ASI News
—Indexing Place-names correctly is March webinar focus
—Who deserves your nomination for the Hines Award?
—Join crew to welcome new ASI members
—Participate in ASI discussion list
—Indexers take a break on the Playground
—Explore CINDEX through webinar replay
—Did You Know
Chapters and SIGS
—Chicago-Great Lakes Chapter to gather online February 7
—How ASI members can join a chapter
—Special Interest Groups plan February meetings
Associated Industry News
—ISC/SCI accepts submissions for excellence award
—Read free issue of The Indexer
Spotlight on Matthew Krecic
ASI News
Indexing Place-names correctly is March webinar focus
ASI's upcoming webinar—"Indexing Geographic Place-names"—offers indexers a chance to deepen their understanding of place-names and how to index them. The webinar will be held March 13, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. Pacific (1:00 p.m. Eastern).
Presenter Bill Wheaton, a geospatial scientist, will focus on information and tools to get place-names right, exploring:
- The authoritative and non-authoritative place-name systems and how to use them.
- How to handle changes in place-names in indexes.
- Determining if a place has a new name and the major drivers behind such changes.
- Indexing place-names, compared to indexing personal names.
- Sources to use to qualify an obscure place-name used by an author.
Click to register and get more details about the webinar and presenter.
Who deserves your nomination for the Hines Award?
Do you know someone who has given unstintingly of their time and talents to ASI? Then consider nominating them for the 2024 Hines Award.
The award, named for ASI founding member Theodore C. Hines, recognizes those who have made exceptional contributions to ASI and to the indexing profession.
Nominees should demonstrate a long-term and ongoing commitment through service as an officer, as a board member, or in other leadership roles at the national level and/or within chapters and SIGs. Other contributions worthy of note include active participation in national and regional conferences, website management, publications, committees, educational activities, etc.
The person submitting the nomination should also solicit letters of recommendation to supplement the nomination. The letters and nomination combined should demonstrate the breadth and length of a nominee's service and should detail the contributions made by the nominee to ASI. Please see full rules and procedures here.
Nominations, or any questions, can be sent to Hines Committee chairperson Fred Leise until March 24, 2024. The award, if given, will be presented at the ASI Annual Meeting.
Join crew to welcome new ASI members
Greet new ASI members by serving on the Membership Committee—which is looking for volunteers.
In this position, you would contact new members to welcome them and answer any questions they have about ASI, and learn how they became interested in indexing. Each committee volunteer does this once a year for two consecutive months.
Email chairperson Mamta Jha if you can help, and she will share all the details.
Participate in ASI discussion list
One of the benefits of ASI membership is the ASI Google Group discussion list. Members have to opt in to join the group.
The list is moderated by former ASI president Michele Combs, who explains how it works:
ASI members can post to the list and receive list messages via email.
Full details are available for ASI members by logging in and visiting this page.
Indexers take a break on the Playground
ASI hosted its second online Indexing Playground on January 24. The theme was geographic regions, with individual rooms for: Northwest, Southwest, Northeast, South Central & East, Midwest, and Outside the United States.
Here is the reflection from Heidi Martin Winston.
"Indexers from New England, New York City area and upstate New York met in the Northeast breakout room of the Indexing Playground, where we started by comparing notes of frigid weather conditions and rates of freezing rain and snow. We agreed that geography was largely irrelevant in the digital world, as long as we had reliable internet connectivity. At the same time, there were quite a few stories about very local opportunities—ones that arose through, for example, serendipitous meetings in the stairwell of a college building, or through a casual remark overheard by a friend of an author in need of an indexer. There were several deeply experienced indexers present who were generous in their time and advice to those of us starting out, pointing out the many ways we can leverage past work experience and contacts to find work. As provisional leader of ASI's New York City Chapter, it was gratifying for me to see quite a few of my neighbors who voiced interest in reviving the chapter, and Peter Rooney volunteered to follow up with emails. After about an hour, we reconvened with the rest of the country and beyond (including one New Zealander), to discuss future Playground topics (such as SIGs) and scheduling (it was agreed quarterly gatherings seemed best)."
Explore CINDEX through webinar replay
Maria Sullivan is a longtime indexer and CINDEX user who also provides support for the software's users through its owner, Scribendi.ai. During ASI's January 17 webinar—"CINDEX Streamlining and Refining"—she shared some of her expertise for both Windows and Mac users.
Maria emphasized the importance of exploring the software and urged users to read the manual—which is available on the hard drive where CINDEX is installed. "It's not terribly heavy reading . . . Look it over, read it over. Find out what CINDEX can do."
During the webinar, she demonstrated:
- The in-application Help functions and how to use them.
- Keyboard shortcuts and Hot Keys.
- Character map.
- Reconciling headings.
- Importing and splitting entries.
She also discussed the range of support available, through online discussion groups as well as Scribendi's tech support.
The webinar is available for replay for those who registered but is also available for purchase.
Did You Know
The ASI website has a robust list of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion resources, available here.
The resources are helpful in deepening knowledge and understanding of gendered language, use of disability terminology, and indexing names correctly.
