Members

The Institute of Certified Indexes (ICI) is pleased to announce that Elizabeth Bartmess has won the 2023 award in this contest for new indexers.

Elizabeth is a San Francisco Bay Area indexer with a background in the social and information sciences. Her formal indexing training includes American Society for Indexing’s Module A and the UC Berkeley’s extension course. She holds an MS in Information, an MS in Psychology, and a Certificate in Culture and Cognition from the University of Michigan, and a BA in Psychology from Rice University. Her previous work experience includes data management and statistical programming, project management, and writing and editing.

She discovered indexing in 2022 while exploring freelance editing as a potential career.
Elizabeth is a member of American Society for Indexing (ASI) and Indexing Society of Canada / Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI) and serves as the Program Co-Chair and Co-Webmaster for ASI’s Pacific Northwest Chapter.

Her award-winning index can be found in the book « Immanent Critiques: The Frankfurt School Under Pressure » by Martin Jay, published in 2023 by Verso. This book is a collection of essays applying the Frankfurt School’s tradition of immanent critique as established by the philosophers Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, and Max Horkheimer. The focus concerns their analyses of anti-Semitism and Zionism, in addition to Marxist themes: the meaning of alienation, the alleged damages of abstraction, and the advocacy of a politics based on a singular notion of the truth. A very difficult book targeted at scholars already familiar with this School.

The judges found that Elizabeth had met this challenge by setting up a solid structure to her index. Through a network of cross-references she linked the various discussions of the main themes. She also produced accurate and thorough work, all commendable for a new indexer.
Elizabeth was commissioned for this job as a subcontractor of Potomac Indexing, LLC. The managing partner of Potomac, Estalita Slivoskey, wrote that there was no guidance from the publisher and author on how to approach the indexing. She said, “Elizabeth should be very proud of this index, and of winning this award, as she did a wonderful job.”
The submissions in the contest are reviewed anonymously by a panel of three judges. Each indexer receives detailed feedback on the index with examples of areas in which to improve. Entrants who compete come from the UK, US, and Canada, and have completed indexing training in the previous five years.

In addition to a cash award of $100 USD, the winner participates in a Zoom session with the judges to get individualized guidance on indexing techniques and business tips.

This year, 2023, is the tenth and final year of ICI conducting the contest. A list of winners for the ten years can be found on the ICI website: www.certifiedindexers.com.

December 5, 2023

Life hacks are simple and clever tips or techniques for accomplishing a familiar task more easily and efficiently. Indexing life hacks are all about working smarter at the job of indexing. Four experts share the hacks they use to save time, minimize stress, and increase efficiency. Whether you’re wrestling with PDFs or footnotes, tracking clients and projects, or searching for a more comfortable office setup, we’ve got you covered. Join us December 5 for Indexing Life Hacks, a three-hour program crafted just for you.

Show Those PDFs Who’s Boss

Your client sends you a PDF with two-page spreads. Now what? Whip your PDFs in shape, that’s what. Learn how to break apart a spread, work around secured files, and renumber pages so that the PDF page 1 matches the book page 1. Hear various other hacks you can use when working with PDFs.

Kendra Millis began indexing in 2008, after completing the UC-Berkeley indexing course. She left a career in international education and chose to become a freelancer so she could return to her home state of Maine to raise her daughter. Her educational background is in Russian literature and social philosophy, although her indexing work spans a broad range of topics. She is currently one of the UC-Berkeley instructors and also owns a small fiber-arts business. She has chaired numerous ASI committees, served on the Board of Directors and was president of ASI in 2017–2018.

Project Tracking Like a Pro

Marilyn Augst figured out after her first few indexes years ago that she needed an organizational system to keep track of projects, clients, and payments. She uses the same system today. Hear her insights on organizing info on clients, projects, and statistics. Tracking when projects are coming in, planning how you need to allocate your time, and scheduling time for administrative work improves efficiency. Learn from a pro her system for handling project tracking.

