Article
January 24, 2024
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by Stephen

Indexing Local History: Stories I’ve Been Told Series

Front cover for the book Stories I've Been Told, Vol. 3, by Elaine Thomas.Local history can be both a joy and a challenge to index. It can be deeply personal, both for those telling and writing the stories, and for those reading, as it reaffirms our bonds with each other and with the places we belong. The index is often the first point of contact with the text, as readers search for the people, places, and memories that they hold dear—or even search for themselves.

Over the last few years, I’ve had the honour and pleasure of working with Elaine Thomas, an author and storyteller. Elaine is an Albertan transplanted to Fayette County, Texas. She regularly writes for a local newspaper, The Fayette County Record, including, for several years, a column profiling a wide array of locals, especially senior citizens who reminisce about their lives. Elaine is now collecting and self-publishing these columns in the Stories I’ve Been Told series. I have indexed all three volumes published so far, as well as three other books of local and family history that Elaine has written. Today, I want to discuss how I approach indexing the Stories I’ve Been Told series, drawing examples from the third volume that was launched last November.

I love Elaine’s work for a couple of reasons.

Elaine has a knack for finding and telling incredible stories of everyday life. These are ordinary, everyday people, and yet dig beneath the surface, as Elaine does, and extraordinary accomplishments and joy shine forth. It is an excellent reminder of the wealth of knowledge and experience that surrounds all of us, if we only pay attention and listen. Elaine’s books epitomize the value and importance of preserving our local history. 

I also love reading these profiles of people in Fayette County, Texas, because it is a completely different world than what I am familiar with. Add in the fact that many of the people profiled are reminiscing about life during the Depression, World War II, and postwar, and it is a whole other world yet again. Rural farm life among Czech and German immigrants is about as far away as you can get from the concrete Taiwanese city of a million people that I grew up in, except, maybe, for the shared summer heat. I get to explore a different perspective and way of life as I index these books, a way of life that is slowly becoming more familiar with each book.

From an indexing standpoint, there are a couple of challenges which I find are common to indexing local history. The first is, what in indexable?

Details

Local history books often contain a lot of detail. Because there is so much that could potentially be picked up, it is a good idea to decide ahead of time, as much as possible, what is indexable and what can be left aside. I find my approach often evolves as I work and better understand the text. The plan does not need to be rigid. But starting with a plan does help to avoid being overwhelmed by the sheer number of potential entries, and to avoid adding, and then later deleting, irrelevant entries.

For the Stories I’ve Been Told series, I make a distinction between Fayette County and the rest of the country and world. The people profiled are all from and live within Fayette County. I assume that readers of the book also have a connection to the area. So information about Fayette County forms the bulk of what I pick up. I index somewhat less detail about the rest of Texas, with most such entries being about neighbouring counties and cities that readers are likely to be familiar with, and where the people profiled may have studied and worked. I index the least amount of detail about the rest of the country and world. If someone spent part of their career in Virginia, for example, I will likely include that as a subheading, but I probably will not create main headings for places and businesses within Virginia, as I don’t think that readers will be searching for Virginia-related details.

I index all of the local people. This can lead to long lists of family members, if a person profiled mentions all of their grandparents, parents, siblings, spouse, children, and other relatives. But since this is intended for a local readership who may be searching for their families and friends, I think it is important to pick up all of the names, even minor mentions. This can also mean double-checking surnames with Elaine, to make sure I am properly identifying people.

I also pick up places. This includes all of the cities and towns within Fayette County. I also pick up churches, schools, local businesses, significant geographic features, and any other place that seems important. These are often minor mentions, but again, this is a book for local readers. There are memories attached to these places, and local histories can be an aid for people to access their own memories.

I also pick up details for various activities. These can be memories about Christmas or attending dances, childhood memories of working on the farm, or about people’s careers, such as delivering mail or running a flooring business. I also create arrays for local events, like the Fayette County Fair.

