ASI News
—Hines Award goes to…
—ASI Annual meeting is May 17
—Indexers, submit your work for award consideration
—Welcome, new members
—Invigorating annual conference held
—Check out spring Key Words, and updated index
Chapters and SIGS
—PNW Chapter meets May 10
—History/Archaeology SIG meets this month
Associated Industry News
—Indexing conferences: Canada in May; UK in September
—Global indexing web page in the works
Spotlight on Robert Saigh
ASI News
Hines Award goes to…
Congratulations to Connie Binder, the recipient of the 2025 Theodore C. Hines Award, recognizing her continuous, dedicated, and exceptional service to ASI and its membership.
Connie chaired ASI’s annual conference in April, and that is only the latest example of her commitment to the indexing profession. At the national level, Connie has served on the ASI board as a director (2011–2013) and as secretary (2013–2014). She is also active as an ASI chapter and SIG leader, and she served on the Marketing Committee while on the ASI board.
Additionally, Connie is an engaging and entertaining presenter who has shared her indexing experience in more than a dozen presentations. This includes conference presentations and three webinars: indexing biographies and memoirs, working with PDFs, and creating an Indexer Locator profile.
Connie is also often mentioned for the light-hearted fun she brings to a serious profession, including once wearing a skirt made of luggage tags during a presentation about indexing while traveling.
One of the letters of support on the nomination for this award noted how Connie inspired the writer to lighten up, be a better volunteer, and to celebrate indexing.
The award will be formally presented at ASI’s Annual Meeting on May 17. The Hines Award committee this year was chaired by Fred Leise, along with Ina Gravitz and Diana Witt.
Annual meeting is May 17
Join the ASI Board for the Annual General Meeting, which will be held online on Saturday, May 17, 2025. It starts at 10 a.m. Pacific time, 1 p.m. Eastern time.
The new electees to the 2024–2025 Board of Directors will be installed at the meeting:
Jen Weers, President
Shannon Li, President-Elect
Cheryl Lenser, Treasurer
Elizabeth Bartmess, Director
Marta Steele, Director
In addition, current president Shelley Quattrocchi will deliver the president’s report, and Cheryl Lenser, the treasurer’s report.
Service to ASI will be recognized with the presentation of the Kohlrabi Awards and the Hines Award.
Indexers, submit your work for award consideration
The 2025 competition for the ASI Indexing Awards is now open. Indexers are invited to submit a final PDF version (publisher's copy) of a book that was indexed with a publication date of 2024 for consideration in either the trade book or scholarly/technical categories.
Each first-place winner receives $500. Submissions will be accepted through July 25, 2025. There is a $35 entry fee. Complete information on the criteria, submission rules, and the judging process is available here.
Questions regarding the ASI Awards process can be directed to Amy Hall, chair of the Awards Committee.
ASI revamped its indexing awards program last year, with the competition divided into two categories: trade books and scholarly/technical books. This was to better reflect the variety of work indexers do. The two winning indexes came from vastly different publications: one on computer keyboards, and the other on literary criticism. Read about the 2024 winners here.
Welcome, new members
New to ASI? If you have become a member in 2024 or 2025, watch for an invitation to our New Members Welcome event in June. You'll learn about who we are, member benefits, and how you can get involved. It's also a great chance to connect with fellow indexers, ask questions about the organization, and start building your professional community.
Not really new but still want to attend? That’s OK! If you don’t get an invitation, just let Jen Weers know you’d like to be included.
Invigorating annual conference held
Indexers from the United States and more than six other countries gathered April 24–26, 2025, for ASI’s online conference, “Spring Into Action!”—which offered ways to refresh indexing skills and our outlook on running a business.
Presentations focused on:
- Exploring new avenues for marketing and booking jobs.
- Nurturing our businesses, and ourselves, through goal-setting and reflection.
- Reinvigorating ASI chapters and SIGS.
- Examination of legislation affecting freelance businesses.
- Glimpse into the book design process.
- Use of artificial intelligence tools, and the pitfalls.
- Strategies for: handling cross-references and double-posting; indexing scripture and ancient sources; indexing literary criticism.
Networking opportunities were woven throughout each day, giving attendees a chance to connect professionally and personally.
A three-hour pre-conference workshop on using regular expressions in indexing kicked off the conference on Thursday, April 24.
Thank you to all the presenters and to conference chair Connie Binder and executive director Gwen Henson for this well-organized and inspiring conference.
For those who registered, replays are posted online, available to rewatch for the next year.
The summer issue of Key Words will have in-depth coverage of the pre-conference and conference sessions.
Check out spring Key Words, and updated index
The spring issue of Key Words is out—with a Paratext column on Scott Smiley's approach to markup; a look at ASI Indexing Award winners; and an exploration of trade book indexing from humanities and science viewpoints.
As well, the index for the quarterly journal has been updated with 2024 issues. It’s available in a downloadable PDF. Thank you to Ritu Amrita, who indexed the 2024 issues, and to index editor Carolyn Weaver.
