========================================================================= Date: Wed, 2 Feb 1994 12:46:10 ECT Reply-To: Indexer's Discussion Group Sender: Indexer's Discussion Group From: Hannah King Subject: Re: Twin Cities Chapter, January meeting ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Can folks report on meeting? I'm wondering how to "take off" my computer. Hannah King SUNY HSC Library at Syracuse kingh@snysyrv1 kingh@vax.cs.hscsyr.edu 766 Irving Avenue Syracuse, NY 13210 315-464-7109 315-464-7199 (fax) ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 2 Feb 1994 12:46:40 ECT Reply-To: Indexer's Discussion Group Sender: Indexer's Discussion Group From: Julie Lawyer -- Ext 1331 Subject: FWD: Contract Tech Writer/Editor Wanted -- NATICK, MA ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- FYI: Here is an indexing job posted on another list. ------------------------------------------------------------- From: IN%"jjp@atria.com" 31-JAN-1994 16:21:43.35 To: IN%"framers@drd.com" CC: Subj: Contract Tech Writer/Editor Wanted -- NATICK, MA Needed: Contractor to help with the indexing of the ClearCase Release 2.0 doc set, which includes three books in FrameMaker-4 format: * 100-page CONCEPTS manual * 125-page ADMINISTRATOR'S manual * 125-page USER'S manual Atria Software, Inc. is located in Natick, MA at the corner of Route 9 and Speen St. This is near Mass Pike Exit 13 and Shopper's World. Atria's main product, CLEARCASE, is a configuration management application targeted at UNIX networks. Please respond to the address below (email preferred). -- John Posner, Atria Software, Inc. 24 Prime Park Way Natick, MA 01760 508-650-5100 (switchboard) or 508-650-5128 (direct) jjp@atria.com uunet!viewpnt!jjp ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 2 Feb 1994 12:47:05 ECT Reply-To: Indexer's Discussion Group Sender: Indexer's Discussion Group From: Jessica Milstead <76440.2356@CompuServe.COM> Subject: classification system fo ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- First, I assume that since you're asking, the donor of the materials wasn't able to give you any information? They would be the first source. Second, you might start with the National Air & Space Museum. They are bound to be dealing with archival materials. Third, if that fails, you might try contacting Linda Hill at NASA's information services. My guess is that she's unlikely to know herself, but might be able to direct you to the archives people. Address: lhill@sti.nasa.gov. Good luck! Jessica Milstead ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 2 Feb 1994 12:47:27 ECT Reply-To: Indexer's Discussion Group Sender: Indexer's Discussion Group From: Cammie Donaldson Subject: Technical Manual Indexing ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- I am working on a large software reference manual (400-500 pp) and will be doing the index (any moment now). The reference manual has an extremely detailed table of contents. The TOC is naturally detailed because the manual is highly structured. There are nine chapters, each divided into many sections, subsections, subsubsections, etc., all of which have wonderful explanatory names (we hope:-) Also, each chapter is provided with a "chapter table of contents." I have a very basic, perhaps incredibly stupid question - forgive me, I am a neophyte indexer (actually tech writer turned programmer turned tech writer for this project). And, alas, I've never gone beyond lesson 2 in the USDA course... Question: Should the index only provide entries that cannot be "found" by examining the table of contents OR is there some overlap between entries in the index and entries in the table of contents? Is there some balance to be struck because some users will use the index and not the table of contents? Sorry if this seems elementary but ... Somewhere - perhaps in this list or in ASI's "Keywords" newsletter, I read statements from an indexer about indexing technical manuals and something was said about how easy the job is IF the manual is well organized with lots of headings and so forth. I wasn't 100% sure how to interpret this but have to admit that the first thought that popped into my head was "Gee, does this mean all the indexer does is copy down headings and captions?" That didn't make sense to me. Shouldn't the index complement the table of contents by providing the reader with access methods NOT already available through the table of contents? Of course, I could have missed the real meaning entirely. I yearn to be enlightened :-) it seems to me that indexing is mainly art with some style rules applied. That phrase, "An index is not an outline, nor is it a concordance" leaves a lot of room for interpretation. So far I've seen lots of guidance on style and format but little on content. Content & coverage are decided by the pros I guess :-), according to secret guidelines. It would be nice if Chicago or Webster came right out and specific guidelines on what should be in the index. Here are some of the "content" ideas I've had for my index thus far: 1. Because the table of contents is very detailed and "user friendly," I think the index should concentrate on providing access to important details not discovered through browsing the table of contents. 