How We Index: Then and Now

This article considers the indexing processes of yesterday and today, and the history of indexing technologies.

The topic of ‘how we index’ – indexing processes of yesterday and today and the history of indexing technologies – is something that I have found fascinating to research. The first known book on indexing in modern times, Henry B. Wheatley’s 1902 classic How to make an index, is most likely ahead of its time in its descriptions of ‘good indexers’ and ‘bad indexers’ when considering how little-acknowledged at the time the importance was of including indexes in books. He includes indexing rules that are still in use today, such as not starting an entry with an unimportant word such as ‘the’, avoiding haphazard double-posting and cross-referencing, taking alphabetization beyond (as was then common practice) just the first two or three letters, avoiding separation into several indexes, and using subheadings with care.

However, it is also apparent from reading this book that back then, some of the rules that are standard in indexing today were not yet established. One of the first ‘indexing rules’ that I remember learning was not to try to rewrite the book in the index; good index entries should contain as few words as possible, aimed at pointing the reader in the right direction. Yet, in Wheatley’s own index as well as the ones he uses as examples throughout the text, entries are not condensed in any way, even using complete sentences in many cases. And while one of Wheatley’s ‘established’ rules is that only word-by-word alphabetization is correct, today, whether word-by-word or letter-by-letter alphabetization is to be used is not something that is standardized among all publishers/authors.

Fast-forward to 1979, when indexing as a profession was starting to be legitimized and standard ‘indexing rules’ were being put in place. In G. Norman Knight’s book Indexing, the art of, a couple of process descriptions are given, which are very similar to the ones described in Wheatley’s book:

Compiling an index necessitates the preparation of a number of entries, which in their final form must be either typewritten or very legibly handwritten in ink. Several different methods of recording them are in use, but probably 90 per cent of indexers today use either index cards or ‘slips’. The size usually preferred is 5 x 3 in. Two further kinds of equipment are essential. The first is a container in which to hold the cards (or slips) while in use on one’s desk. For this a wooden tray, with sides shallower than the slips or cards, is best. The other necessity of at least twenty-four guide-cards, marked (on a projecting surface) with the letters of the alphabet – X, Y and Z on the bought version usually come together on the same guide-card. It has long been my practice to use cards rather than slips and to type on them all headings and subheadings in the first reference in each case, adding any further references in ink. Another method of recording entries is by the use of gummed sheets of paper, perforated throughout their length at intervals of two or three inches. Each item is written or typed on its own perforated strip. When the indexing is completed and double-checked, the strips are separated at their perforations and sorted alphabetically, and then the gummed strips are mounted on quarto rough paper, ready for the printer. The use of a notebook – preferably loose-leaf – is one of the earliest methods of recording the entries for an index. But it lacks the flexibility of cards or slips and that it could not be expected to work well for a large index, or one involving many sub-subheadings.

To get some anecdotes on the topic of indexing methods of today, I interviewed longtime indexers Mike Bennett, Ellen Chapman, Linda Hallinger, Pam Rider, Barbara Roos and Kamm Schreiner. They come from a variety of backgrounds and I learned a lot from speaking with them!

Shoshana: Hi, everyone! So, when did you all start indexing? What technologies were available at the time?

Pam: I began indexing as the sole production/editorial staff of a small academic publishing company. Eventually, a title arrived that the authors did not wish to index. The boss kept saying, ‘Pam will do the index.’ And I kept saying, ‘There are professional indexers who do that.’ Of course, my boss won. We followed APA style, with Chicago as a backup source. I did my first index based on preferences as a devoted index user. No one had to tell me not to have a long string of undifferentiated locators. ‘Technology’ was electric typewriters and index cards. Like today, mental processes and human evaluation were really the most important aspects of creating indexes.

