ASI 2013 Conference Update and E-News

ASI 2013 Annual Conference

Using the Art and Craft of Indexing to Bring Order to the Digital Age
April 17-19, 2013

(Workshops scheduled for Saturday, April 20)

 

Register Now at the Early Bird Rate!

 

Keynote Speaker Judith Pascoe

Wit, erudition, and an appreciation for indexes hallmark this year's keynote speaker Judith Pascoe. An award-winning professor of English at the University of Iowa, Dr. Pascoe entered our radar last March when her provocative article "My Last Index" appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education.  The article discusses the bumpy road she travels while creating an index for her most recent book-although she muses Amazon's "Look Inside This Book" feature may have eliminated the need for one. Along the way she encounters the ASI website and even fantasizes attending an ASI National Conference. Now, with her fantasies made real, she's sure to entertain us, spark our imaginations, and challenge our precepts. And maybe, just maybe, she will also learn a great deal about our world.

 

Dr. Pascoe's keynote speech will follow the breakfast buffet on Thursday, April 18. What a terrific kickoff for the conference. Don't miss her!

 

Judith Pascoe, M. F. Carpenter Professor of English at the University of Iowa, teaches classes on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature and culture. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, and a Fulbright Japan Lecturing Award, she has written about theatrical self-representation in the 1790s (Romantic Theatricality [Cornell UP, 1996]) and about romantic-era collectors (The Hummingbird Cabinet [Cornell UP, 2006]). Her most recent book, The Sarah Siddons Audio Files: Romanticism and the Lost Voice (U of Michigan P, 2011), focuses on Sarah Siddons's voice and the acoustic transformation of the romantic theatre. She is currently writing about Japanese adaptations of Wuthering Heights.

 

Hotel Contessa

306 W Market Street

San Antonio, TX 78205
Make Your Room Reservations by March 26, 2013 to secure the group rate of $149.

 

The Hotel Contessa is located on the Riverwalk, sometimes known as Paseo Del Río, a winding network of walkways along the banks of the San Antonio River. The Riverwalk is an important part of the city's urban fabric and a tourist attraction in its own right.

Membership Outreach Team

 

In December, the ASI Board approved a proposal for a Membership Outreach Team that would contact new ASI members by phone and welcome them to ASI.  The Membership Team will be comprised of ten or so current ASI members who would call new members, welcome them to ASI, briefly review the ASI web site, mention the ASI Chapter structure, and invite them to think about attending the next annual conference.  I think each phone call would be 15 - 20 minutes, and each Committee member probably would make about 1 phone call every month or two.

 

I will head the Team and am looking for volunteers who are willing to participate in what I think will be a very positive introduction to ASI for new members.  Please contact me, Steve Falk, at steve@tworiversindexing.com.

Nominations for the 2013 Wilson Award are currently open!

 

The American Society for Indexing/H. W. Wilson Award for Excellence in Indexing was established in 1978 to honor excellence in indexing of an English language monograph or other non-serial print work published in the United States in the previous year (2012 for the 2013 judging). Nominations for the award are welcomed from either the indexer or the publisher, beginning December 1, 2012. The submission deadline is February 23, 2013.

 

Until this year, the criteria for the Wilson Award has specified that copyright date determines eligibility for submission. Therefore, a book indexed in mid-year and distributed in the fall of 2012 with a 2013 copyright date - an increasingly common scenario - would be ineligible for the 2013 judging. To address this "copyright creep," the criteria for eligibility has been updated to include books in distribution by December 31 of the same calendar year they were indexed. Therefore, eligibility for the 2013 Wilson Award includes both books with a 2012 copyright date, and those copyrighted 2013 that are documented as in distribution prior to December 31, 2012.

 

Criteria for the award, details about the judging process, and a Wilson Award FAQ can be found by clicking here.

 

Consider the indexes you've created in 2012 and decide which one represents an excellent index.

 

Don't wait until the last minute!

 Obtain a copy of the published book containing your index, along with documentation of the 2012 release date if copyrighted in 2013, and nominate your book!  Suggested types of documentation are listed on the submission form.

 

The judging committee is especially interested in seeing books that presented a challenge to the indexer. Scholarly as well as technical volumes and books on unusual or difficult topics often pose such issues. Trade and other types of books are also welcomed. The committee will be looking at how effectively and creatively the indexer has addressed challenges and maintained high standards of index quality and how well the publisher has presented the index.

 

The ASI/H.W. Wilson Award recognizes the normally anonymous indexers and the publishers who provide high-quality indexes to serve their readers. The indexer of the winning index receives $1,000 from EBSCO Publishing and a plaque. The publisher of the book is also recognized with a plaque. This year's award will be presented at the Annual Conference of the American Society for Indexing, April 17-19, in San Antonio, Texas.

 

If you have specific questions about the eligibility of an index for the award, please email the Registrar at Wilsonaward@asindexing.org

 

SEND SUBMISSIONS TO:

Michele Levinthal

Wilson Award Registrar

25235 SE Klahanie Blvd, Apt. M302

Issaquah, WA 98020

Call for Hines Award Nominations-Submissions Due by February 28, 2013

 

The Hines Award, named for Theodore Hines, who played a large role in the creation of ASI, was established in 1993 to honor those who have provided exceptional service to the American Society for Indexing and to the profession of indexing as a whole. Previous recipients of the Hines Award have taken active roles in ASI governance both on the chapter and national level, have written and edited books about indexing, contributed presentations and workshops at indexing-related events, and improved training of indexers.

 

Consider the indexers that you know who have made a difference to you, your ASI chapter, and the profession. The indexer must be a current or former member of ASI. The process to nominate someone consists of gathering letters in support of your nomination that explain why the person you are proposing is worthy of this honor. There is no minimum or maximum number of supporting letters. The letters should make clear the name of the person nominated and then delineate specific accomplishments and offer examples of distinguished service.

 

While e-mail submissions are preferred, you may also submit nomination packets via U.S. mail or delivery services to the Hines Committee chair:

 

Enid L. Zafran
19266 Coastal Hwy., Unit 4 #52
Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971
enid@indexingpartners.com

 

The Hines Committee consists of three past recipients of the award: Enid L. Zafran, Frances Lennie, and Janet Perlman. If a recipient is chosen, the award will be announced at the annual ASI conference in San Antonio in 2013. If you have questions about the process, please contact Enid at either the e-mail above or at 302/644-7466. The award recipient will receive a lifetime complimentary membership in ASI. Previous winners are listed on the ASI website.

 

Call for Hines Award Nominations - Submissions Due by February 28, 2013

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