1

Back of the Book Index

(BtBI)/(BoBI)

Khasiah Zakaria

Senior Deputy Chief Librarian

Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam Malaysia

2

INDEX (Publishing)

Penting diketahui ialah terdapat 3 bahagian utama struktur buku:

01. Bahagian Depan, 02. Bahagian Isi, dan03. Bahagian Belakang.

Bahagian Belakang lazimnya terdiri daripada:

• Lampiran• Glossari• Indeks• Rujukan• Bibliografi

3

Who are communications Professionals

Editors Indexers

The

EFA

Job

List

Writers

Copyeditors

Proofreaders

Researchers

4

What is an INDEX?

• An index is a list of words or phrases ('headings') and associated pointers ('locators') to where useful material relating to that heading can be found in a document.

• In a traditional back-of-the-book index the headings will include names of people, places and events, and concepts selected by a person as being relevant and of interest to a possible reader of the book.

5

•The pointers are typically page numbers, paragraph numbers or section numbers. In a library catalog the words are authors, titles, subject headings, etc., and the pointers are call numbers.

• Internet search engines, such as Google, and full text searching help provide access to information but are not as selective as an index, as they provide non-relevant links, and may miss relevant information if it is not phrased in exactly the way they expect.

6

About indexing

A

abbreviationsadjectives and adverbsalphabetization. See also non-alphabetical ordering automatic indexing. See also software for indexing

B

bad breaksbestsellersbooks about indexing

Ccapitalizationcomputer-assisted indexing.

See software for indexingcomputer-generated indexes. See automatic indexingcross-references

Ddouble-posting

E

editing indexesentries. See also cross-references; headings; page references

7

FAQ (frequently asked questions)filing. See alphabetizationfunction words

F

headings. See also function words; inversion; names; qualifiersheadnotes. See introductory notes

H

indexable matterindexing process. See also term selectionintroductory notesinversion

I

L

letter-by-letter sorting. See alphabetizationlocators. See cross-references; page references

N

namesnon-alphabetical ordering. See also alphabetization

8

P

page referencesprocess. See indexing processprofessional societies

Q

qualifiersquality of indexes

S

see, see also, see under references.

See cross-referencessoftware for indexing.

See also automatic indexing sorting.

See alphabetizationstyle

W

word-by-word sorting.

See alphabet

T

term selection

9

Purpose of Indexing

Indexes are designed to help the reader find information quickly and easily.

A complete and truly useful index is not simply a list of the words and phrases used in a publication (which is properly called a concordance), but an organized map of its contents, including cross-references, grouping of like concepts, and other useful intellectual analysis.

Sample back-of-the-book index excerpt:

10

sage, 41-42. See also Herbs ← directing the reader to related terms Scarlet Sages. See Salvia coccinea ← redirecting the reader to term used in the text shade plants ← grouping term (may not appear in the text; may be generated by indexer) hosta, 93 ← subentries myrtle, 46 Solomon's seal, 14 sunflower, 47 ← regular entry In books, indexes are usually placed near the end (this is commonly known as "BoB" or back-of-book indexing).

They complement the table of contents by enabling access to information by specific subject, whereas contents listings enable access through broad divisions of the text arranged in the order they occur. It has been remarked that, while "[a]t first glance the driest part of the book, on closer inspection the index may provide both interest and amusement from time to time." (Collison, 1957)

11

Why do you need to index your book?

• "Indexes are for readers who want quick access to information. The index provides a gateway to the author's ideas: it's the map to the book."

• The back-of-the-book index provides quick access to ideas found throughout a book. Potential book buyers know this and prefer to buy books with indexes.

• Amazon.com, book store buyers, librarians, book reviewers, academics and educators all prefer books with indexes. Studies have repeatedly shown that books with quality indexes have increased sales.

12

Why you need an indexer?

Good book can be significantly enhanced by a good index and seriously weakened by a poor one.

Nevertheless, it seems to be a house rule in publishing, probably for reasons of cost, that the editor asks and expects the author to create a book's index.

An author can sometimes produce a good index, many authors are not well-suited to the task.

Unless an author has previously indexed a book, he or she is unlikely to have the experience or proficiency, not to mention the time, to create an index that comes close to the level of quality routinely achieved by an experienced professional indexer.

Encourage your publishing house to consider hiring a professional indexer. Authors are, in fact, often glad to have this part of their work done by a professional, even if it means contributing to the cost themselves.