Several of the people profiled are veterans who reminisce about their wartime experiences. I’ve learned that honouring vets is important, in a way that seems more strongly emphasized than in Canada. I include several arrays for the different branches of military; the military bases where these veterans served, especially those nearby within Texas; and the wars, which is mostly WWII, along with a few mentions for the Korean and Vietnam wars. 

Basically, if someone or something happened or existed within Fayette County, I index it. Elaine and I want local readers to be able to find their family and friends, and places and events, that are significant to them.

Structure

With so many details, structuring the index is also important, to ensure that the index is easy to search.

I build the index structure around the book’s structure. Stories I’ve Been Told, Vol. 3 contains 30 profiles, with each profile about 8 pages, give or take. This includes 1-3 pages of photographs. Because it is these people who form the core of the book, I use subheadings for each person, focusing on what that person chooses to discuss. I also include a range, at the top of the array, for the whole profile. Photographs are indicated in italics. 

Kea, Arleas Upton, 1–9

career with FDIC, 1, 7

childhood, 2–3

education and desegregation, 3–4, 9

family, 3, 7, 8, 9

photographs, 7–9

prayer and worship, 3

reflections on life and success, 6

at University of Texas, 5–6

I also do a lot of double-posting. All of the churches, for example, are both indexed as standalone entries and are gathered together in a single array. Gathering together does mean that the index will be longer, but I think it is helpful to provide a place for readers to scan if they can’t remember the name of a specific church or if they want to see which churches are mentioned. It is also generally a good practice to provide multiple access points, if there is space, to accommodate how different readers choose to search. If the community that the church is in is not obvious from the church’s name, I also include that detail in parentheses. (I also include the community in parentheses for main headings if the community is not obvious from the name of the church, school, or business.)

churches

Bethlehem Lutheran Church (Round Top), 189

Big Spring Hill Baptist Church, 79

Elm Creek Baptist Church (Seguin), 179

Holy Cross Lutheran Church (Warda), 143, 147, 149

Prairie Valley Lutheran Church, 181

prayer and worship, 3

Queen of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church (Hostyn), 89, 92, 217

Sacred Heart Catholic Church (La Grange), 36, 91

St. James Missionary Baptist Church (Plum), 79

St. James Missionary Baptist Church (Schulenburg), 3

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church (Ammannsville), 83

St. Mary Catholic Church (High Hill), 40

St. Mary’s Catholic Church (Ellinger), 125

St. Paul Lutheran Church (La Grange), 27, 220

St. Paul Lutheran Church (Serbin), 97–98, 99

St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church (Schulenburg), 54, 56–57, 101

Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church (Plum), 32

Swiss Alp Lutheran Church, 112

Trinity Lutheran Church (Black Jack Springs), 12, 154

I also double-post for significant events and memories that have enough entries to warrant subheadings, such as Christmas:

Christmas

Alvin J. Anders’ memories, 101–2

Christmas trees, 54, 57, 138, 143, 153

Frances Pietsch Schumann’s memories, 143–44

gifts for WWII soldiers, 51

Gracie Loessin Taylor’s memories, 153

Kahlich family traditions, 54–57

mail delivery and, 134

Santa Claus, 54–55

St. Nicholas (St. Nicholas Day), 53–54, 58

For military arrays, such as the wars and branches of the military, I suspect that some readers would like to see who else served, and so I double-post names in these arrays as well, in addition to double-posting military bases. For example,

U.S. Air Force

Bien Hoa Air Force Base (Vietnam), 225, 227–28

Eugene J. “Gene” Wessels, 177, 178–79, 183

Fort Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, 178

Harry Richard “Dick” Peck, 223–28, 231, 232

Lackland Air Force Base, 61

Laredo Air Force Base, 223–24

For Stories I’ve Been Told, Vol. 3, thanks to a suggestion from Elaine, I’ve also included cross-references from the various towns to the people profiled who are from those towns, so that readers can more easily see the connections between people and places. I should have thought of this for the earlier volumes, and I’m glad Elaine noticed this possibility. For example,

Rutersville (TX), 69, 89–90. See also Dixon, Richard; Fietsam, Lydia Eberenz

Working with the Author

Especially if you are not familiar with the area or history, take advantage of the author’s knowledge. When I first started indexing this series, Elaine’s insights were invaluable as I made my plan for how to index, as well as helpful feedback on the draft index. This can be a fruitful collaboration to serve the readers.

