ASI News
—Register for “Indexing in Interesting Times” annual conference in June
—Annual meeting is May 15
—Key Words index updated through 2025
—Indexers meet the trivia challenge
Chapters and SIGS
—PNW Chapter meets May 23
—SIGs meet this month
Associated Industry News
—ICRIS launches website
Business and Marketing
—Know what to say
Spotlight on Louisa Emmons
ASI News
Register for annual conference in June
Registration is open for ASI’s 2026 conference: “Indexing in Interesting Times.” It will be held online Wednesday, June 10, and Thursday, June 11, 2026.
The conference will feature sessions designed to help professional indexers hone their skills as well as programs that focus on preparing for an uncertain future. Proactive preparedness—including planning, mitigation, and building resilience—significantly reduces or prevents the impact of these interesting times, often transforming potential catastrophes into opportunities for progress. Sessions include:
- Indexing in the Era of AI
- Meditation Practices for Care of the Body, Spirit, and Mind
- Disasters, Indexing through Them
- The Current State of Scholarly Publishing
- Government Contracting
- Developing Macros and Regular Expressions with AI
- Be Prepared and Double Check that Index
A bonus session includes a demonstration of ASI’s new Principles of Indexing Course and how it works on the Moodle platform.
The full conference program and registration are available here. Register by May 30 for early-bird rates. Registration closes June 3.
Annual meeting is May 15
Join the ASI Board for the Annual General Meeting, which will be held online on Friday, May 15, 2026. It starts at 10 a.m. Pacific time, 1 p.m. Eastern time.
Current president Jen Weers will deliver the president’s report, and Cheryl Lenser, the treasurer’s report.
In addition, Shannon Li will be installed as president along with the new electees to the ASI 2026–2027 Board of Directors:
Judy Staigmiller, President Elect
Vickie Jacobs, Secretary
Heather Dubnick, Director
Jessica Siddiqi, Director
Service to ASI will be recognized with the presentation of the Kohlrabi Awards.
Watch your email for a link.
Key Words index updated through 2025
The updated index for Key Words, which includes volumes 25–33 (2017–2025), is now available here.
Thank you to Ritu Amrita for indexing the 2025 issues of ASI’s quarterly journal and to index editor Carolyn Weaver for merging the latest year into the index and editing the nine-volume index, which is available in PDF format. Appreciation also to the indexers who worked on previous years of this valuable resource.
Indexers meet the trivia challenge
ASI members put aside indexing projects last month for some play during the Trivia Hour Playground on April 22.
The Playgrounds, which are held throughout the year, offer an opportunity for ASI members to informally gather online with peers to chat about indexing and, in this case, show just how much they know.
There were two breakout rooms: Word-Related Trivia, hosted by Sarah Oelker, and General Knowledge Trivia, hosted by Bill Wheaton, who explained the process:
Participants in the general trivia room valiantly worked through two rounds of “general knowledge,” a round of “Before and After,” and a round called “Common Bond.” We had fun trying to answer questions like: “Who is Emma Lee Bunton?” (Baby Spice); “What is philematology?” (The study of kissing); and “What comes before and after American track athlete + Through the Looking-Glass author?” (Carl Lewis Carrol).” The answers to nine “Common Bond” questions all somehow referred to the theme of Musical Theater (which one person, amazingly, figured out) and the common bond was that each musical that was referred to was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Thank you to the hosts—and the attendees.
Chapters and SIGS
PNW Chapter meets May 23
The Pacific Northwest Chapter (PNW) will hold its spring informal meeting on Saturday, May 23, at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Chapter members who have RSVP’d will receive the Zoom link via email; email to RSVP.
SIGs meet this month
The following Special Interest Groups are gathering online in May:
- Digital Publications Indexing SIG will hold its quarterly gathering on Friday, May 8, at 9:30 a.m. Pacific Time (US and Canada). A Zoom link will be shared as the date approaches. Visit DPI’s website for more information.
- The History/Archaeology SIG will hold an online meeting on Friday, May 29, at 2 p.m. Eastern time. Organizers will provide the time and Zoom link later this month. The H/A SIG meets every other month on the last Friday. Visit the website for information about joining, or check out the discussion group.
Information about all of ASI’s SIGs is available online here.
Associated Industry News
ICRIS launches website
The International Committee of Representatives of Indexing Societies (ICRIS) has launched a new website that brings together all the indexing organizations into one global site. It presents a plethora of information about professional indexing around the world and includes:
- Profiles and indexer directories of the eight member societies, including the American Society for Indexing.
- Lists of online discussion groups and blogs, publications, indexing standards, and more.
- Facts about the career of indexing and how to train to become an indexer.
Business and Marketing
Know what to say
“Do you read the whole book?”
“What do you do all day?”
Professional indexers are often asked questions like these. For the Society of Indexers’ celebration of National Indexing Day in the UK this spring, Society member Ruth Martin crafted a colorful blog post on helpful retorts, to show the value of indexes and those who create them:
Question: Can’t a computer or AI do that?
Sample response: “A computer can index as well as a word processor can write a novel.”
Question: Isn’t the author the best person to write the index?
Sample response: “An author tends to think like an author. Indexers know how to think like a reader.”
Check out the full blog post here.
Spotlight on Louisa Emmons
This month’s Spotlight is on Louisa Emmons, owner of Indexing Solutions.
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 the beautiful piedmont area of western North Carolina and am blessed to have views of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Appalachia from my windows. We experience four seasons here and are never far from mountain vistas (within one hour) or the coast (about four hours), so I consider myself very fortunate. I now live in the same house I grew up in, though my husband, son, and I lived in several other locations in North Carolina during our marriage. My husband passed in 2024, one week before Hurricane Helene passed through North Carolina. My son lives with me, and I take care of my mother, who also lives here. We share our home with a beloved white Pomeranian named Maddie.
What is your educational background?
I have a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems, a master’s degree in special education, and a second master’s degree in library science.
Do you have any hobbies, travels, volunteer work, or other interesting things to share?
My hobbies are pen and ink drawing, weaving, and collecting antique children’s books. I belong to a women’s organization that provides money and resources for veterans and child literacy and to a fraternal church organization that regularly contributes money to an orphanage in Uganda as our special project.
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 preschool special ed teacher in the public schools for twenty years, but I retired early when my husband became ill. That’s when I discovered indexing, which has been a wonderful source of income and freedom for me. I am very thankful to be able to make my own hours and choose which books I want to index.
What is a favorite strategy to help motivate or inspire when you are feeling stuck during a work project?
Well, I have to take breaks. We live near a Greenway on the Catawba River, and I enjoy going for a walk over there, spotting Canada Geese and kingfishers, deer, squirrels, while taking in the beauty of nature. That’s the best reset for my sometimes-muddled brain.
When did you start indexing? When did you join ASI?
I started indexing in 2016 when I was working to produce a digital state yearbook for an organization I belonged to. Indexing was involved in that project, and though I had had no training in indexing, I did it and I liked it. I Googled around and discovered ASI and their training program. I joined shortly after that.
For you, what is the best advantage of ASI membership?
ASI is full of members who are tremendously enthusiastic and quite serious about this niche occupation we share. I have been grateful to discover others who share my interest and who are very generous in offering problem-solving suggestions to my occasional dilemmas. I credit the Indexer Locator with providing much of my business over the years, and I have found very good information in ASI webinars and online learning.
Items to be considered for the See Also newsletter should be submitted by the 15th of the month before publication. For June 2026 issue, please email SeeAlsoEditor@asindexing.org by May 15. Thank you.