Below are titles of articles and books I recommend for further reading on topics about which students have mentioned that they'd like to read more. If there are articles or books that you've found particularly useful, e-mail me and tell me about them (be sure to include the topics they cover). NOTE:Because Indexing Books by Nancy Mulvany is the required textbook for the courses I teach, I'm not listing specific chapters from that text here. Remember, reading it should be your priority for learning indexing techniques.

General

• Fetters, Linda K.. Handbook of Indexing Techniques, FimCo Books, 1999. ISBN 0-929599-04-7. This is a very good, concise book for folks not sure they're ready to invest in an indexing class yet. It has very practical information, as well as bibliographies at the end of every chapter!
• Smith, Sherry and Kari Kells. Inside Indexing: The Decision-Making Process. Northwest Indexing Press, 2005. ISBN: 0977103501
• Spencer, Dawn. Indexing at Suite101.com. Definitely visit this site. Every page is packed with useful information. Careful, you'll be tempted to print almost every page.
• Stauber, Do Mi. Facing the Text: Content and Structure in Book Indexing. In this book based on her workshops of the same title, Stauber gives real-life examples of how she makes decisions during indexing. Because it's pricey, many folks are simply borrow copies from friends or asking their libraries to borrow them through interlibrary borrowing. It's worth looking through to see if you want to buy a copy.
• Stephenson, Mary Sue . Indexing Resources on the WWW. The page on Indexers and Indexing is especially useful!
• Wellisch, Hans H.. Indexing from A to Z. This book is one that should be on your shelf. It's useful not only to new indexers, but to seasoned professionals, as well.
• Kells, Kari. Other Indexers on the Web. Look here to browse information other indexers have made publicly available. Get ideas for resumes, presentation of client lists, etc.

Procedures of indexing

• Booth, Pat F. "How we index: six ways to work" The Indexer v.20 n.2 p.89-92.
• Fetters, Linda K.. Handbook of Indexing Techniques, FimCo Books, 1999. ISBN 0-929599-04-7. Chapter 3, "Writing the Index," is especially useful.
• Kells, Kari."How do I index thee? Indexers count the ways" in Keywords: the newsletter of the American Society of Indexers. This two-part article was published in the April-June 2004 and in October-December issues.
• Lancaster, F. W. Indexing and Abstracting in Theory and Practice, University of Illinois, 1991. ISBN 0-87845-083-1. Sections "Steps in subject indexing", "Aboutness", "Translation", "Controlled Vocabularies" (pages 8-14).
• Towery, Margie. "ABC's of Indexing" Key Words v.6 n.3 p.13-14

Selecting and phrasing entries

• Coates, Sylvia "Term Selection: Putting Humpty Dumpty Together, At Last" Key Words v.9 n.5 (Sept/Oct 2001) p.145-147.
• Cohen, Barbara E. "A Less Than Useful Index" Key Words v.6 n.5 p.15-18.
• Fetters, Linda K.. Handbook of Indexing Techniques, FimCo Books, 1999. ISBN 0-929599-04-7. Chapter 3, "Writing the Index," is especially useful.
• Lancaster, F. W. Indexing and Abstracting in Theory and Practice, University of Illinois, 1991. ISBN 0-87845-083-1. Section titled "Factors affecting the quality of indexing" (pages 79-85)
• Langridge, D. W. Subject Analysis: Principles and Procedures, Bowker-Saur, 1989. ISBN 0-408-03031-3. (Because this book is written for librarians and folks working in knowledge management in general, its perspective is a blend of theory and practice. It is a wonderful work if you enjoy reading more about the applied theory of subject/content analysis!)
• Smith, Sherry and Kari Kells. “Phrasing” in Inside Indexing: The Decision-Making Process. Northwest Indexing Press, 2005. ISBN: 0977103501.
• Weinberg, Bella Hass "Exhaustivity of Indexes: Books, Journals, and Electronic Full Text" Key Words v.7 n.5 p.1+.
• Wellisch, Hans H. "Aboutness and Selection of Topics" Key Words v.4 n.2 p.7-9. This topic comes up the discussion lists from time-to-time, especially on indexstudents and INDEX-L. Search through the archives to read a variety of viewpoints. There was an especially useful discussion on INDEX-L that began with the subject "Do ya think the author prepared the index" starting on 05/07/2006. (Search the INDEX-L archives for this note) It continued with the subjects "Indexers' language" "Indexers' language, further" and "Terms used in indexes"

Exhaustivity of indexes (over-indexing/under-indexing)

• Weinberg, Bella Hass "Exhaustivity of Indexes: Books, Journals, and Electronic Full Text" Key Words v.7 n.5 p.1+.