Certainly it will save authors from a significant distraction at a time when they will need, instead, to be checking their page proofs for errors and otherwise focusing on the product of their own writing efforts.

13

Attitude to book indexing

• Involves meticulous hard work, • Intuition, • Countless interpretations and judgments.• Book indexing is more like playing the fiddle:

– some learn how to index reasonably well; – a few become master indexers; – but many are baffled by the art and science of

indexing.

14

Opinions: Back-of-the-book index

• Diodato (1994) made a survey of 255 librarians and college professors and obtained their opinions of three elements of back of book indexes.

• Both groups overwhelmingly preferred line-by-line subheadings to the run-on arrangement, even though many books use the latter format.

• Almost all librarians preferred word-by-word alphabetization to the letter-by-letter method, but only about two thirds of the professors shared this preference.

• Strongest disagreement between the two groups occurred when most of the librarians preferred see references to duplicate entries, while most professors selected duplicate entries instead of see references.

• The article concludes that indexers and developers of indexing standards should consider the preferences of index users.

15

Should authors index their own books?

• Wishes to learn the details of and then apply the publisher's style sheet for indexing

• Understands or wants to learn the established principles and standards of information retrieval (there are many, and they are detailed, often contradictory or unintuitive and thus many decisions have to be made to make the index truly useful to the reader, remembering the while that an index is not an outline)

• Can lead the reader into the book via the index rather than rewriting the book in the index can express complex ideas concisely

• Owns and knows how to use to fullest advantage software adequate for the indexing project, remembering that both index cards and a word processor fail to offer the de-scattering and subentry alphabetizing benefits (among others) of the three professional software packages

• Can face yet another deadline - remembering that the index cannot be written when the book is in manuscript form; it requires final pagination to be completed first. By then the printer date is often set in stone so the index deadline can be tight

• Can separate her- or himself from the book in order to write the index instead of revising/rewriting the book yet again

16

Index quality

• Some principles of good indexing include:– Ensure each of your topics/sections includes a variety

of relevant index entries; use two or three entries per topic

– Understand your audience and understand what kind of index entries they're likely to look for

– Use the same form throughout (singular vs. plural, capitalisation, etc.), using standard indexing conventions

17

Indexing Pitfalls

• Significant topics with no index entries at all • Indexing 'mere mentions' --- "But John Major was no Winston

Churchill..." indexed under 'Churchill, Winston' • Circular cross-references: 'Felidae. See Cats' --- 'Cats. See Felidae' • References to discussions of a single topic scattered among several

main headings: 'Cats, 50-62' --- 'Felidae, 175-183' • Inconsistently indexing similar topics • Confusing similar names: Henry V of England, Henri V of France • Incorrect alphabetization: 'α-Linolenic acid' under 'A' instead of 'L' • Inappropriate inversions: 'processors, word' for 'word processors' • Inappropriate subheadings: 'processors: food, 213-6; word, 33-7' • Computer indexing from section headings: e.g. 'Getting to know

your printer' under 'G'

18

Indexer Roles

• Specific formats, such as scholarly books, microforms, web indexing (the application of a back-of-book-style index to a website or intranet), search engine indexing, database indexing (the application of a pre-defined controlled vocabulary such as mesh to articles for inclusion in a database), and periodical indexing (indexing of newspapers, journals, magazines).

• Expertise in controlled vocabularies, taxonomists and ontologists.

• Specialize in particular subject areas, such as anthropology, business, computers, economics, education, government documents, history, law, mathematics, medicine, psychology, and technology.

19

Indexing skills

Among them are:

1. Text analysis — an ability to identify significant concepts and themes in a text and to represent them thoroughly yet concisely with suitably formulated index terms; also an ability to recognize and ignore insignificant (passing) mentions of a subject that do not provide the reader with useful information;

2. Organization — an ability to structure conceptual patterns and complexities into meaningful heading/subheading sequences;

3. Consistency in cross-referencing and double posting of entries; 4. A dispassionate ability to anticipate the potential needs of the

book's expected audience.5. Meticulous6. Deep sense of interests,7. Read fast and thoroughly8. Know how to use style sheet 9. Know the boundary of over indexing,

20

How to INDEX??How to INDEX??

