- Happy New Year!
- Don’t forget to share your feedback on the proposed NISO Draft Standard on Criteria for Indexes — open for public comment through Jan 31. This replaces the original ANSI/NISO Z39.4 standard (Guidelines for Indexes and Related Information Retrieval Devices) and is an updated and expanded version of NISO’s Guidelines for Indexes and Related Information Retrieval Devices (a technical report, TR02-1997). This updated draft NISO Z39.4 standard provides guidelines that better meet today’s requirements for the content, organization, and presentation of indexes used for the retrieval of information, including those used for electronic searching, regardless of the type of material indexed, the indexing method used, the medium of the index, or the method of presentation for searching. Anyone with an interest in indexing — authors, editors, publishers, vendors, and others — is encouraged to share their feedback. As I say in the press release, “By emphasizing the three processes essential for all indexes — comprehensive design, vocabulary management, and syntax — the Z39.4 standard, once formalized, will enable a more efficient and effective process and experience for all who create or use indexes, irrespective of the medium. We welcome their feedback on the draft standard.” The draft NISO Z39.4 standard is available at https://www.niso.org/standards-committees/criteria-indexes. The draft standard includes a linked index.
- Did you miss my live webinar on embedded indexing with Index-Manager? Download the replay here. This webinar “Indexing with Index Manager: Indexing and Embedding the Forest and the Trees” aired Tuesday, October 30, 2018. I demonstrated how I use Index-Manager for writing quality indexes, including for providing analysis and headings, subheadings, cross-references, and ranges. I also showed how I edit my work, and—perhaps most importantly for some of you—I showed how I export this work for final embedded publication (and re-publication, as you wish). Writing, editing, embedding index entries, this can all be done with professional indexing software. Watch this webinar to learn how to craft and edit both simple and complex index entries, with page ranges and with cross-references, and how to export and review embedded indexes.
- An English-language manual for Index-Manager is available. Download your copy here. This manual has a linked and embedded index, of course.
- I highly recommend the AMA Manual of Style, 10th Edition, a superb guide for authors and editors, especially for Chapter 13, Medical Indexes. NB: The just-released 11th Edition does not include Medical Indexes.
—Pilar