Talk:Index (publishing)

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A map of contents?

I deleted "Ideally, an index is not simply a list of the major terms in a publication, but an organized map of its contents." Indexes are usually simply lists, not "maps", aren't they? Nurg 05:54, 14 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Actually no, they aren't. An index is far more than just a list of terms -- that is more properly called a concordance. An index makes connections among terms in the text (see also references), groups like concepts to make it easier for the reader to find all references to a topic, identifies preferred terms but also adds common terms under which the average reader might expect to find something with a "see" reference directing them to the correct term, and much much more. Bookgrrl 14:30, 18 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You may be confusing the word 'map'. This is not referring to a literal atlas or triptick. This is referring to the use of the word map that is used in relation with mathematics and computing, in that it is a link (rather, a set of links) between you and the content. A set of links, or the transformation of the understanding of your expectation of content, to the actual content, can thought of as "mapping" the content. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Jfroelich (talk • contribs) 19:13, 8 January 2007 (UTC).[reply]

syntax query

I'm not going to be bold and rush in and change it, 'cos maybe I'm just having one of those days, but I reckon that the following subsection:

Index quality

Everyone has experienced a bad index; it's almost worse than no index at all. Some principles of good indexing include:[2]

Ensure each of your topics/sections includes a variety of relevant index entries; use two or three entries per topic

Analyse 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.), preferably using standard indexing conventions

One grouping approach uses nouns as the first level entries with verbs as the second level

would read better as follows:
Everyone has...

Ensuring...
Analysing...
Using...
Using...

Feedback, anyone? Regards, --Technopat (talk) 18:36, 30 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Reference section

This article is helpful about principles of indexing, but the reference section is less than helpful; for example, some of the books listed do not have proper citations, so I (who want to know about indexing) am not sure where to find them. Can whoever added the refs provide proper citations? Or will I have to do it, as part of some cunningly-prearranged scheme to make me a better editor? Lexo (talk) 00:43, 21 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Index Quality

The example for the next-to-last pitfall is unclear and should be changed.

Failure to sort properly: e.g. placing 'McTavish' after 'MacRobertson' instead of after 'machines'

If I'm interpreting it right, the issue seems to be whether 'McTavish' should be sorted as M-C or as M-A-C. However, these three headings will appear in the order

machines
MacRobertson
McTavish

regardless of which convention is used. Perhaps replacing 'machines' with 'McTaggart' gets closer to what was intended.

Devising an example of a sorting mistake based on "Mc" names is a little awkward to do, because practice varies. It used to be that "Mc" was treated as if spelled M-A-C, but recently it's become common to alphabetize exactly as spelled. Alarich2 (talk) 21:56, 9 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

History of indexes

Needed : When the first book with an index has been published? How indexes have changed over time. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.67.232.89 (talk) 13:09, 2 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Indexing of serials

Another topic to be added to this article: indexing of serials (newspapers, magazines, etc.). --Una Smith (talk) 00:35, 22 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Removed, unsourced sections.

Several were removed, but if referenced should go back. -- Jeandré, 2011-07-10t18:37z

"Appendix"

The usage and primary topic of Appendix is under discussion, see talk:Vermiform appendix -- 70.51.203.69 (talk) 05:46, 20 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

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Indexing using Excel

It is easy to make Indexes using Excel, perhaps this should be added to the article 86.143.211.107 (talk) 20:48, 25 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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Index journal

create a section about the quality indicator for scholarly journals called journal indexing please , below the reference: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3354504/ Hastengeims (talk) 16:55, 16 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Addressing cleanup template for §Further Reading

Motivated by the {{further cleanup}} tag, I removed the following 14 items from § Further Reading. All frame quotes are from Wikipedia:Further reading § Considerations for inclusion of entries.

I included a few additional notes for decisions that felt less self-explanatory, and am writing exhaustively 1) in case anyone would like to restore any of the items I removed and 2) because I'm still a relatively new editor, and welcome feedback.

⁂

§ Topical

Preference is normally given to works that cover the whole subject of the article rather than a specific aspect of the subject[.]

Items removed (4)
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. 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.

§ Reliable

Editors most frequently choose high-quality reliable sources.

Item removed (1) and explanation

The following link is interesting to me personally, but it's just another list of links to other works on the topic (which doesn't really put it in category of "reliable sources").^[a]

School of Library, archival and information studies, The University of British Columbia. Indexing resources on the WWW. Back-of-the-Book indexing. Hentet fra: https://web.archive.org/web/20140805233922/http://www.slais.ubc.ca/resources/indexing/backof2.htm

§ Available access

Cited items that are accessible--especially online or through a librarian--are preferred. Items that are very hard to obtain are much less useful.