21

Indexing process

• Conventional indexing

• The indexer reads through the text, identifying indexable concepts (those for which the text provides useful information and which will be of relevance for the text's readership). Or may use concordances software (see next slide)

• The indexer creates index headings, to represent those concepts, which are phrased such that they can be found when in alphabetical order .

• These headings and their associated locators (indicators to position in the text) are entered into indexing list

• The index is then edited to impose consistency throughout the index.

• Indexers must analyze the text to enable presentation of concepts and ideas in the index that may not be named within the text.

• Always remember that : The index is intended to help the reader, researcher, or information professional, rather than the author, find information, so the indexer must act as a liaison between the text and the its ultimate user.

22

Concordance

• With, you can

• make indexes and word lists

• count word frequencies

• compare different usages of a word

• analyse keywords

• find phrases and idioms

23

Concordances Software

Cobuild Direct (The Bank of English)http://titania.cobuild.collins.co.uk/direct_info.htmlCollins Cobuild English Collocations on CD-ROM

WordSmith v3.0http://www.liv.ac.uk/~ms2928/ http://www1.oup.co.uk/elt/catalogu/multimed/4589846/4589846.html

Ultra Find Mono Conc Ultra Findhttp://www.ultradesign.com/Conc Conc 1.80 http://www.sil.org/computing/conc/Mono-Conc Pro and MonoConc 1.5http://www.athel.com/mono.html

Concordance

•http://www.concordancesoftware.co.uk/

24

Tips

1. …… expected audience.2. Teliti …teliti….3. Minat ….4. Baca …..back to back5. Too EXHAUSTIVE…NOT GOOD,6. MAJOR index should include explaination7. Use Style sheet – kesilapan m/s add

pages, number , pelik, latin words..(editing process )

…A, B C…COLUMN.

25

Qualifiers

• Qualifiers are words or phrases added to a heading or subheading to clarify its meaning or to distinguish among homographs. They may or may not be enclosed in

parentheses: abstracts (abridgments), ...abstracts (pharmaceutical mixtures), ...Hippocrates ("Father of Medicine"), ...Hippocrates of Chios, ...Louis VIII, ...Louis IX,

26

Indexing Software 

• Macrex was the first back-of-the-book indexing software package available for professional indexers. Today, Macrex handles back-of-the-book indexing, periodical indexes and web indexing.

• Cindex provides standard features for indexing books, newspapers and periodicals. These features include sorting, cross-reference checking and formatting.

• SKY Index also provides standard features for back-of-the-book indexing. Advanced features include autocomplete and "drag-and-drop" embedding into Microsoft Word documents.

• wINDEX is a simple, economic indexing tool.   

27

                     

CINDEX byIndexing Research180 Varick StreetSuite 1014New York, New York 10014Platforms: Windows 95 or higher; Power Macintosh running OS 8.0 or higherHome page:   www.indexres.com  

                  

  

MACREX byMacrex Indexing ServicesBeech HouseBurn RoadBlaydon-on-TyneTyne and Wear NE21 6JR, EnglandPlatforms: Windows 3.1, 95, 98, NT and DOSHome page:   www.macrex.com  

                  

  

SKY Index Professional bySKY Software350 Montgomery CircleStephens City, VA 22655Platforms: Windows 3.1 through XPHome page:   www.sky-software.com  

28

A NOTE ABOUT INDEXING SOFTWARE

• Indexing software is a tremendous aid to the professional indexer, but it by no means creates indexes "automatically," any more than a spelling or grammar checker can edit a text on its own.

• Beware of vendors who claim that the services of a professional indexer can be replaced by running a software program on the text of a book.

• The intellectual and analytical work of indexing is the task of the human brain, and no software program can duplicate it.

• Indexing programs available to professional indexers can help the indexer to produce, sort, and manipulate entries; establish subheading sequences; restyle and amend entries; and keep track of what has been indexed where. On the other hand, the indexing add-ons included with word processors and DTP programs are usually far less efficient as aids to creating a high-quality index.

• Source from The Editor's Guide on Working with Indexers

29

Indexing and legal tables creation

• In the editorial and composition side of our business, we provide expert back-of-the-book indexing using experienced, professional indexers.

• We also offer an innovative indexing technology called Apex Integrated Indexing that integrates the back-of-the-book index with the XML file of the work being indexed.

• This enables the generation of page references to numerous editions or formats and directly to the referenced content for electronic publications such as e-books or online versions.

