The Indexing Society of Canada / Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI) is Canada’s national association of indexers.
We invite you to find an indexer for your project, read our publications, discover our conferences, events, and resources for indexers, find out about membership, and learn about the Society.
Find an indexer
Find an indexer who works in the subject area of your project.
Find resources
Find information about indexes, indexing practices, and training in indexing.
Attend an event
Attend a local meeting of indexers or attend the annual conference.
Become a member
Join the Society and enjoy the benefits of membership.
Featured Post
What practices will help me with good index term selection?
Basic Cyber-security for Working at Home
Indexing Society of Canada
If you’re an indexer who works from home—which is all of us these days—maintaining your internet and device security is critical. But keeping up to date on best practices is not so easy.
In just an hour you can fix that by watching this recorded webinar called “Basic Cyber-security for Working at Home”. It was given this week by Jon Lewis at CIRA, the not-for-profit domain registry for “.ca” domains, and webnames.ca, the web hosting service that hosts our website indexers.ca.
Using plain language and only the most basic technical terms, it covers WIFI, your personal devices, passwords, backups, and phishing. Jon says this is an especially vulnerable time for computer users, as criminals are exploiting the COVID-19 crisis. And that’s what makes this presentation so timely.
The presentation is on Youtube. If you want the slides, you can download them from webnames.ca’s blog. Next week they plan to post the Q&As from the webinar on the blog.
2020 Conference Cancelled
Indexing Society of Canada
Given the World Health Organization’s announcement of a pandemic, we have determined to move forward with an abundance of caution. ISC/SCI is cancelling this year’s conference.
We have no plans to hold any online presentations, but intend to hold the conference next year in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Planning for next year’s conference—which we hope to be similar to what we had planned for this year—will start again in September, 2020.
If you registered for the conference, your fees will be refunded to you over the next week. If you do not receive a notice about your refund by March 25, please contact treasurer@indexers.ca.
We are sad and disappointed to announce this, but hope that everyone stays safe and well and comes to see us next year in Newfoundland!
Information as a Key to Democracy
JoAnne Burek
Access to government information is one of the key elements of a thriving democracy. And it’s the government’s responsibility to be the stewards of that information.
One aspect of governments’ stewardship is defining the scope of the information. To illustrate, if the scope is everything produced by government, does it include voter cards, power bill inserts, and tourism brochures? This sounds a bit like the indexer’s perennial question, “Is it indexable?”
Another aspect of government’s stewardship is making the information accessible…especially when it comes to those dense reports. Clearly, the solution is indexes. And because governments are always producing reports, the opportunities for indexers who do this kind of work is probably endless.
Thanks to Max McMaster, you can learn all about indexing government reports and the specific skills that are needed when you come to the conference in St. John’s, Newfoundland June 12-13.
Register here on the conference page.
National Indexing Day
Indexing Society of Canada
Congratulations to the Society of Indexers on organizing their fourth annual National Indexing Day on March 31. They are holding a half-day conference on book indexing that will be of interest to editors and anyone else in the publishing industry.
If you have friends and colleagues near London, England, why not let them know. Here’s a link to the press release.
Newfoundland: What to see, do and read
JoAnne Burek
The conference in Newfoundland is just 15 weeks away. Have you thought about what you’re going to do on your visit?
Our conference planning team member and Newfoundland resident, Trine Schioldan, has put together a few lists to help you make the most of your time there.
About this stamp: Before Newfoundland joined Confederation in 1949, they printed their own stamps. This one celebrates the Newfoundland working dog and can be purchased from collectors like this one.
What to see and do in St. Johns and beyond has something for everyone—from arts and history to archeology, and wildlife. (Curious about Newfoundland’s historical role in aging port wine? It’s on the list.)
Reading is the next best way to immerse yourself in an area’s history and culture. Newfoundland and Labrador Books: Recommended Reading brings together a collection of historical and modern favourites about Newfoundland and the people who live there.
And finally, don’t forget to check out and bookmark the province’s own tourism website at newfoundlandandlabrador.com. It’s comprehensive and beautiful.