Back of book indexing

Mulvanys goldstandard book, indexing books university of chicago press, 2005, 2nd edition high quality indexes a high quality index will be comprehensive, clearly worded, concise, and easy for the eye to scan in order to find something quickly. Back ofbook indexes are often produced by freelance indexers. The terms are sorted alphabetically listing names, places, things, and page numbers, which provides related terms a crossreference and is an integral part of a book. Describes a study that examined back of book indexes produced by 37 authors and 27 nonauthors to see whether differences between the 2 groups of indexers could be discerned by counting the occurrence of 3 characteristics in their indexes. Also known as backofthebookindex, indexing is found at the end of the book and mostly sorted in alphabetical order. Ill actually do the index markup on the pdf, but the paper version also provides relief from eye strain when researching for notes ive made. Just drop a pdf proof version of your book onto textract. When you index you help connect families by typing up historical documents so they can be published online. In the simplest terms, a book index is simply a key to locating information contained in a book. Book indexing services professional indexing company. Each of us owns an equal part of the business, so all of us take great care to. In the index section of the references tab, click insert index. Extensive information about the indexing business can be found here a separate associated website. Book indexing is a vital job that professional book indexers do on a.

Machineaided backof the book indexing is a tool which aids in the preparation of the index contained at the back of the book. With over 100 projects from all over the world, you can find a project that helps you and others. Contact me with any questions about your project or your indexing needs. Working with textract the indexing process is supported from the outset by the automatic initial index. The sublime joy of making a book index without bullshit.

Indexing is a systematic arrangement to present a concise list to readers so that they may find specific topics are terms presented in a book and makes them more accessible. A good book index contains all the important topics, subtopics and cross references presented in a meaningful order. Your own index is something you put in the back of the book or the front if you prefer. Oct 27, 2016 book indexing book indexers create indexes to provide access to detailed contents of books. Catharyn martz is a skilled indexer and says that when creating an index, shes. Frequently asked questions american society for indexing. While it does not cover a broad theoretical base and is limited to back ofthe book indexing, mulvanys extensive work will be an excellent supplement to donald and ana clevelands introduction to indexing and abstracting libraries unlimited, 1990. I used an excel spreadsheet as my notecards with topic heading in the first column and subheadings in the second column and the location of the reference in columns. How to make money from home with freelance book indexing. The main role of the index in a book is to identify the concept of the paper and guide the reader to information by gathering scattered relationships or references and to locate keywords and concepts. The average index for the print version of a book take around 5 percent of the total number of pages in the main text of that book.

The american society for indexing annually presents the h. Most book indexes have to be made between the time page proof is issued and the time it is returned to the typesetter usually about four weeks. Similarly, how we process and interpret this information has evolved too. The vision is that search in ebooks can integrate with indexing, and that the indexing can inform the search, making it better and more productive. May 26, 2020 book indexing can be a good home business opportunity. This gives me a quick look at the book so i can start making notes on paper to get a feel for content. Another different aspect is that this job is in indesign. Exporting the index into an epub version of a book has been further simplified. However, automatic back of indexing has not been used for amharic books. For more information about index length, please see pages 7073 of nancy m.

Readers complain of a lack of an index in nonfiction books and will often not purchase one if an index is not included in the back matter of your book. Introduction to book indexing library juice academy. Abound book index is a very simple method of indexing. Send us a list of phrases and other key words you would like indexed. Back ofbook indexes are made for all types of nonfiction books, including textbooks, multivolume works, technical reports and annual reports. It is also known as back ofthe book index, as it is mostly found at the. An index is essentially a roadmap to the book, listing names, places, and things in alphabetical order and giving the page numbers associated with each topic.

Examples are an index in the back matter of a book and an index that serves as a library catalog. Web indexing, or internet indexing, comprises methods for indexing the contents of a website or of the internet as a whole. Now imagine trying to find information in a book without an index. We can also identify the nouns, verbs and adjectives in your book, and find context words for keywords to use in subindexing. In the index dialog box, you can select your preferred format, style, number of columns, and page number alignment. Book indexing is a mixture of art and craft, judgment and selection. Back of book indexes and the characteristics of author and nonauthor indexing. Pdf backofthebook indexing in the netherlands today. An affordable every name indexing solution for back of the book indexes. Creating an index for a non ction book is the responsibility of the author, but most authors do not actually do it. The indexing process begins at the pageproof stage. Preparing book indexes and other kinds of indexes is a viable career option. A good index will ultimately make your book more useful, easier to navigate, and will ensure that your readers refer back to your book time and time again.