30

Working with a Freelance Indexer

• Editorial Freelancer's Association– http://www.the-efa.org/res/rates.php

• American Society for Indexing– http://www.asindexing.org/site/

editorsguide.shtml

31

What Will It Cost?

• Fees vary for each project depending upon various factors, for example, subject matter, intended audience, and schedule. – depth and complexity

– a computer programming manual written for scientists and engineers will cost more than a book of the same length written on local history or pet care.

– The level of expertise of the indexer will also be a factor; established professionals with good reputations cost more than new indexers who are just starting out.

– by the entry, by the line, or by page of text.

– a fixed rate.

32

Type of Work Estimated Pace Range of Fees

Copyediting, basic 5–10 ms pgs/hr RM25–40/hr

Copyediting, heavy 2–5 ms pgs/hr RM35–50/hr

Substantive | line editing 1–6 ms pgs/hr RM40–65/hr

Developmental editing 1–5 pgs/hr RM50–80/hr

Layout | newsletters 1–4 pgs/hr RM40–70/prn pg

Layout | books 6–10 pgs/hr RM45–85/hr

Indexing 8–20 prn pgs/hr RM35–65/hourRM3.50–12/indexable prn pg

Project management NA RM9.00–20.00/prn pg RM40–70/hr

Proofreading 5–10 ms pgs/hr RM25–35/hr

Researching NA RM25-50/hr

Translating 300–500 wds/hr 20-50¢/wd

Writing 1–3 ms pgs/hr RM50–100/hr RM1–RM2/wd

Transcribing variable RM3–RM5/pg

NOTE   ms = manuscript, prn = printed, pg = page, hr = hour, wd = word

Editorial rates: Type of Work Estimated Pace Range of Fees

33

Fees and Rate

• Fees range from RM2.00 to RM5.00 per index able page. 

• not index able - the material in front of and in back of the main text is,

• Index able - illustrations, tables, graphs and photos usually are indexed.

• The rate for your book will be based on – the subject complexity, – your index specifications, – the number of indexes required per text, – any restrictions on the length of the index and – how quickly the index is needed. 

• request a fee quote based on a chapter or two from the middle of the book to prepare a trial index

34

Quality Index

• A great index is a work of art composed of many different aspects. In order to create such an index, here are some questions you need to ask yourself before indexing

– the style of the index desired, – the type and size of the work being indexed, – the intended audience, – the due dates for both the page proofs and the finished index. – the details regarding index specifics, for example, format, alphabetization, and

the structure of page ranges. – cross-references need to be considered and a format decided upon, as well as

what material is not to be indexed. – details regarding length and depth limitations need to be understood.

35

Alphabetization 1

• Alphabetization is the process of ordering headings in an index.

• Same meaning with the terms filing and sorting.• However, those terms are widely used in other fields in

which they have connotations that may be inappropriate in the field of indexing.

• For example: in other fields, the distinction between upper and lower case letters is often important in sorting; in indexing, it never is.

36

Alphabetization 2

• pronunciation and meaning are ignored today in alphabetization.

• In word-by-word alphabetization, each word in a compound heading is alphabetized in succession and separately.

• If the first words in the headings are equivalent, the second words are compared. If the second are equivalent, the third are compared, and so on until the headings are distinguished from one another.

• In this process, the space character is assigned a value lower than that assigned to any letter, and it is sorted - word-by-word alphabetization is often called the nothing before something system.

37

Alphabetization 3

• In international standards, dashes, hyphens and slashes are assigned the same value as the space character and other punctuation marks, such as commas, apostrophes and single or double quotation marks, are ignored.

• In the Chicago Manual of Style, an important authority in the American publishing community, hyphens, slashes and apostrophes are ignored because they are considered to be characters that continue a word.

• As a result, when the international standards are followed, displeasure counts as one word but dis-pleasure counts as two. When the Chicago Manual of Style is followed, they both count as one word.

38

Strictletter-by-letter

Chicago-styleletter-by-letter

Jones, AdamJonesboroJones MountainJones, Nathan, and FryJones, Otis A. (1896-1963)Jones, Otis A. (1924-1989)Jones, Otis Augustus

Jones, AdamJones, Otis A. (1896-1963)Jones, Otis A. (1924-1989)Jones, Otis AugustusJonesboroJones MountainJones, Nathan, and Fry

Sample of letter-by-letter

39

Letter-by-letter Word-by-word

soulsoulard crabsoul brothersouletinsoul foodsoulfulsoul kisssoullessnesssoul matesoul musicsoul sister

soulsoul brothersoul foodsoul kisssoul matesoul musicsoul sistersoulard crabsouletinsoulfulsoullessness

Sample of word-by-word

40

If you ask another person to Index

• Does the author or editor expect certain terms to appear in the index?

