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2019 Call for Submissions: ASI Excellence in Indexing Award

By on January 5, 2019 in News

Indexer Richard Genova receives the 2017 Excellence in Indexing Award from Joan Shapiro, who served on the judging committee. Sandra Gach (right) represents publisher LexisNexis.

Are you especially proud of an index you wrote for a book that was published last year? Then consider submitting it for the 2019 ASI Excellence in Indexing Award. Nominations for the award are welcome from indexers or publishers and will be accepted through February 22, 2019.

The ASI Award recognizes the normally anonymous indexers and the publishers who provide high-quality indexes to serve their readers. The indexer of the winning index receives $1,000 from ASI and a certificate. The publisher of the book is also recognized with a certificate.

This prestigious award was established in 1978 as the ASI/H.W. Wilson Award to honor excellence in indexing of an English language monograph or other non-serial print work published in the United States in the previous year (2018 for the 2019 judging). In 2011, the H.W. Wilson Company merged with EBSCO Publishing, and the award was renamed the ASI/EIS Publishing Award for Excellence in Indexing in late 2013. In 2016, the award was again renamed as the ASI Excellence in Indexing Award when EBSCO withdrew funding for the award.

Its purpose is two-fold: for indexers, to provide and publicize models of excellence in indexing; for publishers, to encourage greater recognition of the importance of quality in book indexing.

Books with a 2018 copyright date, or those with a 2019 copyright date in distribution prior to December 31, 2018, are eligible (proof of distribution date is required).

The judges are interested in seeing indexes that address the text with high standards of index quality and are well-typeset, providing the user with easy, excellent access to the material in the book. ASI Award books serve as models for the profession.

Judging criteria, information on the judging process, FAQs, as well as submission guidelines and form are all available here. The 2019 award will be presented at the Annual Conference of the American Society for Indexing, April 25–27, in Scottsdale, Arizona.

In a change from previous practice, all indexers who submit an index will be provided with a summary report of the judges’ review of their index.

If you have specific questions about the eligibility of an index for the award, please email the Registrar.

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