1.	"Introduction to Indexing" from Indexing Books by Nancy Mulvany Nancy Mulvany is a former president of the American Society of Indexers (ASI). Her book Indexing Books published by the University of Chicago Press is one of the key reference works on indexing and serves as an excellent complement and extension to section on indexing in The Chicago Manual of Style We include some excepts from the first chapter of her book.
2.	"Indexing for the e-Age" by Jack (John) Lewis This is a basic article I have written on Web indexing. It covers in general terms the shortcomings of search engines and the need for indexer-created guides to Web site information.
3.	"Website Indexing" by Glenda Browne and Jonathan Jermey This  book discusses the various approaches to accessing information on the Web. Keyword searches, classification schemes, metadata  schemes, site maps are all covered but they emphasize the benefits of applying alphabetical, back of the book style indexes to Web content.

"Introduction to Book Indexing"
from Indexing Books by Nancy Mulvany

I am sure that all would agree that a  massive amount of information is of little value if there is no access to the content of that information. What is not so well understood is that an index is a device for providing access to information....                    

We see the word index in many contexts—index of leading economic indicators, consumer price index, indexed database files, the Roman Catholic church’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum, index of re-fraction, index finger. Even within the indexing and information science communities, indexing processes cover a wide spectrum of applications.... The methods presented, however, have far-reaching application beyond printed media, into the dimension of the electronic environment. It is worth recalling what Jessica Milstead wrote: “Whenever a collection of information, by reason of its size, its location, or the medium on which it is stored, cannot conveniently be scanned in its entirety by any would-be user, the quality of the index determines its value perhaps more than any other factor” (Milstead 1984: 192).

Today, not only are we confronted with a voluminous amount of printed information; we also must make our way through tangles of electronic information. Very diverse material is stored electronically.  Full-text databases cater to a wide variety of professional interests.  In many offices, paper versions of forms and documents are optically scanned and placed online—this is called document-image processing (DIP). CD-ROMs hold the contents of an encyclopedia or several large collections of books. The desktop Rolodex is fast becoming the only information collection that can be conveniently scanned by any user.

Dependable, efficient information management has become a priority. Information that cannot be located might as well not exist. The index is one of the oldest information retrieval devices. When the earliest scribe produced a document that could not be easily browsed, the need for an index emerged. Hans Wellisch (1992: 70) writes,

Indexing of books did not begin, as is commonly thought, after the invention of printing. It started with the rise of the universities in the 13th century. Although no two manuscripts of the same work were exactly alike and folio or page numbers were seldom used, indexes to theological treatises, lives of the saints, medical and legal compendia and, most of all, to collections of sermons were compiled, using chapter and section numbers instead of pagination.

Although the exact date of the first index is a matter of debate, we can safely say that indexes have been around for several hundred years.                                                

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"Indexing for the e-Age"
by Jack S. Lewis

Do you suppose they knew, when the term "Information Age" was coined, exactly how much information the average person would have access to on a regular basis? I don't think so. I've spent decades in and around the information industry and the volume of data commonly available on the average desktop continues to amaze me. As an indexer, though, I've become intrigued with the challenges we face in making this information overload manageable to the average reader, including the e-customer who wants to know where to look and where to click without a lot of fuss and muss.

It's Not Just What's In Your Site That Counts-It's How Easily People Can Find It!

As an indexer, I'm used to helping readers find the information they need quickly and easily. I've indexed computer books, scholarly books, all kinds of books-and I know that the usefulness of a book can depend on it's index. No one has time to comb through an entire computer manual when they get stuck in the middle of a new operation-they turn to the index right away! These days, no computer manual, no legal text, no "how-to" book of any kind could even go on the market without a good index at the back. Readers expect help accessing the information they need. That's why smart publishers make sure their books get good indexes, because-when it comes to the hunt for information--a good index makes for happy customers.

As the competition (and sheer volume of information!) on the Web proliferates, Web builders who want that same tried and tested competitive advantage are starting to recognize that they need the same thing-an index that can help visitors find information on their site quickly and easily. The search engines currently being used simply aren't detailed enough to help e-readers and e-clients get where they need to go. Sure, search engines can be useful when you already have a pretty specific idea of what you're looking for. But search engines are not refined or detailed enough for the kinds of specific information that many people are looking for. "Then what about the site maps on most Web sites?", you might be asking. Site maps, like search engines, are good-but limited. They're like the Table of Contents in a book, so they're only useful in guiding users to the broadest categories of information in your site. That's where the e-index can become such a powerful tool.

