August appears to be a quieter month, but there are still events in the making and work going on behind the scenes. Happy indexing!
ASI Conference Survey for 2018 and Future Venues
Chapter Events — Upcoming and Recent
SIG News
Spotlight—Jim Fuhr
Policy on Announcements
ASI Conference Survey for 2018 and Future Venues
We would love to hear from you about what you are looking for at future ASI conferences!
In planning ASI's 2018 Conference and future conferences, we want to ensure we choose the venues that best suit our members' preferences. We have some exciting options, and we need to hear from you in order to create the best experience possible.
Only 12 questions, this survey will take you less than three minutes, and your insights really help us to plan future events. Click here to take the survey. Be sure to choose Done so that your responses are submitted.
Thank you for your feedback! It's important to us.
Chapter Events — Upcoming and Recent
Chicago/Great Lakes Lunch Chat
Saturday, August 5, at 11:30 a.m.
Hay Caramba Mexican Restaurant
122 S. Prospect Avenue, Park Ridge, Illinois
All are invited to this informal luncheon. Email the chapter for more information.
Pacific Northwest (PNW) Chapter Fall Meeting (one-day conference)
The fall PNW conference is September 16 in Vancouver, Washington, and the early registration discount is good until August 31, with guaranteed hotel discount pricing good through August 16. Also if you are a new indexer and want to apply for the Sherry Smith Award, the deadline for applications is also August 16. Details can be found in the June newsletter or at www.pnwasi.org under the “meetings” tab. Please contact Maria Sosnowski if you have any questions
WNY Chapter Luncheon
L to R: Colleen Dunham, Lisa DeBoer (WNY Chapter president), Eileen Allen, Maria Sullivan, and Frances Lennie (WNY Chapter treasurer, 2015–2017)
The Western New York Chapter met at Rio Tomatlan in Canandaigua, NY, on July 22. Over a delicious Mexican lunch, we discussed a number of topics, including indexing techniques, the ASI Annual Conference in Portland, Maine, and the location of next year’s conference, which will be somewhere in the central part of the US. Detroit was suggested as a possible site for future conferences. Frances Lennie shared stories about the Society of Indexers’ Oxford Symposium and exhibit on the Book Index at the Bodleian Library, and praised Sean Silver’s talk on the conceptual aspects of indexing. Colleen Dunham and Maria Sullivan talked about their experiences in legal indexing in the days of manual indexing on cards.
Lisa DeBoer, chapter president, reported on the current chapter status information. Frances Lennie has resigned from the treasurer position as she will be traveling for the next year. Lisa is continuing as chapter president for this year, and is hoping that other chapter members will take over the chapter leadership next year. The WNY Chapter fall meeting is in the planning stages, and the topic will be embedded indexing
Thanks to all who came out for a delightful meeting!
PNW Chapter Newsletter
The summer issue of the Pacific Northwest (PNW) Chapter newsletter is now available online.
SIG News
Two Special Interest Groups have new leaders. Heather Hedden is the new manager for the Digital Publications Indexing SIG, replacing Steve Ingle. Over a decade ago Heather had been manager of its predecessor Web Indexing SIG. Moira Calder is the new manager of the Periodical/Database Indexing SIG, replacing Christine Karpeles. Moira is currently also the manager of the Taxonomies & Controlled Vocabularies SIG, which she has led for the past two years.
Spotlight
In the Spotlight this month is Jim Fuhr, the comanager of the Chicago/Great Lakes Chapter. Watch for Jim’s article on the Chinese indexers’ visit to Chicago in the upcoming Key Words.
If you would like to be in the Spotlight or nominate someone, contact the See Also editor, Ælfwine Mischler.
Where do you live now? Where are you originally from? Do you share your home with pets or family?
Born in Arkansas, raised partly in the Mississippi Delta, partly in Southern California. Now live in Evanston, Illinois with my wife of 17 years. I am here because I have access to Northwestern University’s superb library.
What is your educational background?
PhD in comparative literature from Indiana University with minors in art history and film history. Dissertation: “Klänge: The Poetry of Wassily Kandinsky.” Languages studied: French (three years in high school, more in college and continuing), Russian, Italian, Ancient Greek.
Do you have any hobbies, travels, volunteer work, or other interesting things to share?
I am an unapologetic Francophile who is (almost) fluent in French. (The “fdl” in my website, fdl-indexing.com, stands for Fleur de Lys.) For two years, I volunteered in the Special Collections Department of Northwestern University translating and cataloging 1,000 posters from the Franco-Prussian war and the Paris Commune of 1870–1871. Primary interest: Paris and Versailles during the French Revolution. I have over 5,000 photographs, taken while tracking down sites and vestiges of the Revolution, my way of touring the city. However, I will go anywhere in France any time the opportunity presents itself. Last French-related activity: delivering a lecture in French about the large-scale sculptures sited on the grounds of the Domaine Forget in Quebec. The Domaine is a Tanglewood-like music performance venue in La Malbaie.
What kind of work did you do before you studied indexing? Are you still doing that or other work in addition to indexing?
Very lucky in this regard. First job out of college was as staff lecturer in the Department of Museum Education at the Art Institute of Chicago. I applied during a near-total eclipse of the sun, on purpose. (I thought it was as good a time as any, and better than most, to go in.)
Subsequently, I was director of exhibits in an art gallery in Chicago that was owned by several sculptors working mainly in large scale, some internationally known. After that, I started a coast-to-coast fine-art shipping business, The Black Truck, which I ran for seven years. (I have driven across United States in one direction or another over 200 times.) It’s a terrifying way to make a living: a truck full of art works valued at about two million dollars was stolen in New York City. The good news: 80% was recovered.
Subsequently, I taught English as a second language for four years.
When did you start indexing? When did you join ASI?
After completing two indexing courses — the first by Fred Leise here in Chicago, the second the Berkeley course taught by Sylvia Coates — I started indexing in 2007. (Personally, I feel that taking two courses is advisable.) Indexing can be a portable job, and my thought at that time was to be able to work from such a place as Paris, maybe? That hasn’t worked out, but the income helps me to travel there.
For you, what is the best advantage of ASI membership?
ASI membership helps ratify one’s activities and standing as an indexer. You are in the good company of professionals who are generous in sharing valuable information of many kinds and for whom membership is a testimony to their seriousness and commitment. Furthermore, my workload has increased lately and I continue to receive requests for indexes that I cannot take on due to prior commitments. When this happens, I go to a template that I have written that refers the author or editor directly to the search field in the Indexer Locator on the ASI website in order to help them find indexers whose interests and skills most closely relate to their specific interests or needs.
Membership in ASI is also a noteworthy adjunct to one’s résumé/website.
Policy on Announcements
We recently received a request to clarify our policy regarding announcements that appear in See Also. Going forward, the policy will be as follows.
Individuals or organizations with announcements of interest to indexers—regarding upcoming conferences, calls for papers or proposals, competitions and awards, major software upgrades, courses, etc.—may submit these announcements for inclusion in one issue of See Also at no cost. Arrangements for more than one appearance can be made in keeping with our advertising policies. This policy does not apply to our chapters or affiliate organizations (appearing on the ASI home page).
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