To pay tribute to all the hardworking, barely sleeping indexers eager to build bridges between the reader and the book, that can save the reader many hours of work, lets explain what we, indexers, do as information professionals, how. Book indexing back of the book fixed price or hourly quotes 6 premium quotes 0 invited 1 hired 0 send before. With over 100 projects from all over the world, you can find a project that. When an index is not provided for nonfiction books, readers balk because they cannot easily find terms or subject matter. We can all agree that information is not the same as knowledge. Librarians are reluctant to buy nonfiction books without one. Investigations in unsupervised back ofthe book indexing. This fourweek, asynchronous online course provides an introduction to, and handson practice in, the indexing process for books. If a particular index entry is cited a number of times on a single page, it is unsightly to have the page number repeated in the.

Once a book is in final form and all laid out, the editorial changes have been made, all the graphics and illustrations are in place, and it is almost ready to go to the printer, the book is ready for an indexer to create the index that appears at the back of the book. The indexing chapter of the chicago manual of style covers the basics in some depth. The main idea behind developing this system is to save the time and. Getting started in ebook indexing for indexers digital. Book indexing back of the book 1669436 freelance job. A back ofthe book index is a collection of words or phrases, often alphabetically arranged to allow users to locate information in a given book. The main objective is to provide the student with a beginning skill set in producing a traditional back ofthe book index.

How to make a really good book index in word tck publishing. Indexing books, second edition chicago guides to writing. Front matter, back matter glossary, bibliography, appendixes. Jun 07, 2016 as a back ofthe book indexer, im totally biased when i say that a nonfiction book without an index is like a town without addresses. In a traditional back ofthe book index, the headings will include names of people, places, events, and concepts selected by the indexer as being relevant and of. Whether it is for a textbook, biography, research report, phd thesis, business report, legal case index or product catalog, your back ofbook index can be ready within a day but you can spend as much time as you think necessary. An index should be neither an indiscriminate list of everything mentioned in the book nor an overly complex work of scholarship. It is the place where everything has been neatly organized alphabetically with the exact pages and page numbers on which you could find the appropriate data. Easy book to read and then find your way back to some topic as you actually start to do the indexing. This describes a fully unattended batch methodology for producing back of the book indexes using xslfo 1. For some reason i dont know how indexing was turned off.

The business also has its own url twinoaksindexing. A back ofthe book indexer with over 20 years of experience, i have indexed hundreds of books on a wide variety of topics see selected titles and always look forward to working on each title with the goal of creating the most effective and readerfriendly index possible, delivered on time and with careful attention to detail. With the increase in the number of periodicals that have articles online, web. Asi feels that the user should be able to browse the index when needed, and that a dead chapter that looks like an index in the back of an ebook does no one any good. Back of book indexes and the characteristics of author and. Feb 01, 2016 i love to index books, because it requires intense thinking thats like writing in reverse. Basic book indexing back of book index creation service. Potential buyers will evaluate your book s index before making a purchase. An index of ideas shawn blanc i absolutley adore shawn blancs system of creating an index of ideas covered in nonfiction books. Pdf index generator is a powerful indexing utility for generating the back of your book index and writing it to your book in 4 easy steps. For nonfiction books, packed with valuable information, a wellmade index can help quickly direct the reader to the information theyre trying to find. Can backofthebook indexes be automatically created.

I may request to see the book or representative portions of the book before making my quote firm. No special training is required for office clerks to operate it. The first step may seem obvious, but its important to do a thorough readthrough of. A professional index is essential for any work of nonfiction. The range of indexes in proportion to text pages in various types of books runs from 2 to 15 percent.

We will send back you a link to an index containing the page references of all the names and proper nouns in your book. For a normal back ofthe book index, i would work from a pdf of the page proofs on the left of my screen, and sky index software on the right. Email to request more information for your particular project. The indexer should consider the complexity and scope of the book when choosing the pertinent. Due to the evolution of global technology, the methods and speed we use to share information has changed. Over the past decade, i have created back ofthe book indexes for scholarly monographs and edited collections, including for my own books. Such an index may take the form of a separate book or an index in the front or at the back of a book.

