Program for ASI 2014 Conference

Better * Faster * Stronger * Smarter

Charleston, South Carolina

May 1 – May 2, 2014

Wednesday, April 30

8am to 5pm: Board Meeting

8.30am to 4.30pm
Newbies Class: New to Indexing? Don't really know a cross-reference from a double-post yet? Establish baseline knowledge and hone what you've already learned in a hands-on, all-day "Introduction to Indexing" class with Fred Leise assisted by Enid Zafran, experienced indexers and acclaimed teachers.

Fred Leise has been an instructor for the UCBerkeley online indexing course since 2008. He has also presented indexing courses under the auspices of the continuing education division of Columbia College Chicago and the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies of The University of Chicago, and has taught the indexing and abstracting course for the graduate library school of Dominican University.

Open to complete beginners, indexing students, those needing a refresher course, and indexers who have completed their studies but are just starting out in their careers, this class will teach you how to approach a text as an indexer in an efficient and effective manner. You'll enjoy the opportunity to meet some of your peers, and ask questions directly of a professional indexer. The members of the ASI board will also stop in to chat with you and answer questions.
Lunch break, noon to 1pm; attendees are responsible for getting their own lunch.

5pm to 6pm: International Representatives meeting

6pm to 7pm: Welcoming Reception; Buddies meeting; Dinner with someone new

Thursday, May 1

8am to 9.45am: Keynote Speakers the Lee Brothers
Matt and Ted Lee will welcome the attendees to Charleston and describe the unique character of the city, as they explain how they tackled the challenge of rendering its 4+ centuries of recent food history in print form. The Lee Brothers will give special attention to the subject of cataloguing, record-keeping, organization and indexing.

(coffee break from 9.45am to 10am)

10am to 12noon: Seminars

Indexing Best Practices.
Presenters: Linnea Dwyer, S. Anne Fifer, Pat Rimmer, Donna Shear, and Margie Towery. For this seminar, the five-member committee for Indexing Best Practices will present and discuss its work to develop a best practices document for indexing. Prior to the work of this committee, no such guidelines existed in the United States. We shall review the history of the committee, which was established in 2012, and discuss the collaborative processes involved in forming this document, a draft version of which will be introduced.

Before, During, and After Indexing: Forms, Emails, and Practices.
Presenter: J. Naomi Linzer. This presentation will be a review of how to set up and organize an indexing business. It will include sample forms and emails covering the following topics: marketing, author or press query responses, project summaries, vetting a manuscript, indexing queries, invoices, and tracking projects--among other details necessary to maintain a successful indexing business.

Linked Indexing for EPUBs Using InDesign Scripts and Standalone Indexing Software.
Presenters: Sheila M. Ryan. This seminar will describe the step-by-step process for using free scripts that insert paragraph-level hyperlink anchor tags into a book's InDesign files. Indexers can then use their standalone software to write the index, using both the print page numbers and the unique tags inserted by the scripts. The end result is two index files: one for the print version of the book and another containing the coding necessary for creating active, linked index locators in the EPUB version of the book. A recently published book containing a linked index that was written using the scripts will be demonstrated.

12noon – 1pm: Lunch; ASI/EIS Award for Excellence in Indexing (formerly the Wilson Award)

1pm to 2pm: Lightning Rounds

1pm to 1.20pm: Our Changing Lexicon.
Presenter: Nan Badgett. Remember the millennium, when we worried about the Year 2000 problem? As the fateful date neared, the problem became known as Y2K. When was the last time you searched the World Wide Web? Most folks are googling these days. Our language is constantly changing with new vocabulary and new meanings for existing words. How do these changes affect indexing term choices and index users? This lightening round is designed to bring awareness to language changes through a presentation on types of changes and examples, issues of language change in indexing, and a brief round of interactive wordplay.

1.30pm to 1.50pm: Culinary Indexers’ Reference Sources. Presenter: Catherine Sassen. Culinary indexers need to consult reference sources to make their indexes accurate, consistent and helpful. This session will provide recommendations for a useful culinary reference collection of online and print sources, based on a survey of indexers.

2pm to 6pm: Workshops

Introduction to Periodical/Database Indexing.
Presenters: Linda S. Dunn and Ruby Gutierrez. This four-hour workshop will cover the unique requirements of periodical and database indexing; the characteristics and types of periodicals; what to index; how to index and create citations (locators); the importance of controlled vocabularies; and the differences between an index for a single periodical title and a database. Included will be hands-on exercises in the indexing of some periodical articles and entering records into an existing database. Participants should bring a laptop or tablet with them to the workshop.

Ten Principles for Creating Better Indexes.
Presenter: Margie Towery. This session addresses the following topics, all of which we need to think about as we index: accuracy, metatopic, consistency, clarity, conciseness, reflexivity, readability, audience and access, comprehensiveness, and common sense. Led by an enthusiastic, highly experienced, award-winning indexer, this workshop provides examples, fosters lots of discussion, and presents (non-indexing) ideas for expanding your indexer’s tool box. Geared to back-of-the-book indexing, this workshop is suitable for all levels of indexers.

Jump-Start Your Marketing.
Presenter: Kendra Millis. The goal of this workshop is to help you develop marketing materials and a marketing plan. This is a hands-on workshop, so bring a laptop or notebook and be prepared to write and take notes! Topics will include branding, methods, formats, introductory letters, and ongoing marketing. When you leave, you should have a plan for what your marketing materials will look like, a list of what materials you plan to use, a draft of your first letter, and ideas for how to put it all together.

