed. Reasons for not including an index included cost
and faith in a good table of contents. The Canadian Authors
Association made no mention of indexing on their web
site.
Andrea has drafted a Green Paper for submission to the
ISC executive on the development of an indexing awareness
campaign targeting independent authors. If the plan is
successful, the campaign could be extended to broader client
communities.
Read the full article, Proposal to Promote Indexing
Awareness Among Authors, at
<www.indexers.ca/BULLETIN_Summer_2010.pdf>.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you all.
Jane Purton
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers Inc. (ANZSI) Newsletter
Will Raymont, seen here with Branch President Shirley
Campbell, was the guest speaker at the ACT Branch AGM.
Letter to the Editor
A
lthough I had attended the Annual General Meeting
of the ACT Region Branch, I wanted to read in
the Newsletter the excellent report by Shirley Campbell,
the Branch President. This speech contained historical
information about the Society and pertinent reflections on
issues of interest to branches.
I was disappointed to see that the speech had been
abridged in the Newsletter and I hope that the speech in its
entirety will be available on the website for all members to
read.
Geraldine Triffitt
[The full report is indeed now on the ACT Region Branch page
on the ANZSI website. Ed]
Jeremy Fisher to be a Director
of enhanced CAL Cultural Fund
C
opyright Australia Limited members voted at their
AGM to increase allocations to the Cultural Fund.
Also announced was the appointment of Dr Jeremy Fisher
as a Director (taken from the emailed December edition of
aliaNEWS).
More at <www.copyright.com.au>. The detail is at <www.
copyright.com.au/Latest_News/CAL_increases_Cultural_
Fund_allocation_and_appoint.aspx>.
Jeremy Fisher was the first winner of the ANZSI Medal,
and has been on recent medal panels.
Glenda Browne
To be continued in our next issue ...
The second part of Bernadette Vaughan’s article on
‘Getting into taxonomy’
has been unavoidably held over until the February issue.
Vol. 6, No. 11, December 2010
7