ASI News
—August webinar explores indexing the metatopic for biographies
—Annual Meeting looks back, and ahead
—Get all the conference news, and more, in Key Words
—Share your insight on an index
Chapters and SIGS
—DPI SIG to meet in August
Associated Industry News
—ISC/SCI recognizes Peace's service with Tamarack Award
—Call for speakers for ASAIB conference in November
—NISO seats new board members
Business and Marketing
—Get ready for Chicago Manual of Style's 18th edition
Spotlight on Morgan Blue
ASI News
August webinar explores indexing the metatopic for biographies
Sharpen your skills in identifying and crafting metatopics for biographies at ASI's upcoming webinar. Longtime indexer Fred Leise will present "Biographical Metatopics, or, the Why of the Who" on August 21, 2024.
The program with Leise, an award-winning indexer and longtime ASI volunteer, will offer a brief refresher on metatopics and then delve into the specifics of creating metatopic entries for biographies. Participants will learn to:
- Understand and recognize different types of metatopics.
- Identify the metatopic of a biography.
- Use some basic statistics for analyzing biographical metatopic entries.
- Understand what metatopic clusters are and how to use them.
For more details and to register, click here.
Annual Meeting looks back, and ahead
Theresa Duran, ASI's outgoing president, discussed the highlights of the year, as more than 30 ASI members gathered online on June 22 for the 2024 Annual General Meeting. These include:
- The first in-person annual conference since 2019. She thanked conference chairperson, Kendra Millis, and Executive Director Gwen Henson for organizing the successful event, held at Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia.
- The development of the ASI indexing awards, which will have two categories for outstanding indexes crafted by ASI members: one for scholarly book indexes and one for trade book indexes. Watch for more information on this new award.
- The creation of Indexing Playground events, held three times since August 2023, as a way to build community and host discussions among indexers.
- The addition of eleven years of Key Words issues (1991-2002) to the ASI archive, thanks to Carolyn Weaver's donation of past issues, now digitized. Carolyn also oversaw the recent project to bring the Key Words index up to date, closing a seven-year gap.
- Presentation of several webinars and online learning programs, in addition to the winter special event focused on indexing life hacks.
The meeting included the treasurer's report from Cheryl Lenser; presentation of the Kohlrabi Awards to ASI volunteers, and recognition of outgoing and new board members.
Then, Shelley Quattrocchi, ASI's newly seated president, discussed how she will focus on ASI's three-pronged mission of advocacy, education, and being the central resource for indexing. Her plans include creation of an Indexing Awareness Day and the redesign of the ASI website landing page.
Get all the conference news, and more, in Key Words
ASI's 2024 conference and pre-conference workshops at Bryn Mawr College, in Pennsylvania, were a time for learning, reconnecting, and honoring indexing achievement. The summer issue of Key Words will delve into the workshops, sessions, and people that make ASI the outstanding resource it is.
There will also be coverage of the ISC/SCI conference and the debuts of "Ask Kate," the indexing advice column; and of "Index Zero," focusing on indexing and technology/software; as well as regular feature "The Business Bookshelf."
ASI's quarterly journal is due out later this summer.
Share your insight on an index
Have you seen an index you loved? One you weren't so thrilled with? An entry in an otherwise fine index that was a bit of a head-scratcher? Key Words is looking for brief (4-6 sentence) reviews of indexes that deserve praise or critique. And if you find an index "blooper," please send it to keywords@asindexing.org. We can learn a lot from the hits and from the misses.
Chapters and SIGS
DPI SIG to meet in August
Members of the Digital Publications Indexing Special Interest Group will meet for a Zoom get-together on August 8, 2024, at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time/12:00 p.m. Eastern time.
The DPI SIG is a forum for indexers who are interested in all aspects of indexing and indexes for digital publications. This includes embedded indexing, website indexes and mounting of indexes on the web.
Visit DPI's website for more information about the group. Contact SIG manager Pilar Wyman with questions.
Information about all of ASI's SIGs is available here.
Associated Industry News
ISC/SCI recognizes Peace's service with Tamarack Award
The Indexing Society of Canada (ISC/SCI) awarded Alexandra Peace its Tamarack Award, recognizing her contributions and commitment to the society.
