A Luncheon with Nancy Mulvany

By Lance-Robert, President

In addition to being an STC member, I also belong to the San Diego Professional Editors Network (SD/PEN) and the American Society of Indexers (ASI). When my job and STC duties permit, I like to attend meetings with these organizations as well.

On Saturday, December 10, I drove Apu, my trusty xA, two hours north to Ontario, CA to attend a lunch meeting hosted by Nancy Mulvany, author of Indexing Books, and attended by several other ASI members.

Indexing Books is one of the top ten rated books on indexing, and the second edition recently went on sale.

The meeting started off with Nancy talking about the ordeals she went through with her publisher when she went to publish her book's second edition. Some of the attendees were interested in publishing their own books, and wanted to get an idea of what was in store for them. Nancy told us about the various requirements and deadlines, the arguments about content and formatting, and how she had to specifically list what was different between the first and second editions of the book, similar to the revision histories many of us do for our technical documentation.

Nancy said that the new edition has changes and minor fixes throughout, but that the most significant changes are in chapter 5, which gives detailed advice on index entries.

Someone then asked Nancy if there were accredited courses in indexing, and she mentioned the well-known paper-based US Department of Agriculture (USDA) indexing course, which can take up to a year to complete. (http://www.grad.usda.gov/cgi-bin/course/show.cgi/aip=3d5080w3M6Z,00XZjw83Ra5q1OLaxA4-VR3l.?course_id=10093958),

and the online UC Berkeley Extension indexing course, which can take up to six months to complete:

http://explore.berkeley.edu/UCExt/courseview.asp?secid=517&value=0.1.&action=Internet

Between the two courses, Nancy recommended the UC Berkeley Extension course over the USDA course, because it has more real world practical examples and thus gives you more practice. She warned that the Berkeley course also costs more-$600 versus $355. but she said that it was worth it and that it took less time to complete than the USDA course. She also said that other courses and workshops on indexing are listed on the ASI Web site:

http://www.asindexing.org/site/courses.shtml

ASI also has plans to offer its own certification program in the future. Once the program is ready, the details will be posted on the ASI Web site.

Nancy was asked about indexing standards. She said that the European standard is ISO 999, and if you're interested, you can read more about it and order it here:

http://www.iso.org/iso/en/CatalogueDetailPage.CatalogueDetail?CSNUMBER=5446&ICS1=1&ICS2=140&ICS3=40

The current US standard is called TR02-1997, Guidelines for Indexes and Related Information Retrieval Devices, by James D. Anderson, and it is available for free PDF download or hardcopy purchase from the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) Web site:

http://www.niso.org/standards/std_resources.html

Nancy recommended that while at the NISO site, we also look for TR03-1999, Guidelines for Alphabetical Arrangement of Letters and Sorting of Numerals and Other Symbols, by Hans H. Wellisch. It provides rules for the alphabetical arrangement of headings in lists of all kinds, such as indexes.

Nancy also mentioned that another good resource on indexing is her own online subscription newsletter, i-TORQUE, which is published six times per year and costs $36. Click here for more information, including the subscription page:

http://www.i-torque.us/

Nancy said that there is plenty of work out there for folks who know how to index, and that she has an ongoing discussion about the rates indexers should charge in i-TORQUE.

I asked Nancy if she had any indexing software recommendations, and her recommendations can all be found on the ASI Resources page:

http://www.asindexing.org/site/software.shtml

Nancy said that Macrex is a very powerful program, but warned that it has a steep learning curve, and that despite its name, it is not available for the Apple Macintosh. She expressed praise for IXgen for FrameMaker, my personal favorite.

Someone asked Nancy what she perceived as threats to the indexing industry. She thought for a moment, and said that one of the biggest threats is mediocrity. She said that many companies do not perceive indexing as a revenue stream, so they only make a minimal effort instead of having complete indexes in their documentation. She also noted that many companies are outsourcing their documentation to countries in which the workers often do not have a thorough understanding of the English language, which consequently results in inferior indexes.

Nancy said that another big threat is the fact that Google is scanning books and putting all their information online, and that although the folks who hold the rights to those books can opt out if they choose, many of them, for whatever reason, do not. Nancy did a Google search for indexing Hungarian names, as an example, and found the exact text from page 170 of her book online. She had to petition her publisher, the University of Chicago Press, to have it removed. They argued that they thought it would increase sales of the book, but relented when Nancy pointed out the fact that their Chicago Manual of Style is not available online.

Nancy lamented the fact that ASI has no relationship with the publishing industry. She believes it would be better for both the publishing industry and ASI if both worked hand-in-hand to develop and maintain standards and expectations. I have also heard this opinion expressed about the STC on the ReformSTC Yahoo! group. Nancy remarked that although the capital of the publishing world is New York City, ASI has yet to hold any of its annual meetings there. Their 2005 annual meeting, for example, was held in Pasadena, and the next one will be in Toronto.

I asked Nancy during the break if she would be willing to give a detailed presentation on indexing to the STC San Diego Chapter, and she said that she might be willing to present at our May 3, 2006 meeting. She will let me know after the first of the year and I will keep everyone posted.