(coffee break from 3.15pm to 3.30pm)

6pm to 7pm: SIG and Chapter meetings

7pm to 7.30pm: Reception; Dinner with someone new

Friday, May 2

8am to 12noon: Workshops

Indexing Narratives.
Presenter: Enid L. Zafran. Narratives are one of the most challenging types of material to index. They tell a story, sometimes in order, sometimes not. They usually have a point (or several points) that the author returns to as his theme(s). In this workshop you will learn some strategies for tackling the material and structuring the index. The book, Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer, will be used as the workshop example.

Beyond BT/NT: Advanced Taxonomy Concepts.
Presenter: Alice Redmond-Neal. If you know your way around broader and narrower terms in a taxonomy, it's time for a deeper dive into more advanced concepts. After reviewing taxonomy essentials, we will address finer points in taxonomy construction such as term ancestry, how "poly" to go with polyhierarchies, how freely to relate terms, and strategies for local variations. Semantic enrichment to serve retrieval and concept learning is a major focus. All the while we’ll keep an eye on the standards and elusive ideals for taxonomy construction, and the progression from taxonomy to thesaurus to ontology. We will look at real life applications to understand how a taxonomy supports information management and retrieval within enterprises and for their external users. We'll see how taxonomies serve as the basis for linked data, pulling together information resources and feeding integrated platforms to maximize value. We consider evaluating existing taxonomies, expanding and updating, working effectively with subject matter experts and testing revisions. We'll see how dedicated software facilitates management and maintenance, supported by strong governance procedures. Last, we'll examine how taxonomy details can serve or undermine content classification, search, and retrieval. Plan to share challenges and brainstorm solutions

The Matrix Reloaded: Indexing for Embedded and ePubs.
Presenters: Pilar Wyman. Pilar Wyman will discuss software options and combinations used in today’s eContent indexing. They will share the Matrix developed by the ASI DTTF to help you determine how to index for digital books. When there are no pages, it is even more important to keep the reader and their route to the text in mind. Pilar and Jan will cover how page layout software, word processing, and our own indexing packages can be used to embed, link, and otherwise prepare indexes for a variety of outputs: PDF, ebook, print, etc.

(coffee break from 10.30am to 10.45am)

12noon to 1pm: Lunch; Hines Award

1pm to 2.15pm: Seminars

Pi-CORE: COntent REalignment Strategies for Business.
Presenters: Kay Schlembach and Fred Leise. A content strategy is a long-term vision that defines the purpose, form and development process for content assets that are required to meet both business and user needs. An appropriate content strategy ensures that content is served in an adaptive, presentation and platform-independent manner. This past summer, Potomac Indexing expanded its offerings to include content strategy development services. This presentation explores how content strategy fits into PI’s overall marketing, reviews a basic methodology for creating a content strategy and looks at why it is important for indexers to be aware of this relatively new field of practice.

The EPUB3 Indexes 1.0 Specification Approved – Now What?
Presenters: David K. Ream and Michelle Combs. The co-chairs of the IDPF's Indexes Working Group will discuss the lead up to the vote on the specification, what is in it and what is not, what follow up steps are being pursued with publishers and tool and reading system developers.

The Future of MEDLINE Indexing.
Presenter: Dorota Ponikiewska. This presentation will provide information about the following subjects: 1. What is PubMed, and how is this database related to MEDLINE? 2. MEDLINE facts and statistics; 3. Information about Medical Subject Headings (MeSH);4. Examples of MeSH terms and MeSH Supplementary Concepts; 5. Indexing procedure and details; and 6. The future of MEDLINE indexing – Medical Text Indexer.

(coffee break from 2.15pm to 2.30pm)

2.30pm to 4pm: Split Session

Digital Trends Task Force Update.
Presenters: David K. Ream, Pilar Wyman, Michelle Combs, and Sheila M. Ryan. The members of the DTTF will report on activities and accomplishments since the last annual conference as well as on-going and future initiatives. Prime among these is approval of the EPUB3 Indexes Specification.

Lighting Rounds

2.30pm to 2.50pm: Indexing Services: Save Yourself Time.
Presenters: Colleen Dunham, Mendel Mendoza, Enrique Corrales. Two people in Nicaragua have become sufficiently proficient in English that they have subcontracted with Colleen Dunham Indexing to help with her work. Mendel and Enrique aspire to become full-fledged indexers, but in the meantime, are indexing names, schemes, and other low-hanging fruit for Colleen. They are ready to expand their services and offer them to a wider indexing community.

3pm to 3.20pm: When Writers Index, When Indexers Write: A Publisher’s Perspective.
Presenter: John Bryans. This session briefly considers the role book authors sometimes assume as indexers of their own work (whether by choice or as a requirement of the publisher), then looks at the flip side: Why would a professional indexer decide to become an author, what are the inherent advantages and disadvantages, and how can indexers successfully leverage their skills, experience, and contacts in the process?

3.30pm to 3.50pm: Art Indexing Tips From Book Reviews.
Presenter: Catherine Sassen. Learn what book reviewers have written about indexes in art exhibition catalogs and art history books. This session will share the results of a research project on art book reviews, and will cover specific types of index entries mentioned by reviewers. Handouts will include a bibliography on art indexing and a term selection worksheet to use when planning an art indexing project.

4pm to 5.30pm: Annual General Meeting; International updates

6pm: Dinner with someone new

Saturday, May 3

Tours of Charleston and Environs