Indexes to Key Words volumes 1 to 7 (1994–1999) and volumes 8 to 24 (2000–2016) are also available.
Chapters and SIGS
PNW Chapter meets May 10
The Pacific Northwest Chapter’s spring informal meeting will be held May 10 at 10 a.m. Pacific on Zoom and is open to all PNW chapter members.
At the quarterly informal virtual gatherings, members share a little about recent life-related or indexing-related events of importance in their lives, welcome new indexers to the chapter, and discuss questions on indexing.
New chapter members can contact Lisa Sorenson for more information.
History/Archaeology SIG meets this month
The History/Archaeology Special Interest Group will hold an online social gathering on Friday, May 30, at 5 p.m. Eastern time. Members will receive a Zoom link.
Visit the H/A SIG's website for information about joining, or check out the SIG's discussion group
Email Vickie Jacobs with questions.
Associated Industry News
Indexing conferences: Canada in May; UK in September
Planning is under way for the Society of Indexers 2025 conference, to be held in Birmingham, UK, on September 19–21. The theme is “The Heart and Mind of Indexing,” with a focus on the ongoing importance of human empathy and real intelligence in book indexing. More information is here.
Registration is still taking place for “Location! Location! Location! —the Indexing Society of Canada/Société canadienne d’indexation’s annual conference, set for May 30-31 on the University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver. Organizers encourage those planning to attend to book rooms as soon as possible. Full information about registration, lodging, and the conference program is here.
Global indexing web page in the works
The International Committee of Representatives of Indexing Societies (ICRIS) is developing an international website landing page for global indexing. The page will direct readers to the various societies as well as provide basic indexing information. The Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers and the Indexing Society of Canada/Société canadienne d'indexation are sponsoring the development and hosting of the site.
Spotlight on Robert Saigh
This month's Spotlight is on Robert Saigh, of Razorsharp Communications, Inc..
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?
Southwest United States.
Where are you originally from?
New York City, home of Strand Bookstore and many other wonderful places and activities: museums (MoMA, Guggenheim, Frick, Whitney, the Met), restaurants, bakeries (shoutout to Veniero’s Pastry), New York City Public Library, Broadway theater, Central Park, and my personal favorite, the Empire State Building—all 102 stories built in 410 days.
What is your educational background?
I have a BS in communications and an MA in English literature from Northwestern University.
Over the years, I have taught classes, seminars, etc., on grammar, creative writing, composition, English as a Second Language, editing, and more. I enjoy teaching and giving seminars. I love to see that Aha! moment.
Do you have any hobbies, travels, volunteer work, or other interesting things to share?
Writing fiction and nonfiction
Guitar
Photography (with film)
All things cosmological
I am also fascinated by languages; for instance, why is seeing a movie in a theater but watching it is done at home? Why does “respite” sound like res-spit, but “despite” sounds like des-spite? One more: “Are” is one syllable, but add an “a” and it becomes a three-syllable word. Go figure. Air-ee-uh.
What kind of work did you do before you studied indexing? Are you still doing that or other work in addition to indexing?
Before indexing, I was an editor, semi-pro photographer, and an environmental writer in Chicago. I learned indexing by doing it and continue to index, edit, and photograph along with writing novels and nonfiction projects. (I intend to get an agent this year.)
What is a favorite strategy to help motivate or inspire when you are feeling stuck during a work project?
Honestly? Bills. Kidding aside, I enjoy every project because each one differs from another, whether the topic is chemistry, memoirs, religion, history or science. I have indexed every subject under the sun, usually over 130 of them every year. I do encounter prima donna writers but helping them understand my editing and indexing processes makes my day, because they realize I am on their side.
When did you start indexing? When did you join ASI?
I began indexing in the late 1980s, back in the days of DOS. (I owned a black Bell & Howell Apple 2+ with a whopping 64K of memory.) Then, I met Frances Lennie during a writing convention. She sold me on Cindex, and I’ve never looked back. Thank you, Frances.
I continue professional editing and aim for consistency, one of the ingredients in quality nonfiction writing, along with brevity and clarity. I also edit fiction, but that’s a tricky one because I must avoid inserting my style into the writer’s style. In essence, I must be invisible. Currently, I am completing three books on improving your writing, each one with a different slant, each designed to be brief and enlightening. I have 35+ years of experience, so I want to give this knowledge to everyone. It must be the teacher in me.
For you, what is the best advantage of ASI membership?
I enjoy the camaraderie (mostly virtual), the ability to learn, the new projects I can work on, and the discussions concerning what the future holds, especially in light of AI’s disruptive capabilities. The world of artificial intelligence is coming to us (for us?) whether we like it or not. So, our task is not to fight the inevitable. Instead, we must educate the publishers to understand we will always create better indices than a computer can because a computer lacks wisdom, life’s lessons, emotion: all the aspects that guide our professionalism and desire to create the best product we can for our readers.
Items to be considered for the See Also newsletter should be submitted by the 15th of the month before publication. For June 2025 issue, please email SeeAlsoEditor@asindexing.org by May 15. Thank you.
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