Linda: I started filing slips for my mom in the 1960s, but I did not begin indexing on a full-time basis until 1977. We used regular-sized sheets of paper (8.5 x 11 in) that had perforations that divided the page into 10 sections. We would type each entry into its own section. At the end of the day we would then have to separate the sections and begin to file them. Growing up, filing those slips was my first job, paying 1 cent per inch of slips that I filed, generally down to the third letter. Then, once the slips were completely filed, the whole index had to be retyped. My best typing speed at that time was about 100 pages a day, so I could spend most of a week on a long index – and then we just put the index pages into the mail. I guess things were working on a different time frame, but at least there were not so many of those frustrating last-minute revisions. Our technologies consisted of our IBM typewriters (although I did do a couple of years of indexing on a manual typewriter too), perforatedindexing paper, soda boxes with 24 divisions for filing (a couple had to get doubled up), and assorted boxes for holding the slips of paper. We made the transition to computers and CINDEX software in 1991. Our mother–daughter collaboration continued for nearly 30 years, until my mom retired from indexing after 62 years and I took over the business.

Mike: Reminds me of my index training in about the same period on a publisher’s indexing staff. We dictated our lines on dictabelt machines. The typist pool (‘the girls’) typed them on specially ordered heavy paper that fed into the typewriters from a roll. The paper was perforated at about 4 inch intervals. Another department separated and alphabetized the slips and they were returned to us for revision. Sometime in the mid-1970s this operation was revolutionized. (It was about the same time that computers replaced the linotype machines.) Our dictation was ‘inputted’ by special IBM terminals, and sent to an outside vendor for sorting. It was returned to us as a ‘printout’. We ‘marked up’ changes which somebody else transferred to the IBM data. Seemed pretty snazzy at the time.

Ellen: In 1968 part of my first professional librarian job was to index periodicals for a quarterly bibliography. We used pre-printed index cards, filled in the info by hand and alphabetized the cards each day. A typist merged the cards from several librarians each quarter and typed it all onto master sheets that were photo-reproduced for the publication. In 1991–92 when laptops were beyond my budget, I lived in a developing country with erratic electricity. I indexed a year’s worth of a newspaper on microfilm, using a hand-crank portable microfilm reader (when the electricity was on). Suitcase space was tight, so I brought 3 x 5 in notepads of thin paper and used both sides for handwritten indexing. Tedious, but there was not much else to do there. Also tedious was keyboarding the thousands of entries to produce the index when I returned to the United States.

Shoshana: How did the popularity of typewriters/word processors/computers/the Internet change the way you index, including average time worked on each project and editing your indexes? How about the advent of indexing software programs?

Linda: As an example of the slower pre-computer pace, we used to have editors write us letters, asking if we were available for a project. We would reply by mail, and then would eventually receive the project by mail or eventually UPS. When doing the pre-computer indexing, the final retyping of the index could take several days, but this was also a way of doing a final check on the index. Losing that review time was a big adjustment when we moved to computers. Also, pre-computer, it was rare to have last-minute revisions, and I think in general the books did not have so many errors too. I don’t miss having to spend the time on filing slips or retyping the final index, and I do appreciate other computer benefits too, such as spellchecking, verifying cross-references, being able to switch to a page order sort at times, and being able to search a file for a term I missed earlier. Those are all very helpful features, but in general my approach to indexing is not that much different from when I was using a typewriter.

Pam: I began using CINDEX software in the early 1990s, about the same time I went online. Naturally, software provides automated ease: allowing a larger proportion of time to be devoted to analysis. Having software alphabetize is still, to me, the largest advantage of software. It’s the sort of thing that a machine does best. Of course, with software, I can constantly check on consistency of entry wording – I edit as I enter. Spellchecking is helpful, but can be a trap. The Internet has proven to be a wonderful research tool. I can now look up obscure terms and usage. Determining which medications are generic and which are ‘brand names’ is wonderful – print lists are always behind the actual formulary. Of course, most of my marketing and client contact is through the Internet.

Shoshana: Kamm, I know you’re not an indexer, but your indexing software, SKY Index, has become one of the ‘big three’ programs in the indexing world. Can you tell us a little about how that came to be?