Alexandra's roles have included presidency of ISC/SCI, and she is praised for her enthusiasm and cheerfulness.
"She is not just a ball of energy, but a ball of light. Always happy to answer a question or give a bit of feedback or helpful advice, even when she's halfway across the world," said a colleague, according to a press release from ISC/SCI.
Find more information about the Tamarack Award here.
Call for speakers for ASAIB conference in November
The Association of Southern African Indexers and Bibliographers (ASAIB) will celebrate the 30th anniversary of its founding with an online conference on November 27-28, 2024.
The theme will be The knowledge and information tapestry: linking the past, present and future. Presentations will focus on the past, present and future of indexing, as well as on related fields in the information and knowledge sector. There are two formats for speakers: short format, with fifteen minutes, fifteen slides, and five minutes for Q&A; and flash format, with five to seven minutes (with or without slides), and three minutes for Q&A. Prospective speakers can register here.
Keep an eye out for more details on the conference here.
NISO seats new board members
The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announced its slate of new board members, effective July 1st.
NISO is a nonprofit organization that develops standards and recommendations for a variety of fields, including publishing, to foster an "unfettered exchange of information."
Business and Marketing
Get ready for Chicago Manual of Style's 18th edition
The 18th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style will be published in September. There is no word yet on specific updates to the indexing guidelines, but like previous editions, the "Indexes" chapter is available separately. The 64-page paperback volume will boast the same bright yellow cover as the full 18th edition, and it's available for preorder now. There are also EPUB and PDF versions.
According to CMOS, online subscribers to the full style guide will get the new online edition automatically in September, and all CMOS Online subscriptions will include access to the full contents of both the 18th and 17th editions, with access to the 16th edition phased out.
Spotlight on Morgan Blue
This month's Spotlight is on Morgan Blue, owner of Blue Indexing & Editorial Services.
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 live in Indianapolis, Indiana, and am originally from a small town called Syracuse, Indiana. I have lived in other parts of the country, but most recently moved from Austin, Texas, where I earned my graduate degrees and met my spouse. I share my home with two orange tabbies, a large German shepherd mix, one nine-year-old kiddo, and my spouse.
What is your educational background?
I have a BA in comparative literature with a minor in Italian from Indiana University, and at the University of Texas I earned my MA and PhD in media studies with portfolio in gender studies. I published my dissertation as a book in 2017, and it's about discourses of girlhood, identity, and postfeminism in popular children's television.
Do you have any hobbies, travels, volunteer work, or other interesting things to share?
I have several hobbies that I am not terrific at but do enjoy, including crochet, embroidery, and gardening. I spend lots of time these days helping my son learn to play the cello (Suzuki style), which has me considering picking up my violin again for the first time in years. I enjoy many types of music and food/cooking, and I am also an avid consumer of novels, memoirs, TV, movies, and open-world video games.
What kind of work did you do before you studied indexing? Are you still doing that or other work in addition to indexing?
Before I started indexing, I taught undergraduate courses and became the program coordinator for an initiative to promote the humanities at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to that, I worked as a research and preservation aide in the audio/visual archives of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum. I still do some research and writing in media studies, as time allows, and the majority of my clients are humanities scholars. In addition to indexing, I offer developmental editing, fact-checking, and proofreading services.
What is a favorite strategy to help motivate or inspire when you are feeling stuck during a work project?
I use music (with lyrics) to motivate me when I'm having trouble focusing on an index. Most of the time I don't want the distraction, but when I need it, music forces me to focus. (My go-to artists recently have been Big Thief, Boy Genius, Neko Case, and Sharon Van Etten.)
When did you start indexing? When did you join ASI?
I started indexing during graduate school, before I had undertaken training through ASI. In 2017, I had two forthcoming books needing indexes, and I needed flexible part-time work, so I began to study indexing. I joined ASI in 2018.
For you, what is the best advantage of ASI membership?
For me, the best thing about being an ASI member has been access to informative and affordable training and professional development webinars. Thanks to all the brilliant indexers who have hosted webinars and to the ASI administration for maintaining the training modules!
Items to be considered for the See Also newsletter should be submitted by the 15th of the month before publication. For August 2024 issue, please email SeeAlsoEditor@asindexing.org by July 15. Thank you.
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