2009 Annual Conference

Scaling the Heights
April 23–25, 2009
DoubleTree - Lloyd Center Hotel
Portland, Oregon

Portland News and Notes
March 2009

An occasional report on ASI conference planning
for our Portland meeting, April 23–25, 2009

New Conference Sessions: I mentioned in my last email that Max McMaster has had to bow out of his “knotty bits” presentations. We have now replaced his sessions with two new workshops. Seminar 4, How to Handle Illustrative Material, has been replaced with When is a Name Indexable / Not Indexable, and will be led by Naomi Linzer:

When is a Name Indexable/Not Indexable: Names, whether personal names, corporate names, place names or other proper names abound in many texts, but they don’t all need to be indexed. Deciding on when to include or exclude a name depends largely on the type of book in question and the intended audience. This session will look at a range of texts covering scholarly, trade, biographies, textbooks and encyclopedias, and investigate when names should be included or ignored, and most importantly the reasons for the decisions.

Naomi Linzer has been a full-time indexer since 2000, specializing in scholarly publications, and also indexing college textbooks and trade publications. Over the years she has volunteered in ASI on the local and national level. After living in California for over 20 years—interjected with travel overseas—Naomi relocated to the Third Coast and bought a house in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Seminar 11, Max’s session on When Is a Name Indexable / Not Indexable, has been replace with Automatic Indexing and will be led by Seth Maislin (for those of you who don’t know Seth, his bio is available on line).

Automatic Indexing: Computer-aided and automatic indexing is becoming more commonplace, thanks to the ever-growing mass of “loose content” in today’s information age. Despite the indexers’ conviction that these tools will never match the quality achievable by human beings, if you have to index 100,000 new documents every month, you’d be crazy not to at least consider it. Discover the techniques, pitfalls, and strengths of auto-classification, and be prepared for the practical reality of its growth.

In addition, we’ve added another workshop to the last part of the schedule on Saturday (2:05–3:35pm): Introduction to Macrex (Level of Climbing Difficulty: Ben Nevis), to be presented by Gale Rhoades and Do Mi Stauber:

Introduction to Macrex: This workshop will demonstrate the benefits of Macrex for people who are shopping for software. It will also introduce the new features of Version 8 for Macrex users who are preparing to upgrade. Come and see how the power of Macrex can help you to be a better and faster indexer!

Wilson Award winner Do Mi Stauber, author of Facing the Text: Content and Structure in Book Indexing, has been using Macrex with glee for nineteen years. Gale Rhoades, in addition to being the North American publisher of the Macrex Indexing Program, is a consultant who specializes in making the use of computers more like toasting bread than rocket science. She developed many of her skills and techniques during the ten years she served as the Executive Director of the nonprofit Fog International Computer Users Group; Since 1991 she has been self-employed, working with individuals, small businesses, and municipalities.

Packing for the Conference: One of my favorite cartoons in the daily funny papers is “Brewster Rockit, Space Guy!” In a recent strip, Dr. Mel tells Brewster that he is off to a mad scientists convention. As his assistant, Winky, hauls out his luggage, Dr. Mel asks Winky if he has remembered to pack the radioactive monkeys. So bring a jacket (Portland might be a little colder in the spring than you expect). Take along some comfortable walking shoes—you always end up pounding the pavement more than you expect. Bring your laptop, so you can finish that inevitable last-minute project and check your email using the hotel’s wireless connection (and if you’re going to Fred Leise’s Naked Indexer, you can download the target project from the web and follow along with him—see the February News and Notes). Throw a snazzy outfit in your suitcase for the receptions. Bring a diary or notebook along in which you can keep track of your schedule. But please—leave the radioactive monkeys at home.

Speaker’s Brochure: ASI has teamed up with Potomac Indexing (PI) to create a guide for conference presenters. This is the first in what ASI hopes will be a long line of position papers, informational pamphlets, and other materials, created jointly with members and perhaps other institutional partners, available for download on our website. Special thanks go to Seth Maislin for guiding this project through to completion. Check it out at http://www.asindexing.org/site/announ.shtml.

SIG and Chapter Meetings: There will be a joint SIG and Chapter leaders’ meeting on Thursday, April 23, 5.30 to 6.30 pm. SIGs and Chapters should ensure that a representative from their group is booked to attend. Ina Gravitz and Diana Witt will be contacting SIG and Chapter leaders further about this event and about other opportunities to promote SIGs and Chapters at the conference. Some SIGs are planning poster displays, and there will be table space for these groups to display information about their activities and aims in the registration and exhibits area.

As there will be no Hines Award this year, we are repositioning Friday’s lunch as an opportunity for SIGs and Chapters to meet. The following SIGs have already notified us that they are planning a Friday lunch meeting: Periodicals, Science/Medicine, Scholarly, Gardening/Environment, History/Archaeology, Legal, Taxonomies/Controlled Vocabulary, Web. Look for signs on tables! Other groups who wish to hold a meeting at this time should notify ASI headquarters as soon as possible.

SIGs and Chapters are also free to organize independent meetings in the evenings, which are basically free time for all members. There will be a bulletin board by the registration table where groups can announce meetings.