Software reviews and advice

Giving advice on which of the dedicated indexing software packages that one should buy is tricky. My quick advice is that you can't go wrong if you buy one of the three main programs: Macrex, Cindex, and SkyIndex Professional. All three have the crucial bells & whistles, but they have vastly different interfaces. All three vendors have demo/student versions that are either free or are much less expensive than the full versions. I highly recommend that you get demo copies of all three (or at least watch people using each) before you invest in one. You want to choose the software that is most intuitive and comfortable. Or at least choose the one that is the least frustrating for you. Once you see the three demos, you'll probably have a clear favorite. Choosing something that isn't intuitive or that feels clunky to you will cause you lots of frustration later on.

• Software for Indexing, edited by Sandi Schroeder , 2003. Information Today Inc. available through Information Today Inc., ASI's official publisher.
• Discussion list archives. This topic comes up fairly regularly on the discussion lists, particularly indexstudents and INDEX-L. Search through the archives to read postings that reveal a variety of viewpoints.

Freelance and small business issues

• American Society of Indexers "1997 Professional Activities and Salary Survey" Key Words v.5 n.3&4 p.37-44.
• Coates, Sylvia "Five Fatal Myths of Indexing" Key Words v.7 n.4 p.1+.
• Coates, Sylvia "Keeping Editors Happy" Key Words v.1 n.6 p.8-9.
• Jacobs, Christine M., Cynthia Weber and Sunday Oliver "Charge!" Key Words v.1 n.9 p.8-11.
• Mackay, Harvey Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty: The Only Networking Book You'll Ever Need , Doubleday, 1997. ISBN 0385485433 (hardcover) or ISBN 0385485468 (paperback) (recommended by Yves Jeaurond on INDEX-L 6-8-99).
• Marketing your Indexing Services ISBN: 0-936547-20-0, available through Information Today Inc., ASI's official publisher.
• Office of Citizen Services and Communications, U.S. General Services Administration FirstGov for the Self-Employed FirstGov.
• Okazaki, Maxine Re: Full-time work, part-time indexing, note posted to INDEX-L on Fri, 8 Oct 1999. (Search the INDEX-L archives for this note)
• Pearlman, Janet "The Business Side " Key Words v.6 n.2 p.14-20.
• Richardson, Bob "An Irreverent Note on Indexing" Key Words v.7 n.4 p.9-10
• Rotondo, Susan "The Business of Being in Business" Key Words v.3 n.4 p.19-25.
• Spencer, Dawn. Indexing at Suite101.com. This site is particularly strong in the freelance & business areas.
• Starting an Indexing Business ISBN: 0-936547-20-0, available through Information Today Inc., ASI's official publisher.

Embedded and online indexing

• Beyond book indexing: How to Get Started in Web Indexing, Embedded Indexing, and Other Computer-Based Media, edited by Diane Brenner and Marilyn Rowland, 2000. Information Today Inc. ISBN 1573870811 available through Information Today Inc., ASI's official publisher.
• Fetters, Linda K.. Handbook of Indexing Techniques, FimCo Books, 1999. ISBN 0-929599-04-7. Chapter 7, "Indexing Special Formats," has a section for Electronic documents and one for Web Indexing that are good overviews of issues related to these topics.
• Maislin, Seth What Exactly Is "Online Indexing"? ... And Why Shouldn't I Call It That?
• Moncrief, Lynn "Indexing Inferno" Key Words v.1 n.9 p.6-7.
• Wright, Jan C. "How to index online" The Indexer v.20 n.3 p.115-120.
• Mauer, Peg "Embedded indexing: What is it and how do I do it?" Key Words v.6 n.1 p.14-15.
• Mauer, Peg "Embedded indexing". 2001. Presented at STC's 50th Annual Conference .
• The Society for Technical Communication's Indexing SIG has some articles available for download.
• University of British Columbia's School of Library, Archival and Information Studies Indexing the WWW. Links to resources on the web about web site indexing are organized in the following categories: WWW Indexing; Web Site Indexes; Indexes to Books, Journals & Other Documents; Metadata Links on the WWW; and SGML, XML, EAD & TEI.

Periodical indexing

• Mulvany, Nancy and Dorothy Thomas "Periodical Indexing: Design, Management, and Pricing" Managing large indexing projects, 1994. (Based on presentations given at the 24th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Indexers, 1992.)
• Peterson, Candace "Newspaper Indexing" Managing large indexing projects, 1994. (Based on presentations given at the 24th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Indexers, 1992.)
• Wellisch, H.H. "Book and periodical indexing. Perspectives in indexing." Journal of the American Society for Information Science, v.45, no.8: 620-627.
• Authex Plus software for periodical indexing. (I hear this software is difficult to use, be sure to compare its demo to those of other indexing software packages.)
• Discussion list archives. This topic comes up occasionally on the discussion lists, check indexstudents and INDEX-L. Search through the archives to read postings related to periodical indexing. Be creative with your search terms to get more hits: newspaper, magazine, journal, periodical, newsletter, etc.
• British Standard Recommendations for preparing indexes to books, periodicals and other documents. BS3700:1988.

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