The American Society for Indexing (ASI) has designated November 18 as National Indexing Day to celebrate the making and using of indexes.
Indexing is a largely hidden and important part of the publishing industry. Indexes are created for print publications such as books and periodicals and for media such as websites, ebooks and other digital publications.
Indexers provide access to published information. Indexers work within indexing guidelines and procedures while adapting to ever-evolving forms of technology. Indexers analyze text and make multiple judgement calls regarding placement and use of terms for the index. They use synonyms to enable access for various readers, and they care about reflecting the author’s message.
This year, the American Society for Indexing (ASI) has spent a significant amount of time and resources investigating whether artificial intelligence (AI)-based large language models (LLMs) are capable of providing indexes that meet the three criteria for a viable index: completeness (an index must guide the reader to all indexable information in the book), navigability (an index must guide the reader to subtopics and related topics), and accuracy (an index must not contain false or inaccurate information).
At ASI, we believe that indexes are more than a systematic listing of words, names, ideas, and concepts. They are artfully crafted with care and precision. In our white paper, “LLM-Generated Book Indexes: Can They Replace Professionally Created Indexes?” we explored LLM-based tools’ ability to take on this task.
What we found was clear. Although AI is evolving at a rapid pace, it is not currently able to produce adequate indexes that meet the criteria outlined above. In addition, AI-generated indexes required skilled and trained indexers to use human judgment to manually check the work for errors, hallucinations (fabricated, non-existent information), and omissions. This added time and cost to the index creation, making the overall investment greater than hiring a human from the start.
As the technology grows and changes, ASI will continue to revisit AI’s capabilities to ensure that publishers and authors can make well-informed decisions, grounded in both innovation and respect for the value of human expertise.
ASI’s AI webpage links to the white paper that supports the above conclusions, as well as to ASI’s statement on AI, recommendations for publishers, and reviews of AI-powered indexing tools.
On this National Indexing Day, ASI invites you to join us in recognizing that as technology advances, the skill and judgment of professional indexers remain essential to the publishing process.
Indexing is international in scope with indexing associations worldwide in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, China, and Ireland.
The American Society for Indexing is a leader in providing continuing education for indexers through webinars, online learning courses, and conferences. ASI advocates, educates, and provides the central resource for indexing in the United States.
Please join us in celebrating ASI’s National Indexing Day on November 18 with your tweets, posts, and comments!
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