Items removed (8) and explanation

What also made me inclined to remove some of the immediately following links, given that accessibility of sources is just a preference, is that many are quite old at this point,^[b] and are not for historical reference.^[c]

Booth, Pat F. (2001). Indexing: the manual of good practice. München: K.G. Saur. ISBN 3-598-11536-9. OCLC 47708802.
Diodato, Virgil (1994). "User preferences for features in back of book indexes". Journal of the American Society for Information Science. 45 (7). Wiley: 529–536. doi:10.1002/(sici)1097-4571(199408)45:7<529::aid-asi7>3.0.co;2-o. ISSN 0002-8231.
Enser, P. G. B. (1985). "Automatic classification of book material represented by back-of-the-book index". Journal of Documentation. 41 (3). Emerald: 135–155. doi:10.1108/eb026777. ISSN 0022-0418.
Grosch, Audry N. (1986-05-01). "Index‐Aid: Computer‐assisted back‐of‐the‐book indexing". The Electronic Library. 4 (5). Emerald: 278–280. doi:10.1108/eb044713. ISSN 0264-0473.
Schütze, H. (1998). The Hypertext Concordance: A Better Back-of-the-Book Index. I: Proceedings of Computerm ´98 (Montreal, Canada, 1998). D. Bourigault, C. Jacquemin, and M.-C. L´Homme, Eds., pp. 101–104.
Smith, Sherry & Kells, Kari (2005) Inside Indexing: the Decision-Making Process (Northwest Indexing Press), ISBN 0-9771035-0-1
Stauber, Do Mi (2004) Facing the Text: Content and Structure in Book Indexing (Cedar Row Press) ISBN 0-9748345-0-5
Wellisch, Hans (1995) Indexing from A to Z, 2nd ed. (H. W. Wilson) ISBN 0-8242-0807-2

We can assume that all users can read English, but we cannot assume they can read foreign languages.

Item removed (1)
Fugmann, Robert (2006). Das Buchregister: methodische Grundlagen und praktische Anwendung (in German). Frankfurt am Main: DGI. ISBN 978-3-925474-59-0.

Notes

^ See Wikipedia:Reliable sources § Self-published sources (online and paper).
^ All were published 19 or more years ago. For this article's purposes, I'm treating the topic of best practices in indexing as an information science, and so am interpreting the § Use up-to-date evidence guidance for science in particular.
^ For example, a 1986 article on the oldest printed indexes^[1] and a 1973 article on medieval practices.^[2]

Cite error: A list-defined reference named "Wellisch1986" is not used in the content (see the help page).

Sources

^ Wellisch, Hans H. (1986). "The oldest printed indexes". The Indexer: The International Journal of Indexing. 15 (2). Liverpool University Press: 73–82. doi:10.3828/indexer.1986.15.2.5. eISSN 1756-0632. ISSN 0019-4131.
^ Witty, Francis J. (1973). "The Beginnings of Indexing and Abstracting: Some Notes towards a History of Indexing and Abstracting in Antiquity and the Middle Ages". The Indexer: The International Journal of Indexing. 8 (4). Liverpool University Press: 193–198. doi:10.3828/indexer.1973.8.4.1.

spida-tarbell 𐡸 (talk • contribs) 07:08, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

[1] See Wikipedia:Reliable sources § Self-published sources (online and paper).

[2] All were published 19 or more years ago. For this article's purposes, I'm treating the topic of best practices in indexing as an information science, and so am interpreting the § Use up-to-date evidence guidance for science in particular.

[5] For example, a 1986 article on the oldest printed indexes^[1] and a 1973 article on medieval practices.^[2]

[3] Wellisch, Hans H. (1986). "The oldest printed indexes". The Indexer: The International Journal of Indexing. 15 (2). Liverpool University Press: 73–82. doi:10.3828/indexer.1986.15.2.5. eISSN 1756-0632. ISSN 0019-4131.

[4] Witty, Francis J. (1973). "The Beginnings of Indexing and Abstracting: Some Notes towards a History of Indexing and Abstracting in Antiquity and the Middle Ages". The Indexer: The International Journal of Indexing. 8 (4). Liverpool University Press: 193–198. doi:10.3828/indexer.1973.8.4.1.

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