Marilyn Augst has been a member of ASI since 1996, writing indexes for textbooks and trade books in math, engineering, physics, environmental sciences, education, service learning, and history. She was active in the Heartland Chapter, holding every committee chair and office at some point, and some offices twice, from 1998 thru 2009, and as one member said, “You were president for two centuries!” During Covid (2020), she and her tech support (aka husband) moved from Indiana back to her home state of Minnesota. Without in-person meetings, she has not yet met all the Upper Midwest Chapter folks, but hopes to in the coming years.

Making Work Feel Less Like Work

Your office setup plays a big role in how you feel at the end of the day, and it shouldn’t feel like you’ve been doing manual labor. Dr. Lindsay McGraw, expert on office ergonomics, reveals how you can achieve ergonomic health by properly setting up your office, noticing what hurts and discovering why, and establishing healthy habits for long-term wellness.

Dr. Lindsay McGraw, physical therapist, ergonomic expert, orthopedic certified specialist, and wellness enthusiast, started Marka Health in 2016 after recognizing that many of the injuries she was treating were preventable. Today she consults with top tech companies to keep their employees pain free and productive.

And Furthermore…: Tips for Indexing Notes

Often a bane in indexers’ lives, especially for those working in scholarly indexing, footnotes and endnotes need special attention. This session will provide some general guidelines for indexing notes, as well as tips to help speed your notes indexing. We’ll look at a number of different examples of types of notes and will discuss them as examples of what one often encounters in the thicket of notes.

Since 1995, Fred Leise has been indexing a broad variety of texts, specializing in scholarly works in international relations, cultural and political history, film studies, music, and contemporary social issues. His index to Art and Affection: A Life of Virginia Woolf was shortlisted for the 1997 Excellence in Indexing Award, the only time that a shortlist has been announced for that honor. Fred also works as a freelance taxonomy consultant, having completed projects for several Fortune 500 companies, as well as a number of clients in the hospitality and travel industry.

Get more details and register at
https://www.asindexing.org/news/special-event-indexing-life-hacks/
ISC/SCI members can register at the member rate using the coupon code available in the Member Dashboard.

A three-part course with Theresa Duran. Presented on October 11, 18, and 25, 2023.

Art books represent a thriving segment of the publishing industry. They encompass a variety of book categories—from coffee-table books to exhibition catalogues to academic or technical studies—and an even greater array of subjects. What art books all have in common is an abundance of illustrations. The indexer must understand the conventions pertaining to specific types of artworks and the expectations that clients might have about the indexing of images.

This three-part course offers a comprehensive guide to the glorious world of art books. It begins with an overview of the field, then dives straight into the thicket of artist names, art titles, captions, and illustration locators. It wraps up with practical tips and strategies for avoiding clashes with clients, troubleshooting common problems (particularly index length restrictions), and finding work. Each session is filled with examples from actual art books. Additional examples and resources are included in the handout.

The course is designed to benefit both novice indexers who are interested in breaking into the field and experienced indexers who would like to hone their skills and gain confidence in their approach. Some of the tactics covered can be applied to books in other disciplines.

Course Overview

Session 1
Art Books: The Big Picture

• My background in art publishing
• Types of art books and their challenges
• Types of art publishers and indexing clients
• Q&A

Session 2
Artworks, Artists, and Locators

• Common image organization schemes
• A to Z of art captions
• Illustration locators
• Treatment of art titles
• Treatment of artists
• Q&A

Session 3
Projects: Getting Started, Troubleshooting, Finding Work

• Questions to ask at the start of a project
• Managing length restrictions
• Setting rates and bidding on projects
• Getting established in the field
• Resources
• Q&A

Please note: Attendance at the live sessions is not required. Registration entitles you to “on demand” access to the course and unlimited repeat viewings after the initial sessions have aired.

About our Presenter
Theresa Duran, PhD, is a former staff editor at a publishing house that specialized in art books, calendars, and other products for museum gift shops. She left that position in 2005 to become a full-time freelancer, offering indexing, copyediting, and proofreading services. In the past few years, Theresa has come to focus on the indexing of art books. A resident of Marin County, California, she is the current president of the American Society for Indexing (2023–24).

For more information and to register: https://www.asindexing.org/online-learning/art-duran/. ISC/SCI members have access to a discount code for this course in the Member Dashboard.