2. Because the system documented has 30 windows, 20-some dialogs, and a bazillion menu and button options, I think the index should also provide direct access to discussions of each menu and button option, by name, and to an example of each window and major dialog, by name.This information might be folded into the "regular" index or might become a separate index of its own. 3. We'll probably prepare a separate "how to" index that leads the reader directly to sets of steps describing how to perform some function. Each set of steps has a lead-in sentence "How to xyz..." Any comments or suggestions or ideas you have are most welcome and will be greatly appreciated. Cameron Donaldson Software Productivity Solutions, Inc. cmd@sps.com p.s. Yes, we should hire professional indexers. The company is just about to the state of maturity where it recognizes that file clerks aren't technical writers :-) Maybe in the year 2000, we'll have an indexer! ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 2 Feb 1994 16:10:17 ECT Reply-To: Indexer's Discussion Group Sender: Indexer's Discussion Group From: Charlotte Skuster Subject: FAQ (Wilson Award winners added) INDEX-L FAQ BOOKS ON INDEXING? Knight, G. N. Indexing, The Art Of. Allen & Unwin, 1979. Lancaster, F. W. Indexing and Abstracting in Theory and Practice. U of Illinois Press, 1991. Lancaster, F. W. Vocabulary Control for Information Retrieval, 2nd ed. Information resources Press, 1986 Wellisch, H. Indexing and Abstracting, an International Bibliography ABC-Clio, 1980. Wellisch, H. Indexing from A to Z. H. W. Wilson, 1991. WHAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT AUTOMATIC INDEXING? Books: Salton and McGill Introduction to Modern Information Retrieval Salton, Automatic Text Processing Van Rijsbergen Information Retrieval Jones, Karen Spark Information Retrieval Experiment Papers: Bell, C. and Jones, K. "Back-of-the-book Indexing: A Case for the Application of Artificial Intelligence", Informatics 5, ASLIB Pub., pp. 155-161, 1979 Bennion, B. "Performance Testing of a Book and its Index as an Information Retrieval System", JASIS, pp. 265-270, July 1970 Borko, H. "Experiments in Book Indexing by Computer" Information Storage and Retrieval, 6:5)16, 1970 Dillon, M. and McDonald, J. "Fully Automatic Book Indexing" Journal of Documentation 39(1):135-154, 1983 Dion, M. Thesaurus-Based Automatic Book Indexing", Information Processing and Management, 81(4):167-178, 1982 Salton, G. "Syntactic Approaches to Automatic Book Indexing", Proceedings of the 26th ACL, pp. 204-210, 1988 WHAT SOFTWARE DO INDEXERS USE? (All of these are for DOS machines...no Macs) IN>SORT Kensa Software P.O. Box 4415 Northbrook, IL 60065 (708) 559-0297 Macrex Bayside Indexing Service P.O. Box 3051 Daly City, CA 95015-0051 (415) 756-0821 FAX: (415) 757-1567 Cindex Indexing Research Box 18609 Rochester, New (716) 461-5530 FAX: (716) 442-3924 COURSES OR TRAINING FOR INDEXERS (OUTSIDE OF LIBRARY SCHOOLS)? Graduate School of the USDA Correspondence Programs Room 1114, South Agriculture Building 14th St. and Independence Ave. SW Washington, DC 20250 (202) 720-7131 Tuition: $269.00 (includes all materials) PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES/ORGANIZATIONS FOR INDEXERS? (this question was not actually asked..but here's the answer anyway) American Society of Indexers (ASI) P.O. Box 386 Port Aransas TX 78373 (512) 749-4052 FAX: (512) 749-6334 E-Mail: asi@well.sf.ca.us Indexing and Abstracting Society of Canada Box 744 Station F Toronto Ontario Canada M4Y 2N6 National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services (NFAIS) 1429 Walnut Street Philadelphia PA 19102 (215) 563)2406 FAX: (215) 563-2848 Society of Indexers (SI) 16 Green Road Birchington, England CT79JZ Australian Society of Indexers (AusSI) GPO Box 1251L, Melbourne Victoria 3001, Australia NETWORK CONNECTIONS America Online (800) 227-6364 CompuServe (800) 848-8199 Delphi (800) 495-4005 GEnie (800) 638-9636 The Well (415) 332-4335 Real/Time Communications (512) 459-4391 See also. Maren, M. "The Age of E-Mail. Home Office Computing, December, 1993, 63-70. WINNERS OF THE ASI/H.W. WILSON COMPANY AWARD FOR INDEXING 1979--Hans H. Wellisch, author and indexer; John Wiley, publisher: The Conversion of Scripts: Its Nature, History and Utilization. 1980--Linda I. Solow, indexer; M.I.T. Press, publisher: Beyond Orpheus: Studies in Musical Structures. 1981--Delight Ansley, indexer; Random House Publisher: Cosmos, Carl Sagan, author. 1982--Catherine Fix, indexer; Wm. Saunders Company, publisher: Diagnosis of Bone and Joint Disorders. 1983--Award not given. 1984--Trish Yancey, indexer; Information Handling Services, publisher: Index and Directory of U.S. Industry Standards. 1985--Sydney W. Cohen, indexer; Random House, publisher: The Experts Speak, Cerf and Navasky, authors. 1986--Marjorie Hyslop, indexer; American Society for Metals, publisher: Metals Handbook. 