Indexing local history can often be more work than it initially appears. All of those details and entries can add up, and then you need to decide how best to organize. Indexing local history can also be satisfying, helping readers remain engaged with their history and community, as well as the reminder that each of us live extraordinary lives, if only we can see ourselves, and each other, from the right angle. 

If you would like to see the full index for Stories I’ve Been Told, Vol. 3, you can find it on Amazon, using the “Read Sample” feature. The indexes for the first two volumes are also available for viewing.If you would like to buy a copy, proceeds are being donated to assist struggling students at Blinn College, Schulenburg campus. Elaine also writes a lovely blog, Stories From the Slow Lane, where you can enjoy more stories about the past.

Article
August 2, 2023
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by Stephen

Index Profile: Placing (Hiding?) Sensitive Entries

Where do you put potentially embarrassing or upsetting information in an index? The information is true. It is discussed. It qualifies as indexable. But where and how should it appear?

I faced this question when I received feedback last year from Adele Weder, the author of the biography Ron Thom, Architect: The Life of a Creative Modernist (Greystone Books, 2022), about the Canadian modernist architect, Ron Thom. My original array for Thom, for which I used the em-dash-modified format (which I like to use for biographies), looked like this (for space and the sake of this example, I am only including the first three subheadings for each section):

Thom, Ron (Ronald James): Adelaide Street apartment, 255–56; alcoholism, 34, 212–13, 214, 239–40, 255, 257, 259–60, 272–73, 275; art and, 17, 288n20;…

—ARCHITECTURE CAREER: apprenticeship, 46–47; on architects, 208–9; on art and architecture, 38, 133, 200, 211–12, 243–44;…

—ARCHITECTURE PROJECTS: Atria North, 246–47; Banff Centre’s Thom Studio, 254, 254; B.C. Electric Building, 87–88, 90–92;…

—ARTWORK: At the Fair Grounds, 37, 38; Seated Figure, 41–42, 42, 290n2

—FAMILY AND RELATIONSHIPS: children, 54, 57, 101, 102, 172, 234, 237–38; courting Chris, 26; divorce from Chris, 113–14, 295n6;…

Do you see the problem?

Alcoholism is the second subheading. While acknowledging that alcoholism was a significant problem in Thom’s life, the author was concerned that having the subheading so early in the array overshadowed Thom’s architectural accomplishments.

Which I think is a fair point.

When I use the em-dash-modified format, I usually treat the first section as a catch-all for the subheadings that don’t fit anywhere else. These are often subheadings for childhood, death, miscellaneous jobs, hobbies, personal quirks, and, in this case, alcoholism. I think I did notice that alcoholism fell at the front, which struck me as unfortunate while also part of the vagaries of the alphabetical sort. So, I didn’t put too much more thought into it. 