Kamm: I am a latecomer to the professional indexing world. MACREX was first (I think) and then came CINDEX (again, I think). SKY Index got started by chance. My mother is a genealogist and she has compiled many bibliographies. She used to do the indexes using 3 x 5 in cards which she had my brother and me help sort. She and a hired helper would type the finished index on a typewriter. During my college years she was working on another large index that she had entered into a dBase III program, and she asked me if I could write a program to sort, format and print the index for her. I said yes and wrote a very simplistic dBase III program that did just that. After she finished the book, she said I could sell the program to genealogists, but I said no way because it had not been written with any kind of user interface that was intended for a consumer. She sold some without my permission at a genealogy conference and I was so upset that she sold these programs that weren’t intended for a consumer that I wrote a user interface for the program and that became the first ‘SKY Index’. I gave that updated program to the purchasers for free. For many years it was marketed only to genealogists, but it was clear that market simply was not a good market. I then found out about ‘professional’ indexers and thought I’d give that market a try. In 1998 I sold the first pre-release copy of SKY Index Professional v5.0. I think the rest you probably know.

Shoshana: I can imagine that even today, there are still almost as many ways to index as there are indexers (and I, as a relative newbie, am still figuring out which one is the best). So what do you do? Hard copy or PDF? Use PDFs while indexing or just while editing your completed index? Mark up text first and then enter into software, chapter by chapter, page by page, other? No marking up, just use dual computer screens or windows open? Read the whole book first, just read table of contents, skim book for an idea of general content or just dive in head-first?

Linda: I still have a strong preference for working with a hard copy, and one computer screen. For most books I use the ‘dive in head-first’ method that you mentioned. I will sometimes underline terms that I have indexed. This can help me if I need to go back and correct the index for last-minute text revisions.

Pam: If you are seeking interesting processes, believe it or not, one comes from The Chicago Manual of Style. My first copy was the 12th edition. The indexing chapter was mostly index cards. The editing process detailed was delightful for such an august, esteemed publication. The wording was something like: ‘It may sound funny, but most people don’t have much horizontal desk space. The best way to organize cards is to create alphabetical piles on the floor. The indexer then crawls around the stacks as the cards are edited and placed in new stacks.’ Working on staff at a publisher, I had my stacks on piles of books in the warehouse. At home, the floor stacks and crawling worked fine. I think that process continued through the 13th edition. Ninety percent of my books come to me as PDFs, a form I initially balked at. I still would prefer to have both hard copy and PDF, but that’s mostly a pipe dream. PDFs are most handy for the search capabilities. Since using software, I don’t mark copy. I can always check out a page-order sort. I have definitely found that my memory ability has exploded as an indexer. I call it ‘exercising the memory muscles’. In addition to just the normal memory demands of indexing, I find that not marking copy forces me to concentrate at a level that enhances memory retention. Nothing makes works with contributed chapters easier – indexers just have to slog through and adapt to a plethora of terminology changes. Good copy-editing should take care of this, but that seems another pipe dream in today’s publishing world.

Shoshana: How did you learn how to index?

Pam: I learned by doing and reading indexes. I took no course. The worst thing was that I never got any feedback. I had the feeling that authors and clients were just happy the book was finished and ready to print. I got a lot of thank-you notes, but nothing about pluses and/or minuses.

Shoshana: At what point do you think indexing became a real ‘career’?

Barbara: I can tell you from my experience, there were few people calling themselves indexers before computers came on the scene. When people began looking for occupations to do with computers, many seized upon indexing as an occupation.

Linda: I was recently looking through some of my mom’s papers, and found some from when she started her indexing business in 1944. Her initial marketing efforts included an introductory letter, followed up with a face-to-face visit with editors in many different publishing companies, mostly in New York City and in Philadelphia. Of course, there were a lot more publishing companies then than there are now. Her indexing rate at that time was 3.5 cents per entry. For some projects, such as a large medical encyclopedia, she recruited others to help and split the per-entry rate with them. One interesting thing is that right from the start she recruited others to index with/for her. Eventually she did change to working alone, but I thought that was quite different than most people today would start their indexing business.

Pam: I really began indexing solo in the mid-1990s. I would have preferred combining copy-editing and indexing, but the copy-editing paid so little (valued so little by publishers) I had to drop it. Now, I have several clients who have talked me into copy-editing at a fair hourly rate, but indexing is 70 percent of my billings.

