American Society for Indexing — 2015 Conference

Seattle, Washington, April 29–May 1, 2015

The Indexers’ Café

Hotel: We will host the conference at Motif Seattle in the heart of Seattle, Washington, just five minutes’ walk from Pike Place Market. Motif aims to offer an ambiance that reflects the culture of Seattle, with a modern and inviting atmosphere. Contact ASI directly at (480) 245-6750 to get the special room rate of $169.00 per night.

Wednesday, April 29

9am to 5pm: Board Meeting

9am to 3pm: Newbies Class. Enid Zafran. New to Indexing? Don’t really know a cross-reference from a double-post yet? Establish baseline knowledge and hone what you’ve already learned in a hands-on, all-day “Introduction to Indexing” class with an experienced indexer and acclaimed teacher, who has trained many successful indexers.

12noon to 3pm: CINDEX—All About Finding and Replacing. Frances S. Lennie. Often overlooked, the FIND (and the Replace) dialogue box in CINDEX provides sophisticated search options. Along the way we'll look at how to formulate a few simple patterns as well as other features that will make your indexing less laborious and more efficient. Come and find out what you've been missing.

3.30pm to 5pm: Split Sessions
Leverage Technologies' Software for the Indexer. Dave Ream. Dave will demonstrate the suite of indexing programs designed by Leverage Technologies to assist in index production, and discuss any special software needs you may have that he might be able to meet.

Re-using Indexes with TExtract. Harry Bego. This talk, based on real projects, will present several new features of the semi-automatic indexing procedure implemented in TExtract, with a focus on index re-use when republishing. You will learn how to efficiently re-use an existing index when republishing a work in EPUB format. Harry will also demonstrate TExtract's new embedded indexing procedure, enabling easy embedding of an index in a Word document. The procedure is almost identical to the standard procedure for creating an index manuscript.

5pm to 7.00pm: Registration

5.30pm to 6.30pm:
Chapter and SIG leaders’ meetings
ASI Training Course Meeting
Buddy meetup

6.30pm to 7.30pm: Publishers’ Reception with PubWest and Conference Attendees

Thursday, April 30

7.30am to 8.45am: Breakfast

8.30am to 4pm: Registration

9am to 10.45am: Split Sessions
Planning Your Indexing Legacy. Frances S. Lennie. The adage that indexers never die but simply fade away – literally or metaphorically – begs the question about what happens to your ongoing indexes (revision, serial, and cumulative) and the potential impact on clients. A career based on closely-built relationships need not be finite: with some forethought it can be extended indefinitely. This talk will look at ways to gracefully pass the baton to your successor with minimum disruption to the indexing and publication process.

Approaching the Text: The Process of Beginning an Index. Janet Perlman An interactive discussion of the process of starting a new indexing project. Once page proofs arrive, what are your first steps, and then your next steps? New indexers often need help with what to do first – and what not to do. This workshop will explore the process and help newer indexers start a project and be more productive. Experienced indexers will find this workshop an interesting forum for learning how other indexers work. Everyone will benefit from this discussion of indexing approaches.

Thesaurus Creation and Back-of-the Book Indexing Compared. Heather Hedden. Creating a thesaurus (a structured kind of controlled vocabulary or taxonomy used to support indexing and retrieval) in many ways is similar to creating a back-of-the-book index, but there are also subtle, yet significant, differences that might not be readily apparent. This presentation compares key points, including creating multiple points of entry, forming hierarchical structure, and indicating related topics, with examples in all cases. A comparison with periodical indexing is also included. This presentation is based on a 2012 Key Words article. Prior experience in book indexing or thesaurus creation is not required.

10.45am to 11am: Break time

11am to 12.30pm: Annual Meeting, President’s Awards

12.30pm to 2pm: Lunch, Hines Award

2pm to 5pm: Split Sessions
The Naked Indexer. Do Mi Stauber. The Naked Indexer returns! Do Mi Stauber will let you into her brain as she indexes a selection of a scholarly book in real time. Participants will have access to the text as Do Mi explores concepts, creates structure, chooses wordings, changes her mind, and builds an index onscreen in front of your eyes. We will review concepts and terms from Facing the Text and have plenty of time for questions and discussion.

Getting Started In Indexing. Madge Walls. This is a nuts and bolts presentation for beginning indexers who want to get organized and get their job stream flowing, as well as experienced indexers whose business needs a reinvigorating kick start. Topics include office setup, equipment, recordkeeping, marketing plans, fees, indexing agreements, and most of all, where and how to get business when we rarely meet our customers in person and can only build rapport electronically. What works best – phoning or emailing? It depends! Hate phoning strangers? Learn some ways to trick yourself into doing it comfortably. Let’s get ready to get busy, and then get busy!

Topics in Taxonomy Creation. Heather Hedden. Following a quick overview/review of the basics of taxonomy/thesaurus design, this workshop will focus on selected topics, including the creation and wording of terms, hierarchies and polyhierarchies, categories, facets, and an overview of software tools including some demos. There will be some interactive exercises as well as plenty of opportunity for questions and discussion. If you have taken a session with Heather previously, you will find new, more advanced material and examples here.

3pm to 3.15pm Break

6pm to 7pm: Reception

8pm: ASI members who have reserved tickets will attend the Fifth Avenue Theater’s production.