Lets think back to our book on dog breeds, and the reader trying to find out. As for the relationship between back ofthe book indexing and creating controlled vocabularies, that may not seem as. From the analysis of the document text, our inddoc system automatically builds an index draft that is then validated by an indexer through a dedicated interface. Time for a quick test of your knowledge of back ofthe book indexing. This need for arbitrating page number citations is the problem with supporting a back of the book index in xslfo. An index is a guide that appears at the back of primarily nonfiction books that helps direct readers to the information contained within the book. As for the relationship between back ofthe book indexing and creating controlled vocabularies, that may not seem as obvious. You can just drop the epub file onto textract and export and integrate the index in a copy of the epub file in one go. We hope that other free tools can be identified for use in this process, and we will maintain this page with the list as they are found. Apr 26, 2019 in other words, the index in a book is an ordered arrangement of entries and it is designed to enable users to locate information in a document. Lisa rivero is an author, freelance indexer, and blogger who writes about words, meaning, and creativity. Nevertheless, book indexing is a pretty complicated process that cant be easily described in a few words.

I offer indexing, editing, and proofreading services in a variety of subject areas. The file arrives, and i have the 557 pages printed. Writing means thinking of an idea and creating content for it. Machineaided back ofthe book indexing is a tool which aids in the preparation of the index contained at the back of the book. If a locator points to one of several numbered footnotes or to a note at the back of the book, include the note number e. Back of book indexes and table of contents have been the two most important means for accessing specific information in books. A good index is a minor work of art but it is also the product of clear thought and meticulous care. Aug 21, 2020 if i come to an index fresh, i tend to do an initial skimread of the book to begin understanding its content and structure. Investigations in unsupervised backofthebook indexing. This brief textract tutorial video shows the basics of creating a backofbook index with textract. A back ofthe book index is a list of words with corresponding page. A back of the book index is a collection of words or phrases, often alphabetically arranged to allow users to locate in formation in a given book.

Automatic procedures have been in use for the generation of back of book indexes. An index is a list of words or phrases and associated pointers to where useful material relating to that heading can be found in a document or collection of documents. Books that are online, pdf books, and ebooks also need indexes. Words builtin indexing feature can make your job a whole lot easier, but it wont. Apply to editor, legal assistant, records clerk and more. An author preparing his or her own index will have to proofread as well as index the work. The transformation process does not know where the page breaks will occur in the formatting process. Individual websites or intranets may use a back ofthe book index, while search engines usually use keywords and metadata to provide a more useful vocabulary for internet or onsite searching. It is the place where everything has been neatly organized alphabetically with the exact pages and page numbers on.

A backofthebook indexer with over 20 years of experience, i have indexed hundreds of books on a wide variety of topics see selected titles and always look forward to working on each title with the goal of creating the most effective and reader friendly index possible, delivered on time and with careful attention to detail. To make an index you must ask, for every passage in a book, if i were looking for this, what words would describe what i was looking for. Readers expect to find a useful, wellpresented index at the back of a book, and can get very frustrated if the index doesnt quickly lead them to the information they seek. Fivestep process for writing a book index by stephen. A professional index can increase a book s chances of being taken on by a mainstream publisher. Written by genealogists for genealogists and tested by professional indexers, enindexer makes indexing your next family history book easy. Researchers will have difficulty using a book without an index. Would you say the following statements are true or false. Book indexing is the act of creating this map or guide to the information. It includes main topics, concepts, ideas, and page numbers where you can find that information. An index is a critical, yet often undervalued, piece of many nonfiction books, especially informationdense books like reference books, selfhelp and advice books, textbooks, and cookbooks.

When you are ready to insert the index into your document, click where you would like the index to be. In a traditional backofthebook index, the headings will include names of people, places, events, and concepts selected by the index er as being relevant and of interest to a possible reader of the book. We can produce a basic index for your book send us the text of your book, by email. When you immerse into the nonfiction book and of course searching for any particular information, you should first stop in the index at the back. Also known as back of the book index, indexing is found at the end of the book and mostly sorted in alphabetical order. Imagine trying to find folks in a town without addresses. In this article pierke bosschieter describes the results of her investigations into the state of back ofthe book indexing in the netherlands today, and reports not only the dire state in which. With textract you create the backofbook index for the printed and ebook editions of your book in three steps, using a unique combination of automated and manual indexing.