Indexes are much more useful for accessing the breadth and detail of the information you've worked so hard to put on your Web site. Indexes guide users to abstract concepts that search engines miss, and they also have the advantage of being able to show readers the connection between related concepts and/or products, multiplying the amount of time each visitor will potentially spend in your site. Bottom line, an e-index will give your visitors immediate, detailed access to exactly what they're looking for. As a result, you'll find that the increased usability this gives your site provides you with a competitive edge. Just as book publishers have discovered, a good index attracts readers to use your site and services again and again.

Combining the Classical with the Cutting Edge

In fact, e-indexing combines the cutting edge advantages of e-trade and the centuries-old, time-tested traditional skill of the indexer. The key to successful indexing has always been the ability to distill information and make it accessible through clear organization. The skill set of the classical indexer includes discrimination, organizational skills, and ability to perceive important connections. And that is why an indexer can make such a contribution to your site. Search engines are still not intelligent enough to provide this kind of accessibility. It's been rewarding to me, in indexing e-commerce Web sites, to see how the classical skills I've learned as a book indexer can be so readily and effectively applied in today's fast-growing Web world.

There are several different ways to approach indexing your Web site. One simple approach is to analyze the site for key words and then create HTML links to these keywords. Again, having a skilled indexer do this creates more comprehensive and detailed access to the information in your site than a search engine can possibly provide. Improving on this approach is the possibility of adding a drop-down list of the keywords to enhance searchability. Another option is to provide a thesaurus as part of your Web site. The thesaurus lists all the key words in your Web site, with links to all significant occurrences. Finally and most helpful of all is to provide a full index as part of your Web site itself. This index would be the equivalent of an index at the back of a book complete with main entries and sub-entries. This kind of e-index allows for very complete access to the information in your site. But-and this is very exciting to me as a professional indexer-this kind of e-index has a big advantage over conventional book indexes in that each index entry can be created as a live link to the location of the information listed. The links provide direct access to the information and also make it easy to update the index as your Web site evolves. This truly is the best of both worlds-the classical and the cutting edge!

For more information about e-indexing your site, please e-mail jack@jjindexing.com or phone me at (707) 677-3965.

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"Website Indexing"
by Glenda Browne and Jonathan Jermey        

Recently there has been enormous growth in online access to information. Much of this is through the World Wide Web (the web), which is composed of a large number of websites, each site comprising one or more webpages. Users can move from page to page and site to site by selecting links.

People are told about useful websites, or find them by using search engines and directories. Once at a site, users try to find what they need by following the navigation systems provided. Ideally there will be a range of navigation options for a website including hierarchically organized links, site maps, alphabetical indexes, and search engines. In practice, many people have trouble finding what they want due to poorly planned hierarchical structures, the inadequacies of search engines, and the lack of alternatives such as alphabetical indexes.

Back-of-book-style indexes are one way of giving access to the minute details of  information on the web. Individual documents such as online books, groups of  documents such as a collection of newsletters, and whole websites can be accessed more easily with a well-constructed index.

Granularity: specificity of access. The more granular the tool, the more it  gives access to small chunks of information. For books an index is more  granular than a table of contents. For websites a back-of-book-style index is  more granular than a site map.        

There should be a variety of methods for finding information on the web, just as  there are in a traditional library. In a library people use catalogues to search for  known items by title and author, and for unknown items by title keywords and  subject headings. They can also browse the classification scheme on the shelved  find books on similar topics to ones they have already found. Once they find a  potentially useful book they use its table of contents to check the overall structure  and content, and they use its index to find information about specific subjects.        

Similarly, web users need access tools with different levels of granularity and  different methods of organization. This book covers the following information retrieval methods:

Although still in its infancy, the World Wide Web has become the medium of choice for storing and distributing vast quantities of information. Web-wide search engines use ever more sophisticated search techniques to make it possible to locate sites on the web. But locating a site is like locating a book in a library; once found, the user must still go through the book to find the topic of interest. As individual sites become larger and more complex, they will need increasingly sophisticated retrieval methods to direct users to the material that they are looking for.  

The alphabetical back-of-book-style index is a familiar, tried-and-true, user-friendly way of providing direct access to topics covered in a book or on a website. Good indexes are effective tools for improving the speed and accuracy user searches. As sites grow and develop, and user frustration increases proportionally, we can expect to see more demand for indexing as a retrieval method.

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