With the freezing Winter weather in some parts of our country, Arizona in April sounds inviting. We’re working and planning for a strong conference. Until then, join us for a new webinar. We look forward to seeing you in Scottsdale for the annual conference.
ASI Webinars: Textbook Indexing with Diana Witt
Call for Submissions for 2019 Excellence in Indexing Award
Call for Nominations for 2019 Hines Award
Sunny Scottsdale to welcome indexers to “Bloom in the Desert”
Upcoming Chapter Events
Chicago-Great Lakes Chapter
Scholarship opportunity
Spotlight
ASI Webinar: Textbook Indexing: Basic skills and guidelines for creating a good textbook index with Diana Witt
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
10 a.m. Pacific, 11 a.m. Mtn., 12 p.m. Central, 1 p.m. Eastern
Diana Witt
Learn more and register on this webpage.
As with other ASI webinars, members of ASI and affiliated indexing associations get a preferred rate, and the recorded webinar is available any time for replay following the live event.
2019 Call for Submissions: ASI Excellence in Indexing Award
Deadline for Nominations is February 22, 2019
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.
The purpose of the award 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).
Read more on the award and the criteria for judging, or link to the submission page.
Call for Nominations for 2019 Hines Award
Deadline for Nominations is February 28, 2019
Diana Witt (l) receives the 2018 Hines Award from previous recipient Carolyn Weaver.
The award will be presented at the ASI national conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, April 25-27, 2019.
Note that the Hines judging process is confidential. Nominees should not be informed that they are being nominated; nor should that information be publicly revealed online prior to the judging.
Information on the award is available here.
Rules and procedure for submitting nominations are available here.
Sunny Scottsdale to welcome indexers to “Bloom in the Desert”
The American Society for Indexing has announced that its 2019 conference will be held in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona. Our conference planning committee reports a strong line-up of sessions for this two-day event. Details will be published soon.
Mark your calendar for April 25-27, 2019 when indexers from across the country will gather in the sunny Southwest for Bloom in the Desert. Good programs, good networking, and good food!
Chapter Events
Chicago/Great Lakes Winter 2019 Workshop
Friday, February 22 and Saturday, February 23, 2019
Newberry Library, Downtown Chicago
The registration deadline for the Chicago-Great Lakes Winter Workshop is February 4. On Friday the schedule includes:
Genealogy Research: Background, Research Materials, and How It Relates to Indexing Projects (follow up from the Fall 2018 Workshop); a complete tour of the Newberry Library's research facility, and time between presentations to wander the library and its current exhibits. Resources for untapped markets in genealogy indexing will be discussed at an open table session.
On Saturday, our sessions are: Building, Marketing & Maintaining Your Business; Art Indexing, Editing and Proofreading; and
Digital Indexing (follow up from the Fall 2018 Workshop).
Please visit the chapter webpage for details and registration information.
DReam to Index Scholarship
The Friends of Dave Ream announce the application period is open for 2019 for newer indexers who plan to attend a national indexing conference to apply for aid from the fund established in memory of Dave Ream, who passed away in late 2017.
For 2019, two scholarships will be awarded of US $500 each. Deadline for applying is April 1, 2019. Winners will be notified by April 3, 2019. This scholarship aid is available to attend a national conference in the United States, Canada, UK, Australia/New Zealand, or South Africa.
Applicants must have completed an indexing course or formal index training (such as a mentorship) in the last five years (January 2014 or later); and have registered and paid to attend the event (proof of registration/payment required in order to be reimbursed).
For more information on the requirements, process of selecting winners, or to download the application form, visit the webpage or contact Enid Zafran with questions.
Spotlight—Deborah Patton
In today’s Spotlight is long-time indexer (and superhero, judging from her photo) Deborah Patton. If you would like to be in the Spotlight or nominate someone, please contact the editor, Ælfwine Mischler.
Where do you live now? Where are you originally from?
I live in Staunton (pronounced ‘Stanton’), Virginia, which is in the Shenandoah Valley between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany Mountains. I’m originally from these mountains (the Appalachian mountain chain) in northeastern Pennsylvania. I lived for nearly 30 years in Baltimore and needed mountains again. Staunton won because it’s more interesting culturally.
What is your educational background?
Bachelor’s degree in political science, followed by a library science degree. I also studied jewelry and small metals/plastics at the Museum of Fine Arts School, Houtson and the Penland School of Crafts, North Carolina. Eventually I found the USDA course.
Do you have any hobbies, travels, volunteer work, or other interesting things to share?
Currently I’m the treasurer of the local Friends of the Library. I’ve volunteered in various capacities for ASI and the Mid-Atlantic Chapter. Currently I’m the registrar for the ASI Excellence in Indexing Award. I’m renovating a garden and am also getting my metals/plastics studio set up again — we’ll see where that goes!
What kind of work did you do before you studied indexing? Are you still doing that or other work in addition to indexing?
I worked in public libraries some until I realized librarians really need to be extroverts. At one point I helped a small college move their donor records to a computerized database which was an excellent precursor to indexing. I should be retired from indexing now, but it’s hard to turn down an interesting project …
When did you start indexing? When did you join ASI?
I joined ASI in the early 1990s about the time I was taking the USDA course.
For you, what is the best advantage of ASI membership?
There are two: face-to-face interaction with colleagues, which has no comparison to listservs, and participating in my professional organization. It’s important to be counted as a professional indexer.
Sometimes we share spectacular entries. I particularly like the first subentry for this one that I wrote for a college orientation handbook:
sleep
eight hours? really? 143
getting the best possible, 145
how to get help with, 145–146
learning and memory and, 145
loss, consequences of, 144
mental health and, 114
And so on.
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