The author was not so quick to let the index—and me—off the hook. I am glad she pushed back. After some back-and-forth discussion, I revised the array:

Thom, Ron (Ronald James)

—ARCHITECTURE CAREER: apprenticeship, 46–47; on architects, 208–9; on art and architecture, 38, 133, 200, 211–12, 243–44;…

—ARCHITECTURE PROJECTS: Atria North, 246–47; Banff Centre’s Thom Studio, 254, 254; B.C. Electric Building, 87–88, 90–92;…

—ARTWORK: At the Fair Grounds, 37, 38; Seated Figure, 41–42, 42, 290n2

—FAMILY AND RELATIONSHIPS: children, 54, 57, 101, 102, 172, 234, 237–38; courting Chris, 26; divorce from Chris, 113–14, 295n6;…

—PERSONAL LIFE AND VIEWS: Adelaide Street apartment, 255–56; alcoholism, 34, 212–13, 214, 239–40, 255, 257, 259–60, 272–73, 275; art and, 17, 288n20;…

That catch-all section is now labelled “personal life and views,” which sorts it to the very end of the array. The alcoholism subheading is still present, but it is no longer the first thing that readers see. Instead, Thom’s architecture career and projects play the starring role.

I took away three lessons from this experience.

One, it is a good reminder that alphabetical sorting isn’t everything and it is possible to manipulate where entries appear. The goal should be to make entries visible, of course, rather than burying entries. But depending on the material and the needs of the audience, it is possible to move entries around and to highlight or deflect attention as needed.

Two, sensitive information should be handled sensitively. I am not a fan of using the index to ignore or whitewash uncomfortable or difficult information. If there is a significant discussion in the text, then it should also be in the index. But I am open to considering how and where it appears in the index. In Thom’s case, what is the focus of the book? What are the elements of his life which should be celebrated? What are readers looking for, and what should readers be presented with first? The array can be structured accordingly. 

The last lesson is that feedback from authors can be invaluable. I don’t always agree with the feedback, and I may explain my approach if I think the index is misunderstood. But there are also times when I have made a mistake, or I didn’t consider other options, or fully think through the implications. I want to be someone who takes feedback seriously. Even if I disagree with the author’s solution, there may still be something there that I need to reconsider. For this Thom array, I am thankful that Adele Weder, the author, explained her concern and pushed me to look further for a better solution. I think the array and the index are better for it.

Article
May 24, 2023
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by Stephen

Index Profile: Tracing Complicated Relationships in Main Headings, in The Other Great Game

What can main headings be composed of?

Main headings, which kick off an entry or array, usually describe a single person or thing. It could be a name, or a government agency, or a physical object, or a concept. It is concrete and identifiable. Which is what we want in a main heading. Readers need to be able to clearly identify what it is they are searching for.

But sometimes the thing that we are trying to describe is complicated, and it is okay for the main heading to expand and help carry the weight of the text.

I ended up taking this approach for the index for The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Modern East Asia, by Sheila Miyoshi Jager (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2023). This is a delightful history, squarely within one of my favorite areas to index—East Asian studies—while also quite challenging in its scope and length, at about 570 indexable pages.

This book is about the colonial jockeying for power and control over Korea, with Korea ultimately becoming a protectorate of Japan. One of the challenging aspects was all of the intertwined relationships. Korea is a key player, of course. Japan is also involved, and wanting to be taken seriously as a great power. Russia also has its interests and influence. China is a waning influence, though still trying to exert itself. Though less involved, the other Western powers—US, Britain, Germany, France—all played a role as well.  Much of the book covers the diplomatic back-and-forth as all these powers try to figure out what to do with Korea (instead of respecting Korea’s independence). From an indexing standpoint, what is the best way to index all of these relationships?

Most of these relationships, say between Korea and Japan, or Japan and Russia, are too large to be contained within a subheading or two. These are relationships that span decades, and include wars, lengthy negotiations, and shifts in the balance of power. With so much material to cover, double-posting these relationships under each respective country would have led to enormous, unwieldy arrays.

The solution I landed on was to make the relationship itself the main heading. So, “Korean-Chinese relations,” “Korean-Japanese relations,” “Japanese-Russian relations,” etc… I still had arrays for each country, for subheadings specific to that country, but the bulk of the entries fell under these various arrays for these relationships. This meant that under Korea or Japan, for example, there are several arrays, which break down the discussions into manageable, yet still clearly defined, portions.