Please check out this valuable resource and more on ASI's Reference Shelf.
Chapters and SIGS
Chicago-Great Lakes Chapter to gather online February 7
The Chicago-Great Lakes Chapter of ASI will meet on Wednesday, February 7, 2024. It will be held via Zoom and will start at 4:30 p.m. Central time.
Since this is the first time the chapter has met in a while, the meeting will focus on the return to activities and give members a chance to meet or to renew connections. Chapter leader Matthew Krecic hopes to have an in-person chapter meeting in Chicago during the summer.
Chapter members who are interested should send their RSVP to Matthew. Please include your name, city/state, phone number, and email address. A Zoom link will be sent to registrants a day before the meeting.
How ASI members can join a chapter
ASI members can join a chapter at any time, and your first chapter is free with membership. Select it at the time of your annual renewal. Additional chapter memberships are $14 per year.
Information about all of ASI's chapters can be found here.
Special Interest Groups plan February meetings
The Digital Publications Indexing SIG will meet online on February 8, 2024, at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time/noon Eastern time. Visit DPI’s website or more information about the group. Contact Pilar Wyman with questions.
The History/Archaeology Special Interest Group will meet online on February 23, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. Visit the H/A SIG's website for information about joining, or check out SIG's discussion group. Email Vickie Jacobs with questions.
Information about all of ASI’s SIGs is available here.
Please share news about your SIG with See Also.
Associated Industry News
ISC/SCI accepts submissions for excellence award
ISC/SCI is accepting submissions for its 2024 Ewart-Daveluy Award for Excellence in Indexing. The deadline is March 15, 2024.
The contest period covers indexes published in 2022 and 2023 by indexers who are Canadian citizens, a permanent resident of Canada, or those who were ISC/SCI members when the index was created.
The application and all information can be found here.
Read free issue of The Indexer
The March 2021 issue of The Indexer is available free through its publisher, Liverpool University Press. This issue of the international journal of indexing includes articles by Peter Rooney on creating an index for the Robert Mueller report (2019), and by Ælfwine Mischler on indexing Arabic names, as well as regular features such as Book Reviews and Indexes Reviewed.
LUP offers a free issue of its journals each year, which you can browse through here.
Spotlight on Matthew Krecic
This month's Spotlight is on Matthew Krecic, owner of K-File Medical Writing and Editing Services, LLC.
If you would like to be in the Spotlight, or would like to nominate someone for it, please contact Laurie Hlavaty.
Where do you live now? Where are you originally from? Do you share your home with pets or family?
I have lived in Chicago for four years. I am originally from Cleveland, and my parents still live there. I share my home with an 11-year-old cat—PufChik. I rescued her a year ago. She had been at the shelter for three months, and I felt bad for her.
What is your educational background?
I am a perpetual student: BS in biology at Lake Erie College (east of Cleveland); DVM at Ohio State University; MS in veterinary medical science at Mississippi State University; and an MBA at the University of Florida.
Do you have any hobbies, travels, volunteer work, or other interesting things to share?
I am an avid reader. At any one time, I am reading three books. Like a lot of people, I am writing fiction and nonfiction stories and a novel. My motto is taken from an old US Armed Forces commercial: “[I] do more before 9 a.m. than what most people do all day.” I am an early riser.
What kind of work did you do before you studied indexing? Are you still doing that or other work in addition to indexing?
I have been and still am a jack-of-all trades. I currently work full time as a manager of publications and medical communications, in which I write manuscripts and abstracts, and create posters and PowerPoint slide decks. The work is in the endocrinology area and coincidentally includes products for diseases that are common to dogs, which as a veterinarian I have diagnosed and treated. Also, I am a grant writer for PAWS Chicago, one of the largest private no-kill animal shelters in the Midwest. I am able to bridge a gap others may have in establishing a connection between animal shelter medicine work and the types of grants for which PAWS Chicago is a great fit. At the shelter and community-based events, I also help with no-cost pet wellness examinations and vaccinations and with care for unwell sheltered dogs and cats.
What is a favorite strategy to help motivate or inspire when you are feeling stuck during a work project?
I think how I structure my day helps. I start work early, soon after awakening, for about two or three hours and then take a break to exercise and simultaneously watch CNN, a DP World Tour professional golf tournament (I don't play golf at the moment, but I like seeing the golf course and its surroundings as well as hear the sounds of nature in the background), or The Price is Right: The Barker Era TV channel (comfort TV from the 1980s for me). Then, I take a shower and I am ready to resume work.
When did you start indexing? When did you join ASI?
I am still learning indexing and joined ASI in mid-2022. I hope to be able to succeed as an indexer of veterinary medicine or other medicine textbooks and nonfiction books.
For you, what is the best advantage of ASI membership?
Access: to other indexers, including those who are also learning indexing; to educational materials, including the ASI course (in progress for me) and archived and live webinars.
Items to be considered for the See Also newsletter should be submitted by the 15th of the month before publication. For March 2024 issue, please email SeeAlsoEditor@asindexing.org by February 15. Thank you.
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