• What is the press style for the index (e.g., run-in vs. indented, page range style, treatment of figures, special coding)?

• What is the schedule (for the press, author, and indexer)? • Are there length limitations?• Will the author review the index before it goes to the press? • What is the indexer's fee and how will it be paid (by press, perhaps

out of royalties, or by the author)? • What is the preferred delivery format of the index?

41

Societies

• Indexing Society of Canada • American Society for Indexing • Australian and New Zealand Society of

Indexers • China Society of Indexers • Society of Indexers • Nederlands Indexers Netwerk (NIN)• Persatuan Pengindeks Malaysia ??

42

Indexer Jokes

• OLD INDEXERS NEVER DIE, THEY JUST ........• passim away

see under six feetdecompilego back to the contentsgo back to page onerepaginatepage awaycross their referencesfile awayDavid A. GreenDavid A. GreenGil OsgoodPadi HarmonPadi HarmonPadi HarmonPaul IllesSavannah BarnesNancy ClineYour name here

______________________

43

If we weren't called Indexers, what would we be called?

indicantsgnomonizersindexicalologistsfistidiographerscatagormaticalsumographersOriginal Search EngineersDirectorsCollectorsInventoriersSearch GuidesPromptersSniffersEnlightenersInformation Retrieval SpecialistsGuidance CounselorsIndicatorsTrailblazersTelltalesTreasure MappersNavigation ExpertsTopographer extraordinairesOrder-MongersAbcedariansPye-makers

LighthousersDisclosersPointersHint-giversMapstersTipstersInformantsTriangulatorsHighlightersDeNote-rsPasswordersNeat-NicksFlaggersDistillersTattlersFingerersEssence-FindersLegend WritersUnscramblersDeCryption ExpertsSite SightersBearing FindersInformation ArchitectsKey Coders

44

Conventions/principle/law/standard/custom/practice of

indexing

• headings at all levels are hanging paragraphs; • subheadings are indented from the hanging

portion of the higher level heading; • cross-references are separated from headings

and subheadings by a period and space, and are capitalized and colored, and;

• See also cross-references follow the last subheading. The hanging paragraph convention allows the level of the entries to remain obvious as the window displaying them is re-sized.

45

References• Diodato, V. (1994). User preferences for features in back of book indexes. Journal of the

American Society for Information Science, 45(7), 529-536.Diodato, V. & Gandt, G. (1991). Back of book indexes and the characteristics of author and nonauthor indexing: Report of an exploratory study. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 42(5), 341-350.

Enser, P. G. B. (1985). Automatic classification of book material represented by back-of-the-book index. Journal of Documentation, 41(3), 135-155.

• Fugmann, R. (2006). Das Buchregister Methodische Grundlagen und praktische Anwendung. Frankfurt am Main: DGI. (DGI Schrift; Informationswissenschaft - 10).Grosch, A. N. (1986). Index-aid: Computer assisted back-of-the-book indexing. Electronic Library, 4(5), 278-280.

• Hornyak, B. (2002).  Indexing Specialties: Psychology. Medford, NJ :Information Today, Inc.

• Kendrick, P. & Zafran, E. L. (Eds.). (2001). Indexing Specialties: Law. Medford, NJ :Information Today, Inc.

• School of Library, archival and information studies, The University of British Columbia. Indexing resources on the WWW. Back-of-the-Book indexing. http://www.slais.ubc.ca/resources/indexing/backof2.htm

•  Schütze, H. (1998). The Hypertext Concordance: A Better Back-of-the-Book Index. In Proceedings of Computerm '98 (Montreal, Canada, 1998), D. Bourigault, C. Jacquemin, and M.-C. L'Homme, Eds., pp. 101-104.

• Stauber, D. M. (2004). Facing the text: Content and structure in book indexing. 1st ed. Eugene, Or.: Cedar Row Press.

• Towery, M. (Ed.). (1998). Indexing Specialties: History. Medford, NJ :Information Today, Inc.

• Wyman, L. P. (Ed.). (1999). Indexing Specialities: Medicine. Medford, NJ :Information Today, Inc.