This also raised the question of which country to prioritize in the main heading. Should it be “Japanese-Russian relations” or “Russian-Japanese relations”? Because Korea and Japan were the two biggest actors, I decided to let them take the lead, so to speak,, with the Western countries generally being listed second.

These main headings also required a lot of cross-references from the other countries. As I mentioned, double-posting wasn’t a viable option due to the sheer number of entries. Better to pick a single array to place entries under, and then use cross-references to point readers in the right direction. For example, “Russian-Korean relations. See Korean-Russian relations.”

If you are interested in seeing all this in action, you can view the index here, on Amazon, using the Look Inside feature.

The number one goal for main headings is that they be clear. A confused reader is less likely to find what they are looking for. But while keeping clarity in mind, you can also play with main headings to better match the discussions in the book. Some subjects and relationships are more complicated, and a longer, multi-part main heading may be the clearest and best option.

Article
April 26, 2023
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by Stephen

Index Profile: Untangling Terms in Rediscovering the Goodness of Creation

Ever struggle to find the right term to use in the index? I do. From an indexing standpoint, ideally the vocabulary used in the book is clear and consistent, making it easy to extract terms and phrases to use as main headings and subheadings. Bu not all books are so clearcut. Some books require more thought and even, dare I say, improvisation when selecting terms. 

I don’t mean to suggest that such books are poorly written, though that may sometimes be the case. English is blessed with a multitude of expressions and synonyms, and an author may choose to use terms interchangeably. What works in the text, though, may not work in the index. The vocabulary used in the index should be controlled, with discussions gathered in a single location or with cross-references between similar discussions. When there are multiple terms to choose from, you need to make a decision about which terms to gather under

I faced this challenge a few months ago when indexing Rediscovering the Goodness of Creation: A Manual for Recovering Gnostics, by Robin Phillips (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2023). While beautifully and thoughtfully written, making full use of the language available, I did have several moments, while indexing, when I thought to myself, “Is the author writing about this, or that? Or both?”

First, what the book is about, which is the starting point for determining appropriate terms. Here is the synopsis I wrote for myself after I finished the rough draft of the index. I find that writing a brief summary can clarify the metatopic and the main points of the book, and focus my attention on the most important elements which need to be in the index.

This book is about rediscovering a Christian appreciation for creation/the world/our bodies/culture—how the redemption of all of these is part of God’s plan and work. An emphasis on the implicit Gnosticism in much of modern Christianity, manifested in a matter-spirit dualism, in which the physical is denigrated or ignored. Also frames creation as “already” and “not yet”—the tension between what God has done, and what is to be completed in the eschaton. 

Right from the start, I have a series of related terms that I am struggling to differentiate. I know that these terms are distinct, but how, exactly? What does “creation” encompass? Is “creation” different from the “world” and/or “earth”? Are “world” and “earth” distinct from each other? “Bodies” also seems distinct, though are they also part of “creation” or the “world”? And what about “culture”? An easy solution would be to have a massive main heading for “creation/world/bodies/culture,” but I don’t think that would be helpful for readers. It is better to have separate arrays for each of these concepts. The question then becomes, how to differentiate the discussions, and which references go under which?

Reading the book more closely, I realized that creation is the metatopic—the overarching concept tying the whole book together. The world, bodies, and culture are all different aspects of creation. So, I created an array for creation with a number of subheadings that speak to creation at a higher, more general level, with cross-references to specific elements of creation and related concepts that are discussed in more detail. (And, looking at this now, I realize I should have included a cross-reference to the “body, physical” array.)

creation: introduction, 7–10, 49–50; Augustine on goodness of, 231–34; coherence with heaven, 325–27, 327n7, 333n28, 334; continuity between present age and age to come, 173–76; Gnosticism on, 69; God working through means, 269–72; goodness of, 59–60, 220; participation of in God, 247–49, 247n5; redemption of, 60; sacramentalism and, 299–300; vs. sacred-secular dualism, 304–5; teleology and, 152; use in worship, 281–86. See also arts; beauty; coherence; culture; dominion (cultural) mandate; earth; Genesis Creation narrative; matter-spirit dualism; new creation theology

