The Art of Indexing
In 2017 Francis Young, a British historian, published an article entitled “The joy—and importance—of the analytical index.” In it he described the pleasure he had indexing his own books. In fact, he asserted that “compiling an index is an integral part of the process of writing….” He also shared that “more than once, the indexing process has caused me to go back and make changes to the structure of a book.”
Though it is true that the indexing process will highlight a book’s weak structure, it is generally thought best not to index one’s own book. Just as it is wiser to have someone other than the author be the final editor.
Nevertheless, it is always satisfying to read an author praising the worth of indexes. Especially in the modern age of electronic searches. As Young pointed out an indexer “takes note of places in the text where a theme is covered but the actual words associated with that theme do not occur. An indexer will spot where a synonym is used, and reference this in the index.” And “an indexer will take note of variant spellings—something a searchable database cannot do.” Then he advocates for the use of indexes within electronic databases.
In summary he concluded that “the quality of an index indicates the quality of a book….”
And, finally, a salute: “Lets hear it for the index, and for the indexers!”
Thank you, Mr. Young.
https://francisyoung.wordpress.com/2017/03/30/the-joy-and-importance-of-the-analytical-index/
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