Members

Announcing Magpie Kudos

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It was suggested by a member that the Tamarack Award for Volunteer of the Year and the president’s Certificates of Recognition are well and good, but they don’t provide an opportunity for the membership to have a say in thanking people.

And so we created the Magpie Kudos award. It’s a fun, easy, and distinctive way for a member to thank another member who has made a difference to them. As an award giver, you simply fill out the short form with the name of the recipient and a few sentences on what you would like to thank them for. The more specific, the more effective the award. You can even express your gratitude anonymously.

The award recipient will receive an attractive, archive-worthy thank-you email, and recognition in an upcoming issue of the Bulletin.

To give a Magpie Kudos, visit the Member Dashboard at any time and look for the Magpie Kudos link. Or follow the link here.

ISC/SCI member wins the Purple Pen award

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The Institute of Certified Indexers has announced that Jess Klaassen-Wright has won the 2020 Purple Pen Competition. Jess’s index appears in the book Deep Knowledge: Ways of Knowing in Sufism and Ifa, Two West African Intellectual Traditions by Oludamini Ogunnaike (to be published in October 2020 by Pennsylvania State University Press).

Jess created an index for this 450-page book which deals with interdisciplinary practice combining the fields of religion and philosophy, a most challenging text for a newer indexer. The judges noted Jess’s work for its attention to detail in a book with many non-English terms and diacritics, and for the web of connections she built through many helpful cross-references, especially linking the foreign phrases to their English synonyms.

Jess Klaassen-Wright

In response to the news of Jess’s award, the author, Oludamini Ogunnaike, wrote: “Jess was amazing. While doing the indexing, she caught several typos and mistakes in the text that the copyeditor and I had missed, and did a remarkable job tracing the arguments and concepts across the book, which is quite long and complicated—involving terms in Arabic, Yoruba, French, and English, and multiple conceptual traditions. Her index has made the book much easier to navigate and provided a sympathetic and insightful guide for readers. I was particularly impressed by the way she tracked distinct, but related concepts across the different traditions discussed, and represented both these distinctions and relations in the index. Ms. Klaasen-Wright was also incredibly professional and worked remarkably swiftly and carefully, I cannot recommend her work highly enough.”

With her undergraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan (major in English and minors in Spanish and psychology), Jess completed her indexing training at Simon Fraser University and then participated in the Mary Newberry Mentorship Program of the Indexing Society of Canada / Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI).  In particular, Jess has appreciated the guidance of such well-known indexers as Noeline Bridge and Audrey McClelland. 

Jess completed her first index in 2019 for a scholarly monograph on the history of magic in Elizabethan England. Since then, she has indexed books in local and oral history, biography, Black feminism and feminist theory, English literature, biblical studies, international relations, and agrarian politics and economics. In addition to indexing, she works as a freelance copy editor and proofreader. An active member of the ISC/SCI, she serves on the Society’s Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Committee (TIDE).

This is the seventh year that the international contest has been held by ICI, and the fifth time that a Canadian indexer has won the prize. For a list of previous winners, please see certifiedindexers.com.

2020 Diversity in Canadian Publishing Bursary Award: Sandra Muchekeza

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August 31, 2020, Toronto: The Indexing Society of Canada / Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI) is pleased to announce that Sandra Muchekeza is the 2020 ISC/SCI Diversity in Canadian Publishing Bursary Award recipient. The selection committee received ten applications, from which four applicants were shortlisted.

Sandra Muchekeza was born and raised in Kenya before moving to Australia for her Bachelor studies in Psychology. After completing her studies, she joined her family in Toronto, Canada where she started a career in Project Management in the not for profit sector. Over time, Sandra developed a keen interest in Diversity, Equality and Inclusion and works hard to ensure the voices of the marginalized are heard.

Sandra is currently the Executive Director at the Council of Canadians of African and Caribbean Heritage (CCACH) based in Edmonton, Alberta. CCACH supports activities that enhance the social, economic and educational life of African and Caribbean heritage communities in Edmonton. Passionate about the rights of women in every aspect of their lives, Sandra sits on the Board of YWCA Edmonton an organization that fights for the right to equal economic opportunities for women and girls and works towards ending gender-based violence.

Sandra loves the world of books so it is hardly a surprise that she and her sister founded a children’s books publishing company called Asili Kids. The company produces and distributes books which have content and characters that children of African heritage can identify with and introduces children from all over the world to African stories.

Married with two young boys Sandra loves spending quality time with her family, dabbling with photography, trying out new food recipes and of course, reading.

About the award

Since 2014, when the hashtag #weneeddiversebooks appeared, the Canadian publishing industry has slowly been waking up to both the lack of diverse voices and the demand for them. With this bursary, ISC/SCI aims to help achieve equality of opportunity for aspiring indexers belonging to underrepresented and/or marginalized groups. The bursary covers fees for an approved indexing program, two years of ISC membership with listing, and entry into the Mary Newberry Mentorship program.

Indexing Society of Canada congratulates winner of 2019 Purple Pen Competition

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Photo of Vivian UngerToronto: The Indexing Society of Canada / Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI) is proud to recognize one of its members, Vivian Unger, for winning the 2019 Purple Pen Competition.