In addition to figuring out how creation is related to the other concepts, the book also seemed to use several terms interchangeably. The question I needed to answer was, are these terms synonymous (or close enough that they can be indexed together) or are these distinct concepts that need to be indexed separately? For example, is it the world or the earth? Eden or Paradise? The Church or the Kingdom of God? The dominion mandate or the cultural mandate? 

I eventually decided that it made the most sense to index these pairings together, and so created the following main headings: “earth (world),” “Eden (Paradise),” “Church (God’s Kingdom),” and “dominion (cultural) mandate.” I included the alternative term in a gloss so that readers understand that these are the same thing, more or less, and that either may be found on the page. I also included cross-references from the alternative terms. I also tried to be alert to other synonyms and create appropriate cross-references. For example, from “natural world” to “earth.” The alternative—having separate or duplicate main entries for earth and world, for example—seemed unnecessarily complex, and at times impossible to decide which subheading belonged under which term. 

A similar issue was how to index the various dualisms discussed in the book. The main one, mentioned in the synopsis, is the matter-spirit dualism, thought the book also discusses the grace-nature dualism and the sacred-secular dualism. The clue is the term “dualism,” which indicates that each of these is a single concept and should not be split into separate entries, such as for matter and spirit. I did, however, include cross-references, such as “spirit. See matter-spirit dualism,” for readers who might search otherwise. 

Term selection can be tricky. When writing a book, it makes sense to use the full range of language available, to create engaging prose, to dialogue with other literature and discussions, and to reflect nuance. The index, on the other hand, is a deconstruction of the text. Discussions need to be gathered and sorted into distinct arrays and organized in a way that facilitates search. When indexing some books, such as Rediscovering the Goodness of Creation, this means taking all of the terms available, understanding how the terms relate to each other, and then choosing to prioritize certain terms over others (while still including cross-references from the other terms), as it is not practical for all terms to have full arrays.

The goal, as always, is a clearly written index that points readers to the information that they want to find.

Article
August 26, 2018
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by Stephen

Indexing Institutional Histories: A Case Study

This last week I finished the index for a large institutional history, 550 pages, including endnotes. It was one of the more challenging books I have indexed. I will not yet reveal the name of the institution, or the title or author, as the book is not yet published, but I am still interested in exploring what made this project unique while it is fresh in my mind. You see, while the institution described is currently a single entity, the book actually discussed three institutions. Let’s call them the museum, the archives, and the library.

The first set of intertwined institutions are the museum and archives. About fifteen years ago they were formally amalgamated, and so they are, now, a single entity while retaining their distinctive spheres. For most of their history, though, going back 100+ years, they were separate institutions, yet often shared the same building. So in a sense this book is really a story of parallel, yet conjoined, histories. Part of my job, as the indexer, was to reflect both histories in the index, and to make it clear when each was being discussed.

The second set of intertwined institutions are the library and the archives. The library was actually established first, before the archives, and part of its mandate was to collect archival records. A few years later the archives were created as a separate entity, and yet for decades not only did the two share a building (with the museum), but they also shared a single administration. The head archivist was concurrently the head librarian. This mixing of roles continued until separate administrators were finally appointed, and until the archives moved out, with the museum, into a new building. At that point the library drops out of this particular story. Yet the library still needed to be addressed in the index. Its presence added yet another level of complexity, made even more so as it was often not clearly differentiated from the archives. The text usually treated both as a single entity, with a focus on archival work, probably because the same staff were involved in both. Because of that, while I had separate main entries for each, for when the difference was clear, I also tended to assume, when the difference was not clear, that the archival side was being discussed.