Using the MAX in Portland: MAX is part of Portland’s mass transit system. Scott Smiley, ASI member and Portland native, has passed on some useful information about its use. First, he says, MAX's Red Line is the only line that leaves from the airport, so you don’t have to worry about finding the right line! There is also no need to check schedules or plan your trip online; trains leave the airport every 15 minutes from 5am to 10:25pm (then every 1/2 hour after that, until midnight).

So here is what you need to do:

1) The rail stop from the airport is just outside the baggage claim (if you are coming down the escalators in the terminal to baggage claim, the exit to MAX is all the way to your right). There is an electronic board that shows how long until the next train leaves.

2) Purchase a ticket at the ticket machine inside the baggage claim area in the airport (or there is another one outside by the tracks). You'll need a 2-hour "all-zone" ticket, $2.30 (or a discount "honored citizen" ticket, $0.95, if you are 65 or older).

3) Board the train and take a seat. Hold onto your ticket in case the random fare inspectors check your train.

4) The ride to the Lloyd Center stop is about 25 minutes. Most trains have an electronic display of the next stop, and they are announced as well. The stop before Lloyd Center is Hollywood/NE 42nd Ave. Get off at the Lloyd Center/NE 11th Ave. station. Our Conference hotel, the Doubletree, is just across the street; exit the train and walk to the left across 11th Ave.

During your stay, if you want to take MAX westbound from the Lloyd Center to downtown, there is no fee (this is the area known as the "fareless square"). If you go east or further west beyond downtown, you'll need a ticket.

Paper Cuts: New York Times Blog About Books: Our keynote speaker, Carol Fisher Saller, was reviewed recently in this very clever blog. I’m quoting it in full, since Carol is not only talking about the CMoS Q&A as keynote, but giving a seminar on copyediting and participating in our authors, editors, and indexers panel:

“The Subversive Copy Editor.” What a title! It brings to mind all sorts of wickedness, does it not? The rogue editor inserting illicit language, or botching grammar, or wittingly misplacing punctuation out of spite toward some demon writer.

But it’s not what you think—nor is this a stylebook or a grammar guide or a primer on the hobgoblins of English usage (we have plenty of those). No, this is a “relationship” book, writes its author, Carol Fisher Saller, doyenne of The Chicago Manual of Style Online’s Q.&A. Here, she hopes to “soothe and encourage and lend power” to editors who have too long suffered “from the oppression of unhelpful habits and attitudes.” This is the book Oprah would write if her vocation were saving writers from embarrassment, rather than saving the whole world.

To which I say: finally. I’ve got dozens of books concerned with the nuts and bolts of copy-editing, but this is the only one that teaches the fine art of chilling out. And if ever there were a category of editorial worker in need of such a book, well, consider: I once saw an editor fling a garbage can across the room after a conversation with a writer that, evidently, did not go well. I’ve seen an editor, morally affronted by some lapse in style, turn a hot red and pound his fists until puffs of steam shot from his ears (I swear!). Saller herself—the Miss Manners of editing—acknowledges she has these tendencies. She once told her son she had to keep editing because she couldn’t think of another job to which she was so well suited. His response: “Maybe you could be a terrorist.”

Saller’s project, in about 100 pages, is to (a) civilize the editing process, and (b) keep copy editors—meticulous and learned and hard-working, but also stubborn and obsessive, sometimes injuriously so (see: garbage can)—from going insane. She reminds us that the reader is Priority 1 and that while standards are crucial (“I’m not going to suggest that you toss out your stylebook”), so is flexibility (sometimes “a style is just a style”). There’s advice here on deadline management, e-mail etiquette and how to handle “the difficult author.” There’s even a section called “Dear Writers: A Chapter of Your Own,” which aims to make the editing process —and editors themselves—seem just a tad less infuriatingly exotic. (In fact, this little book would make a great gift for writers: a quick anthropological study on that eccentric species Homo editorialis.)

Saller works in the book world, and her tips apply most seamlessly to editors toiling in that realm. But her wise, droll counsel will also help young editors just beginning to suss out the social politics of wordsmithery, or those who might be considering a career switch (from newspapers to freelancing, say).

Her highly detailed examples, especially on editor–writer communication, are the book’s strength, but also sometimes its weakness. My one nit (I’m an editor—you knew there had to be one) is that the lady, at times, explaineth too much. Here she is on to-do lists: “I keep mine in a Word document that has a shortcut icon on my computer desktop, and I click it open first thing after I look at my e-mail every morning and I keep it open all day. Whenever I need to remind myself to do something, I type it in, more or less in order of urgency. I can delete tasks when they’re done or rearrange their order.” And she goes on. My note in the margin read: Seriously???

But she’s a copy editor. She can’t help it. I know. And because she has so well captured the particularities and peculiarities of our ilk—and offered her advice with such humanity, candor and pure common sense—“The Subversive Copy Editor” will remain on my shelf. I think Mr. Bernstein and Messrs. Strunk and White will find Saller to be good company.

P.S.—Remember, leave the radioactive monkeys at home.

Kate Mertes
March 2009

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