ASI News
—Welcome, new members: Learn about ASI
—Upcoming open board positions
—Course training instructors sought
—Key Words takes up comic indexing
—Update ASI mailing address
—AI Committee tests newest LLM indexes
Did You Know?
—Joining a chapter
Associated Industry News
—ISC/SCI welcomes submissions for Ewart-Daveluy Award
Business and Marketing
—Pick a planner
Spotlight on Carol Reed
ASI News
Welcome, new members: Learn about ASI
New ASI members are invited to attend a virtual meet and greet on January 21, 2026, at 1:00 Eastern time.
In addition to the opportunity to meet fellow indexers, new members will learn about all about ASI, including:
- How membership benefits can help you grow your career
- How to access ASI resources
- How you can be involved in ASI and why you should be
- Who to contact when you have questions
Watch your inbox for the Zoom link or request to join by emailing Gwen Henson.
Upcoming open board positions
ASI’s Nominating Committee welcomes your interest and input in filling four vacant seats on the 2026–2027 Board of Directors. Candidates are needed for the following positions:
- President-elect
- Secretary
- Directors-at-Large (two)
The president-elect attends all board meetings, serves as president the following year (2027–2028), and then as immediate past president, chairing the Nominating Committee—a three-year commitment in all. The secretary and directors positions are three-year terms.
Responsibilities of all offices include participating in quarterly board meetings, acting as a liaison between the board and their assigned ASI committee(s), and contributing to other organizational goals and projects of interest. Full details on officer qualifications and duties can be found in the ASI bylaws.
If you can imagine serving ASI in one of these roles, or know of someone else whose abilities and experience might enable them to contribute in a meaningful way to our organization, contact Past President Shelley Quattrocchi by January 16, 2026.
Course training instructors sought
ASI is seeking several instructors for its new indexing training course, the details of which will be announced soon.
Suitable instructor candidates will have significant indexing experience, good communication skills, be comfortable using technology, and have a desire to help new indexers learn the craft of indexing.
Each instructor will be assigned between one and ten students enrolled in one of the four course modules and guide the students from the beginning of a course module through its completion (students are given six months to complete each module). Instructor responsibilities include:
- Monitoring student progress and reaching out if concerns arise.
- Responding to student questions in a timely manner.
- Grading practice and exam indexes and providing feedback.
- Sharing responsibilities for monthly office hours (to be held one hour each month with instructors taking turns holding the office hours).
- Sharing responsibilities of overseeing the student forum to ensure appropriate discussion.
Instructors are compensated at a flat rate per student per module. For all the details on the qualifications, responsibilities, and compensation for the position, click here.
To apply, please submit a letter of interest and resume by January 15, 2026.
Key Words takes up comic indexing
The winter issue of Key Words looks at indexing comics with Kelly Jones and Jolanta Komornicka—tackling the special considerations needed for both comics themselves and books about comics. There are several articles on AI, one by Elizabeth Bartmess on the George Washington University Ethics in Publishing Conference 2025 and one from the ASI AI Committee. There is also a look at a rare tool catalogue index from 1747, and Amy Hall logs a review for the Business Bookshelf.
Update ASI mailing address
ASI has a new mailing address, effective immediately. When sending any correspondence or remitting payments, please mail to:
American Society for Indexing
PO Box 24588
Tempe, AZ 85285
The ASI office has not moved; only the mailing address has changed.
AI Committee tests newest LLM indexes
The AI Committee has released a supplement to its white paper on artificial intelligence and indexing. The committee finds that while the current generation of large language models (LLM) underindex less severely than the previous generation, they have issues with navigability, excessive subheadings, and accuracy.
Full details can be found here.
Did You Know?
Joining a chapter
ASI members can join a chapter at any time, but your first chapter is free with membership. Select it at the time of your annual renewal. Additional chapter membership would be $14 per year.
Information about all of ASI’s chapters can be found here.
Associated Industry News
ISC/SCI welcomes submissions for Ewart-Daveluy Award
Submissions are being accepted for ISC/SCI’s Ewart-Daveluy Award for Excellence in Indexing 2026.
The Canadian indexing society points out:
- There are no restrictions to the subject matter or genre of the indexed book.
- Submitted indexes must have been published in 2024 or 2025.
- Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada or those who were a member of ISC/SCI at the time the index was written are welcome to compete.
- Submissions should include a PDF of the published book and/or the PDF sent to you by the publisher, plus your Word/RTF file of the index.
- The submission process is all online, and the cost is $30.
The winner will receive two tickets to the conference banquet at the next in-person conference.
Deadline for submissions is March 16, 2026. Find full details here.
Business and Marketing
Pick a planner
If you prefer paper planners to digital ones–or in addition to–The New York Times Wirecutter staff recently updated their list of favorites, including:
The Muji Recycled Paper Weekly Planner is an undated and minimalistic cardboard-covered 5.7″ x 8.3″ booklet with room for creativity that comes in at just under $2.
The personal size Filofax Original Organizer offers style, flexibility, and several color choices. Because it’s leather, it has a much heftier price tag, around $100 for the full package. However, after the initial purchase, you only need refills, and Wirecutter says refills from other brands can work.
For multitasking, the Laurel Denise Nancy Mini Horizontal Planner is the top pick. This undated planner’s patented layout lets you simultaneously see your broad plans for the month, along with the weekly and daily details, for just under $50.
Spotlight on Carol Reed
This month’s Spotlight is on Carol Reed, owner of BlueStem 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’m a Michigan native. I currently live near the village of Ortonville, Michigan, with my husband and our senior English springer spaniel. We also share our wooded yard and landscape/salad bar with deer and wild turkeys.
What is your educational background?
I followed a BS in mechanical engineering with an MS in rhetoric & technical communication, which was a far better fit for me. A decade later, I learned proper indexing through the USDA indexing course.
Do you have any hobbies, travels, volunteer work, or other interesting things to share?
I enjoy gardening, landscaping with native plants, kayaking, quilting, working on mosaic projects, and (of course) reading.
What kind of work did you do before you studied indexing? Are you still doing that or other work in addition to indexing?
I was a technical writer and editor in the 1980s–90s software industry, then a stay-at-home mom for three fabulous kids. When writing software manuals, indexing (with index cards and without formal training) was always my favorite part. So it was pretty exciting to discover indexing was a thing people did. Though I’ve done some freelance tech writing, editing, and user experience work, indexing has been my main gig for the last twenty years. I still really enjoy it.
What is one of your favorite strategies to help motivate or inspire when you are feeling stuck during a work project?
When a book’s vocabulary is unfamiliar and concepts are densely intertwined, I include comment entries in the draft index, which get deleted later. The comment entries include taxonomy abbreviations (BT, NT, UF, etc.) and sometimes “explain it like I’m five” notes to myself. If I’m still feeling in the weeds, I often journal about it—by hand—for a few minutes, and that helps me see the structure and the appropriate strategy.
When did you start indexing? When did you join ASI?
I joined ASI in 2005 and have been a member most years since. In fact, one of my very first paid indexes was a referral from a fellow ASI member and Michigander. It was a publication for a state agency, and though that indexer had to decline it, she referred other Michigan indexers for the job.
For you, what is the best advantage of ASI membership?
Getting to know other indexers and learning from them. It almost sounds like a stock answer, but book nerds who are also organizing nerds are my people.
Items to be considered for the See Also newsletter should be submitted by the 15th of the month before publication. For February 2026 issue, please email SeeAlsoEditor@asindexing.org by January 15. Thank you.