A temptation for this kind of book is to essentially write two, possibly three, separate indexes, one for each institution. In practice, because separate indexes are not very practical, this would probably look like massive entries for each within a single index, in which the whole history of each institution is clearly delineated. I don’t think that this approach works either. Overly large entries, with long lists of subheadings, or even multiple levels of subheadings, are often difficult to read. This also relates to the concept of the metatopic—the overarching topic of the book to which everything in the book relates. While I take the view that the metatopic should be present in the index as a starting point for the reader—in this case, the metatopics would be the museum and archives—I also agree that the information which form the metatopic should be broken down into their different components and scattered throughout the index to give the reader smaller chunks of information to digest. 

That still leaves the question, though, of how to differentiate between information that is related to the museum and information that is related to the archives and library. Ideally, if the reader is only interested in one institution or the other, the reader should know which they are getting. My overall strategy was to be clear in the language I used. I also dealt with this on a case-by-case basis, as I was afraid that if I was too rigid following a particular strategy or formula, I would end up with too much repetition between the entries, and an index that was longer than necessary. To give a few examples…

There were a number of areas in which both the museum and the archives had similar programs or issues. Both, for example, published books, reports, and magazines or journals. In order to differentiate, I decided to have parallel entries of,

publishing program, archives 

publishing program, museum

Other topics, I felt, did not make sense to differentiate, either because the same issues applied to both, or because it was primarily only one institution that dealt with that issue. An example would be the buildings these institutions occupied, which in most instances were shared. Another instance was finances, a lot of which were about government budget cuts which affected both equally. I thought that I would have a lot of duplication if I had separate entries, which seemed to me to add limited value. 

In these cases, I also sometimes use subheadings to highlight one or both institutions where it made sense to do so. This would usually be a situation in which the entry was primarily about one institution, but for which there were a couple of locators for the other as well. For example, exhibitions and displays was almost entirely about the museum, as I think most people would expect. Yet the archives had a small gallery that was also referenced a couple of times, so “in archives” became a subheading. For the entry for collections, which was about collections in general with numerous cross-references to specific collections, most of the subheadings were applicable to both institutions, but I also had the following two subheadings for the one instance I thought differentiation made sense:

collection policy for archives

collection policy for museum

Another issue was how to differentiate the staff, particularly the administrators who tended to have the most lengthy entries. I decided that I would not try to differentiate staff who did not have enough entries to merit subheadings, but for staff with subheadings, I tried to insert the term museum or archives somewhere near the top of the entry. This usually meant a subheading along the lines of,

appointment and departure from archives and library

This usually sorted to be the first or second subheading in the entry, which I hope will help orient readers to where this person worked, and what kind of information they can expect from this entry. I think this is preferable to giving no clue, and leaving the reader to possibly waste time on the wrong person.

All told, this was quite a dense text, though well-written. I did find the book interesting, especially as I have done some research myself at this particular archive. Now that I understand its history and collection better, I kind of want to return, though I don’t know what I would research. The index was also quite the challenge. I hope that the decisions I made make sense, especially to the readers who will be using it.

Article
November 28, 2015
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by Stephen

My Award Winning Index: Strange Visitors

9781442605688I came really close to missing out on the Purple Pen Award for new indexers. I knew that the deadline was approaching, but I was also enjoying a road trip with the woman who is now my wife. On the due date of the competition, we were staying with friends who live on a large lake, boat access only, electricity from solar panels and a generator, and patchy internet.

The PDF of the book I needed to upload for the competition was big. The internet, as I mentioned, was slow and unreliable. I couldn’t tell from my email program if the files had sent or not. I restarted the process a few times. I might have successfully sent those files a couple of times without realizing it.

Had I been at home with reliable internet, instead of in the wilderness with my dear love, would I have been more on top of submitting to the competition? I hope so. Sending the files certainly wouldn’t have been so nerve-wracking. I was still confident, though, in my chances for winning that I pressed on with the submission.