1987--Award not given. 1988--Jeanne Moody, indexer; National Wildlife Institute, publisher: Raptor Management Techniques. 1989--Philip James, indexer; Butterworths, publisher: Medicine for the Practicing Physician, 2nd ed.. 1990--Marcia Carlson, indexer; Cornell University Press, publisher: Strategic Nuclear Arms & Arms Control Debates. 1991--Daniels, Nancy L., indexer; Van Nostrand Reinhold, publisher: Beyond Public Architecture: Strategies for Design Evaluation. 1992--Johnson, Rachel Jo., indexer; Matthew Bender, publisher: American Law of Real Property. 1993--Award not given. ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 2 Feb 1994 16:18:05 ECT Reply-To: Indexer's Discussion Group Sender: Indexer's Discussion Group From: Beverly Isackes 512-356-3276 Subject: Re: classification system for NASA archival materials ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- I am posting this answer to your question written by Bob Guz, the Manager of Records & Archives at SEMATECH. The NASA History Office (at least the office at Johnson Space Center) uses their own, home-grown classification system. To quote the manual: "The Johnson Space Center History Office collection contains materials covering thirty years of NASA manned space flight programs. It contains approximately 2600 linear feet of documents from government, industry and other sources. The collection is arranged in series by program -- Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, Space Shuttle and Space Station. In addition, a Center Series contains materials related to the organization, management and functions of JSC and its line organizations and temporary program/project offices." Other NASA centers may do things differently. Bob Guz Manager of Records & Archives Phone: (512) 356-7489 SEMATECH Fax: (512) 356-3083 2706 Montopolis Drive Internet: robert_guz@sematech.org Austin, TX 78741-6499 ***************************************************************** ** ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 3 Feb 1994 09:00:08 ECT Reply-To: Indexer's Discussion Group Sender: Indexer's Discussion Group From: "THOMAS J. KUHR" <71232.3570@CompuServe.COM> Subject: indexers and abstracting ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- I have been lurking on Index-L for about a year now, but now feel the need to participate. Recently there was a discussion about "in-house" indexers as opposed to freelance (usually back-of-the-book) indexers. I am an H.W. Wilson "type" and yes, they do start out with the title of indexers. About 90% of our indexers have an MLS. Others, like our staff on *Index to Legal Periodicals* who have law degrees, have other subject masters. Because we are a publishing house, the indexers can be promoted to assistant editor, associate editor and editor positions. They still index but with added responsibilities for some degree of copy editing. There is not much need for indexers to "go online" for professional contacts, because our professional staff numbers around 125 people and we can discuss mutual problems "in house." Indexers work with subject authority lists and do not individually decide on the form of a subject heading. That is the editor's job. Citation formats, number of entries per article, selection of articles for indexing and other "freelance" decisions are established guidelines to be followed. Having indexed both b-o-b as a freelancer and journal articles as a salaried employee, I can testify that the major challenge for in house indexers is to be consistent in the assignment of subject headings from month to month and year to year and for the editor to spot variances from indexer to indexer as well. Abstracting is not done by indexers at Wilson. We have an entirely different abstracting staff who have more subject specialization. And contrary to a comment made by someone, *Readers' Guide* and *Business Periodicals Index* are about 95% Wilson abstracts. For the most part author abstracts do not exist in the periodicals covered in those indexes. When used, author abstracts are acknowledged (as per copyright agreement) following the abstract itself. The science indexes will have abstracts in the electronic formats beginning in June of this year, and these will be about 50% author abstracts and 50% in house abstracts. I hope this clears up some of the "mysteries" of the other side of the profession. I will be glad to clarify any other questions you might have. Pat Kuhr Editor, Subject Authority File H.W. Wilson CompuServe 71232.3570 INTERNET patkuhr@info.hwwilson.com ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 4 Feb 1994 14:31:04 ECT Reply-To: Indexer's Discussion Group Sender: Indexer's Discussion Group From: MCLAUGHB@CGSVAX.Claremont.Edu Subject: e-mail address ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- To Kara Steininger: Would you please send me your correct e-mail address? I am getting an "undeliverable mail" message with the address I picked up from your message. Thank you! Bonny McLaughlin mclaughb@cgsvax.claremont.edu =========================================================================