State of the Textbook Indexing World

TAA Podcast Series August 25, 2010

You might take that alphabetized list of words and page numbers for granted, but there's turmoil inside the textbook indexing world. First there's the ongoing challenge of people not understanding what indexing is about, a world where production editors are always just out of college, authors are forced to pay, and jobs are going to countries where English isn't a first language. The rise of e-books has reintroduced a significant problem that first appeared in the early 1990s: wholly inferior tools. E-book indexes do not work, literally. How does this affect writing? Join us for a lively discussion with Seth Maislin, Managing Partner at Potomac Indexing, LLC, about how we find things...or not.

www.blogtalkradio.com/textacademicpodcast/2010/08/25/state-of-the-textbook-indexing-world

PI Partner, Seth Maislin and State of the Industry

Partner Seth Maislin recently published an article on the state of the industry for transactional content management, which can be found at DOCUMENTmedia here: http://turl.ca/tecm.

Partners' Tweets Cited in Article

Partner Seth Maislin and his #dailyentry tweet are mentioned in an article from the December 2009 issue of The Indexer, the international journal on indexing. “Seth Maislin has started sending a #dailyentry tweet, in which he posts one of his index entries, and other indexers have followed suit. Seth also noticed that when he posts something with a particular word in it, he ends up with followers based on that word. For example, he posted ‘Sudoku history,’ and someone interested in Sudoku started following.” A few PI associates, including Jan Wright, Pilar Wyman, Janyne Ste Marie, are included as well. You can read the article in its entirety here: http://www.theindexer.org/files/27-4/27-4_176.pdf [PDF].

Oct. 15–17, ANZSI Society of Indexers Conference,"The Practice of Indexing," Sydney, Australia

The Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers will be holding its annual conference, Oct. 15–17, in Sydney at the Citigate Central Hotel. Mary Coe will be presenting Kay Schlembach’s 2009 ASI talk “Metatopic Menace” at the conference. Please feel free to contact PI's Australian partner, Mary Coe, with any questions about the conference or accommodation in Sydney.  Mary can be reached at mary.coe@potomacindexing.com.

 

If you are interested in presenting a paper at the conference, your submission would be welcome. The theme for the conference is "The Practice of Indexing." The conference committee is particularly interested in practical, how-to presentations on any indexing topic from basic indexing skills, methods, and techniques for beginners to technological developments and specialized indexing for experienced indexers. Anyone interested in presenting a paper, contributing to a panel, or running a workshop should send an e-mail to the ANZSI Conference Committee at conference@anzsi.

PI Partner, Seth Maislin, teaching in Boston, Massachusetts.

Seth Maislin is once again teaching his one-day workshop Indexing Application in Print and Digital Media at the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Institutes for Continuing Education, in Boston on October 17, 2009. In the workshop participants learn the theoretical guidelines and practical skills for writing indexes in print, and how to apply that knowledge to indexes appearing or leveraged in online media, including hypertext documentation, search, and information architecture. For more information visit http://www.simmons.edu/gslis/continuinged/workshops/simmons.shtml and search for maislin.

Next semester of online indexing course scheduled for October 2009.

PI partner Seth Maislin is offering his original and instructor-driven online course, with ten lectures scheduled for October-December 2009. Writing Indexes for Books and Websites is an online certificate program that has been running successfully for over five years, in which students learn the process and career of indexing. Unlike other courses, Writing Indexes focuses on the reality of the ever-changing indexing world, balancing theory against the real-life limitations of running an indexing business with profit-seeking clients. Referrals through Potomac Indexing are entitled to a $50 refund upon the completion of the course; contact Seth directly for details. All other registration information is available at http://www.middlesex.mass.edu/CareerTraining/WritingIndexesforBooksandWebsites.htm.