And the end result of all that time spent huddled over my laptop on that lovely summer day in southeastern British Columbia, not to mention the hours spent writing that particular index?

I won the award.

It was 2014, my second year as a freelancer and my fourth as an indexer. I won the inaugural Purple Pen Award for best new indexer, given by the Institute of Certified Indexers. My winning index was for Strange Visitors: Documents in the History of Indigenous and Settler Relations in Canada from 1876, edited by Keith D. Smith, and published by the University of Toronto Press in 2014.

Why was I so confident that I might win? There were three reasons.

  1. I figured that a prize-winning index should be unique in some way, which meant that the book indexed should be unique. You want to stand out, right? The book I won for, Strange Visitors, was a collection of primary documents spanning a hundred years and covering over a dozen subjects within Indigenous and settler relations in Canada. It wasn’t your typical monograph or anthology. When I received this book I sensed that this was an index I could experiment and apply new techniques and skills to.
  2. But to show off skills, you must first, of course, acquire them. I wrote the index for Strange Visitors shortly after attending the annual conference held by the Indexing Society of Canada. I left that conference with a list of new ideas and techniques that I wanted to put into practice. Thankfully I soon received just the projects to do that with.
  3. At this point I was also realizing my own progress as an indexer. I could see that I was learning and implementing new techniques. I was indexing more challenging books and my clients seemed happy with the results. I could look back at early indexes I had written and critique them. So, while still recognizing that I wasn’t yet an indexing vet, I wasn’t a complete rookie either. Just possibly my recent work was good enough to win an award.

In the end, the judges, of course, had their own criteria (which can be found here) by which they judged the submissions. Perhaps they would have been just as happy with another index of mine from that time period.

I am thankful, though, for the recognition given to me by the judges. It tells me that I am on the right track with my indexing, and I am excited to keep learning and improving. I am also thankful to the University of Toronto Press for asking me to index Strange Visitors. They publish beautifully written and designed books, and I am proud to work with them.

Article
June 26, 2015
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by Stephen

Team Indexing: The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver

1550175335Writing an index is usually a solitary activity, but when working in-house for Harbour Publishing I had the opportunity, to 2011, to lead a small team of indexers.

The book was The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver, a coffee table book clocking in at nearly 600 pages. Chuck Davis, the renowned local Vancouver historian, had been unable to finish the project before he died, and Harbour took on the challenge of pulling together a large team–over forty people–to finish the work.

By the time I was assigned to the index, two other people had already been hired to create a word list of all of the terms to be included in the index. My job, and that of my co-indexers, was to search the PDF proofs for those terms and fill in the page numbers. Normally I wouldn’t suggest this approach because there is a lot, such as concepts and references, that the search function doesn’t pick up, but in this case, as the book consists of short bits of trivia and sidebars, it worked alright.

As the lead indexer, I assigned chunks of this word list to my fellow indexers (there were three of us at this point), and we set about searching for these terms. The final Word document containing the index was over a hundred pages long. As completed sections came in, I would assign a new section and check the work that I had received for consistency and accuracy. When all of the terms had been searched, I proofread the entire index, checking spelling, alphabetization, and the correct ordering of locators, as we weren’t using dedicated indexing software which automates the formatting.

If I had the chance to do this again, I would make sure that we all had dedicated software. Creating the index in Word isn’t as slow, I assume, as using actual index cards, but it is still a lot of extra work. Instead of making a word list, I would have also discussed with my co-indexers, prior to starting, our strategy for what to index and how, and then divided the book by chapter among us. As sections came in I would have still checked for accuracy and consistency, but then let the software handle the formatting when adding these sections to the master copy.

Still, having such a hands-on approach to writing an index was an excellent opportunity to be grounded in the small details that ultimately make an index work.  It was a great apprenticeship, and I’m proud of the work. It was also neat to contribute some of the captions, sidebars, and text as well.