Friday, May 1

7.30am to 8.45am: Breakfast

8.30am to 9:30am: Registration

9am to 10.45am: Split Sessions
Digital Trends Task Force Update Including EPUB3 Update. Dave Ream, Pilar Wyman, and Michele Combs A panel reporting on the efforts of the Digital Trend Task Force's work since the last conference. The EPUB3 Indexes Working Group chairs will also report on the status of the specification and its adoption.

Working Smarter, not Harder, with KPS Indexing Plugins. Lucie Haskins. Lucie considers the KPS plugins a valuable addition to embedded indexing in InDesign and finds herself reaching for them surprisingly often. She appreciates the additional ways that these plugins provide opportunities to explore and view indexes as she builds and edits them. The plugins continue to mature. but they already fit Lucie’s mantra of “work smarter, not harder”! Come to this workshop to discover how each plugin works and personal viewpoints on their benefits and limitations. Leave the workshop with a clear understanding of how they might fit into your embedded indexing process.

Books on Indexing: Reviewing the Old and Meeting the New. Janet Perlman, Nan Badgett, Pilar Wyman, and Margie Towery. Attendees will meet ITI’s newest indexing authors – Nan Badgett, Janet Perlman, and Margie Towery, all of whom have books forthcoming in 2015. Nan’s book, The Accidental Indexer, is due out in the spring of 2015. Janet's and Margie's books are scheduled for later in the year. Information Today's indexing books will be discussed and an annotated list of recommendations will be available. ASI Publications Chair Pilar Wyman will describe the ASI ebook program as well as the process for becoming an ASI author and other books in the pipeline.

10.45am to 11am: Break

11am to 12.30pm: Split Sessions
Indexing Slam! Like a poetry slam!, a series of short presentations to which attendees can respond with their own suggestions and input. Speakers and topics include:

Are You (P)interesting? Sarah Beatty. This presentation describes the advantages of using Pinterest to connect with peers and clients, and tools for meeting the challenges posed by "word-centric" rather than "graphic-centric" sites.
Diacritics Discussion. Judi Gibbs. Diacritics can be a challenge in indexing. This is an opportunity for indexers to discuss problems they have encountered. Judi doesn't have any complete answers, but she would like to start a discussion to draw out what others know or can suggest. She's hoping to attract experienced indexers and newer indexers who are looking for solutions. Attendees can expect to leave with the collective wisdom of the group.
One Is The Loneliest Number: Strategies for Collaboration Among Indexers. Lisa DeBoer. Indexing doesn't have to be a solitary profession. Among the many ways that indexers can work together include participating in e-mail discussion lists and social media, building referral networks, creating long-term mentoring relationships, and getting involved in ASI or other indexing organizations through conferences, chapters, SIGs (special interest groups), or boards. This session will cover tips and tricks for developing and maintaining professional relationships within the indexing community, especially for new indexers.

Embedded Indexing—Important Now, Essential Soon. Kevin Broccoli. Embedded indexing is being requested more and more by publishers. Find out what it is, which tools are used to create them and why they have become so important to publishers. This presentation will also discuss new ways that embedded indexes can be used as an aid in discoverability and marketing of ebooks.

Communicating the Value of Indexing: Perspectives on Networking and Quality Assurance. Beth Chapple, Carrie Wicks, Julie McDonald Zander. How can indexers communicate the importance of indexing to publishers—and, in this changing publishing landscape, often directly to authors? And how can indexers educate editors about indexes? The Northwest Independent Editors Guild co-presents a discussion of what works—and what doesn’t—in creating high-quality back-of-the-book indexes, including networking between editors and indexers, better communication, and more.

12.30pm to 2pm: Lunch with Keynote speaker Karen E. Fisher
and EIS Award

2pm to 5pm: Split Sessions

XML Indexing – Hands on Workshop. Michele Combs. Get hands-on experience with embedded XML indexing. Participants will learn basic XML authoring and validation using commercial XML editing software, how to embed indexing tags in DocBook (a common publishing XML standard), with discussion of how workshop techniques are transferable to other "flavors" of XML as well as tips and tricks for XML indexing in general. Includes a 60-day license of Oxygen XML Author/Editor and supplementary XSL files to assist with error-checking and proofing. Participants should be familiar with some type of markup language (e.g., HTML) but need not be experts. (Note: Participants MUST bring their own laptops and install software prior to the workshop.)

The Logic and Language of Patterns. Scott Smiley. Patterns, or pattern matching, is a powerful tool in indexing software for finding or changing a whole set of entries that matches a particular “shape,” saving you lots of valuable time. But they are sometimes difficult to get your mind around. When can you use a pattern? How do you translate your problem into one? And what about all those darn symbols? We will explore these questions hands-on so that you will then be able to use patterns on your own in CINDEX, SKY Index, or Macrex. Bring your pattern problems, and we'll tackle them together!

Macrex v9. Gale Rhoades. Discover the power and flexibility of Macrex and learn why professional indexers have relied on it for nearly 35 years. Hear how a wide variety of indexes, ranging from BoB to newspapers, magazines, collections, online files, eBooks, and much more are created quickly and with unique control over the output.

3pm to 3.15pm Break

5.30pm to 6.30pm: Closing Reception

Saturday, May 2

Morning: Culinary tour of Pike Place Market
Afternoon: Seattle Underground tour

Important Note: This schedule is subject to change. Please be sure to check for updates closer to the conference dates.

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