Shoshana: Thanks so much, it was great talking to you!

From talking to these experienced indexers, it seems that it is true what Hazel Bell says in her book Indexers and indexes in fact and fiction (2001):

The computer [is] often fallaciously credited with relieving indexers of the greater part, if not indeed the whole of their labours. Not at all: technology may ease and speed up the formerly manual processes of indexing, and the structural organization of an index, but can take no part in the determination of significance of references or the devising of linguistic terms to encapsulate and express them.

References
Bell, Hazel K. (2001) Indexers and indexes in fact and fiction. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Knight, G. Norman (1979) Indexing, the art of: a guide to the indexing of books and periodicals. London: Allen & Unwin.
Wheatley, Henry Benjamin (1902) How to make an index. London: E. Stock.

Parts of this article were originally published in an indexing column written for Elephant (http://elephant.org.il), an organization for freelance writers in Israel.

Jewish Blogging: the Wave of the Future

I was privileged to participate in the First International Jewish Bloggers Convention, which was hosted by Nefesh b’Nefesh and took place in Jerusalem in August. The convention occurred just weeks after my aliyah, about which I have been writing in my own blog, Hurwitz Family Aliyah Scrapbook (http://hurwitz-aliyah-scrapbook.blogspot.com). I try to keep the blog interesting by combining musings about our aliyah adventure with digital scrapbook techniques.

The response to the convention, expected to be tiny, was anything but—200 people showed up in person and over a thousand (at last count) attended via the live webcast on the NBN website. The “meat ’n’ greet” deli supper felt much like a high school reunion—everyone looking around scanning each other’s name tags, faces occasionally lighting up with recognition and an exclaim of “I read you!”

Several of the evening’s speakers were actually American bloggers who arrived in Israel for the convention in a very interesting way: these high-profile bloggers were each matched up with a person or family on this week’s Nefesh b’Nefesh aliyah flight and will be blogging about their aliyah journeys in the near future.

The first half of the program consisted of a discussion among several panelists who are well-known in the Jewish blogosphere, about ways to increase a blog’s readership and promote ideas. Some of these ideas included adding your blog to Jewish blog aggregators, emailing blog posts to people whom you think will be interested in them (but within reason!), and including your blog URL in your email signature line. Other ways to find readers are to get more involved with the “blogger community” by creating a blogroll, which is a list of your favorite blogs that goes down the side of your own blog, and to comment one another’s posts, which gets your name out there and raises the chances that someone reading your friend’s blog might also read yours. The first panel was interrupted by a surprise speaker: former Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu (only in Israel!), who spoke on the importance of blogging in today’s Jewish world and how it contributes to the future of Israel, Zionism, and the Jewish people. To put a political leader in a room full of such wildly opinionated, not to mention ideologically varied, people that Jewish bloggers are, created quite a stir, but the moderators did their best to keep the focus on blogging and not politics. Nevertheless, Netanyahu was very down-to-earth, had a great sense of humor, and was a welcome addition to the night’s variety of speakers!

After a short comedy performance from popular blogger Frum Satire, a presentation and second set of panelists discussed the importance of creating positive branding of Israel though social networks such as blogs. With the technological advances of today, every Jew has the power to make a difference to the world using the three Ms—magnetize, motivate, and mobilize—through their blogs.

One comment from a panelist that really hit home was that we never know who is reading our blogs and what kind of impact we are having. We can only hope that through blogging we are sending a positive message to the world about Israel and Judaism, one that is not often presented in the news. Blogs represent all walks of life and all types of backgrounds—this is the real Israel, and it’s our job to get the picture of this real Israel out there. All in all it, was a fantastic and informative evening that is sure to give many in the Jewish blogosphere food for thought, and posts, for some time to come.

New CD Review: Rocky the Rabbi

Rocky the Rabbi, Kosher for Passover

Rocky the Rabbi’s latest release, Kosher for Passover, which features traditional Passover tunes done techno-style, was nothing but disappointing. There are only five songs on the entire album, two of which are “extended versions,” which sound exactly like the originals, so there are really only three songs on the album. Rocky’s production company, dna productions, specializes in music for commercials, TV, and movie scores, which this album may be a good fit for; not so much for a library patron looking for new Jewish music. Not recommended.

