Comments on: No Index. Maybe No Book?

By: walt

walt — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:09:42 +0000

Jim: Asimov discussed his indexing methods in his multivolume autobiography. As I remember, he used lots of 3×5 cards…

While I’d like to regard Asimov as a “style model,” that’s probably wishful thinking…and I’ll never have a fraction of his sheer productivity.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:46:39 +0000

This reminds me of Isaac Asimov. I don’t know how he did it, but did the indexes for all of his books on his own. Back before word processing! I guess he just did it as he went or something. I can’t fathom it. Thanks for the updates.

By: walt

walt — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:54:06 +0000

Mark, Michael: Thanks, both.

Michael: The problem with a crowdsourced index before publication is that people would have to work from PDF copies (.docx files would repaginate as soon as they were opened because the students wouldn’t have the same typefaces I use)–as for after publication, if enough LIS people thought the book was worthwhile to do that, I’d be delighted. I never know how/whether any of my stuff gets used in LIS…although, with “Library 2.0 and ‘Library 2.0′” I have my suspicions…

Both: See the status update in the post.

By: Michael Sensiba

Michael Sensiba — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:42:02 +0000

When I was an LIS student at Wayne State University, our Indexing & Abstracting class took on several indexing project, including indexing the journal JELIS. Perhaps this “crowdsourcing” solution would solve your problem and provide a valuable learning opportunity to future librarians.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:51:28 +0000

I am a fan of (good) indexes but many works of non-fiction have no index.

Patrick Wilson’s Two Kinds of Power has no index (A crime I tell you!) but if Wilson can do it so can you, if you have to.