“This is such a wonderful accomplishment for Vivian, and on behalf of the Indexing Society of Canada, I offer my wholehearted congratulations,” said Alexandra Peace, President of ISC/SCI. “This award is a testament to Vivian’s great work, and a validation of the value that a professional indexer brings to each book. I encourage all ISC members to consider entering future competitions.”

The Institute of Certified Indexers issued the following announcement of Vivian’s accomplishment:

“Vivian Unger, of New Brunswick and a member of the Indexing Society of Canada, has won the 2019 Purple Pen Competition sponsored by the Institute of Certified Indexers. Her index appears in the book Too Dumb for Democracy?: Why We Make Bad Political Decisions and How We Can Make Better Ones by David Moscrop (published in March 2019 by Goose Lane Editions). She wrote a 10-page index for this 240-page political commentary, and the judges found her work to capture the author’s main themes and show a good web of terminology including many helpful cross-references and buzzwords from the field and author’s text.

The author, David Moscrop, wrote, “A book’s index is essential. A good index can make the difference between a volume being useful for accessing or sharing knowledge and being a frustrating experience of searching for your keys in the dark. Vivian’s index of Too Dumb for Democracy? is excellent. She broke down a complex subject into its essential parts and helped make the book accessible and, above all, useful.”

The production editor, Alan Shepherd of Goose Lane Editions, commented, “I’m thrilled for Vivian and hope that this award will allow her to grow her career and client base. The Press was delighted with the index that she produced for our book, Too Dumb for Democracy? Vivian’s index covers both people and events as well as abstract concepts and technical political language. She was able to quickly absorb and synthesize the ideas in the book and delivered a sterling index right on schedule.”

Vivian, who holds a B.A. from McGill University (major: CompSci, minor: Classics), completed the University of California, Berkeley, course “Indexing: Theory and Application” in 2017. She is the fourth Canadian to win the Purple Pen competition in its six-year history. Former winners include Stephen Ullstom (2014), Frances Curry (2015), and Sergey Lobachev (2017).

Vivian says that she landed her first professional indexing project in early 2018, a scholarly work on Cubist and Futurist art. Since then, she has indexed feminist history and biography. She hopes to index more political books in the future and to expand into the fields of science and technology. She serves on the national council of Fair Vote Canada, an organization that advocates for replacing Canada’s current voting system with a proportional representation system. She wrote, “Juggling the demands of electoral reform activism and an indexing career can be challenging. However, I believe this interest makes me well suited to work in the field of political science. I was therefore happy for the opportunity to index David Moscrop’s book Too Dumb for Democracy?”

All entrants receive a detailed feedback scoresheet that combines the comments from three judges. The judging is done anonymously by members of the Institute of Certified Indexers (ICI).  The winner receives a check for $100 USD as well as the publicity of appearing on the ICI website: www.certifiedindexers.com and notification to the book’s publisher and author. This honor also helps the new indexer in terms of building confidence and gaining career satisfaction. The members of ICI all endorse this as a successful way to mentor new indexers who benefit from a detailed review of their work. New indexers should watch for the announcement of the 2020 competition in late spring/early summer 2020.”

The Indexing Society of Canada | Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI) is Canada’s professional society of indexers. Our mission is to encourage the production and use of indexes, promote the recognition of indexers, improve indexing techniques, and foster communication among individual indexers across Canada. Our vision is “Accessible information; informed people.” Learn more at indexers.ca.

2019 Tamarack Award: Stephen Ullstrom

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The Tamarack Award was instituted to recognize members who go “above and beyond the call of duty” in their volunteer work for the Society. According to ISC president Alexandra Peace and past president Margaret de Boer, it was an easy decision to recognize the 2019 recipient, Stephen Ullstrom.

Stephen, who lives in Edmonton, was chosen because of his dedication and valuable input on the executive committee and for his commitment as the Prairies and Northern Canada regional representative for the past two years and agreeing to remain as the representative for an additional period. He is also being recognized for his strong vision of a mentorship program for the Society and for bringing it to fruition.

“We are thrilled to present this award to Stephen, and we are honoured to have him as a member of our society,” said Alexandra and Margaret. “Thank you, Stephen, for all you have given to the Society and its membership.” And here’s what some of Stephen’s colleagues on the executive had to say:

Pierre Joyal, Vice-President: “Stephen was the driving force behind the mentorship program. He was its initial sponsor, the originator of the concept and saw it to fruition. It would not have happened without his commitment and dedication, his work efforts, and determination to seeing it through. We are grateful for the work he accomplished and congratulate him on a well-deserved award.”

JoAnne Burek, Website Administrator: “As the regional representative for the Prairies and Northern Canada, Stephen genuinely cares about the well-being of his colleagues. He ensures that every few months they get together for conversation about business, indexing, work/life balance—whatever they want to talk about—even though they are spread across three provinces and into the States.”

Congratulations to Stephen on his accomplishments and for this special recognition.

Past recipients of the Tamarack Award and other ISC awards can be found on the awards page.

2019 Tamarack Award recipient Stephen Ullstrom

Stephen Ullstrom (second from left) receives the 2019 Tamarack Award from members of the ISC Executive.

Photo credit: JoAnne Burek