New CD Review: Yael Naim and David Donatien

Yael Naim and David Donatien

Israeli-French singer Yael Naim, with the help of percussionist and music arranger David Donatien, has put together a delightful collection of pop-jazz-folk ballads, mixing Hebrew, English, and even a little French. The songs reflect a variety of moods and dreams in their sound and lyrics; the album includes Naim’s hit song “New Soul” (featured in the commercial for the Apple Mac-Book Air laptop), the success of which made her the first Israeli solo artist to have a top-ten song in the U.S. A cover of Britney Spears’s hit “Toxic” is a surprising addition to this album, which definitely did not work in Naim’s style, but otherwise a great disc recommended for all types of Jewish libraries.

New CD Review: Amaseffer

Amaseffer, Slaves for Life

Israeli band Amaseffer’s debut album, Slaves for Life, the first part of a trilogy, combines a blend of orchestral and rock music with lyrics taken from the story of the Exodus to create a unique style of film-score music almost-unheard of in the Jewish world. Some listeners may in fact be wondering why it isn’t more popular; rock operas and concept albums, such as Tommy by The Who and Pink Floyd’s The Wall, have been around for decades. The closest thing to this album that I can think of is the soundtrack to The Prince of Egypt. Amaseffer seems to fill a niche in Israeli and Jewish music with a product that is truly amazing. Highly recommended for all types of Jewish library collections.

New Book Review: Army Fatigues

Army Fatigues: Joining Israel’s Army of International Volunteers by Mark Werner

Not content to just sit on the sidelines watching the fate of the Jewish homeland, Army Fatigues author Mark Werner has written a captivating account of his experiences with the Israeli army through Sar-el, an organization that takes volunteers worldwide and puts them on military bases throughout Israel to work with soldiers and other volunteers. In journal format, this book takes the reader through Werner’s background as an American lawyer and son of a Holocaust survivor, living a comfortable life, to his personal experiences of volunteering for two to three weeks at a time in the Israeli Army and Navy during some of the hardest years in Israel’s history. The story relates an emotional journey, which keeps Werner and his fellow volunteers going back again and again, to continue reinforcing their connection to Israel, and also changing people’s perceptions of Israel back in their hometowns. Warning: Once you pick up this book you will find it impossible to put it down! Highly recommended for all types of Jewish libraries.

New Book Release: Why Loyalty Matters

Why Loyalty Matters: The Groundbreaking Approach to Rediscovering Happiness, Meaning and Lasting Fulfillment in Your Life and Work by Timothy Keiningham, Lerzan Aksoy and Luke Williams

Why Loyalty Matters, grounded in scientific research, provides compelling insight into how our loyalties, large and small, lay the foundation for our own happiness, and determine the kind of world we live in. Businesses across the country are suffering in today's rocky economic times, and Why Loyalty Matters offers a convincing call for revolutionary change in the way we view and conduct our professional and personal lives. Renowned loyalty experts Timothy Keiningham and Lerzan Aksoy combine their own groundbreaking research with the leading thinking in philosophy, sociology, psychology, economics and management to provide breakthrough insight into the role that loyalty can and should play in our lives, at home and at work. The book presents evidence that loyalty is the prescription to the emptiness we feel in our lives, and to the increasing fragmentation we see in our communities through countless failing businesses.

Why Loyalty Matters offers a comprehensive guide to understanding what loyalty is, what it isn't and how to unlock its power. Examining the role of loyalty in all aspects of our lives, Why Loyalty Matters offers a new and potentially life-changing way to understand our innate need for loyalty, as well as our ability to sustain loyal relationships throughout our lives. Why Loyalty Matters is both a powerful contribution to the science of loyalty research, and a gift to all those who lament the decline in loyalty we witness all around us and therefore seek to build the foundation for lasting fulfillment.

Why Loyalty Matters is a powerfully relevant work written in a refreshingly accessible form, skillfully composed by talented and expert authors, targeted to a population hungry for its message.