In the era of multi-media there is more to index than books and periodicals. There is also an increasing need to index audio-video materials. Collections of many types need indexing including- slides, photographs, works of art, audiotapes, records, and CDs. In this area the relationship of indexing and cataloging becomes very close. Cataloging is perhaps more concerned with listing the distinct items in a collection and indexing is more focused on providing access to the information or content of the media. A catalog of the photographs of a well known photographer would list the titles of the photographs, for example, Edward Weston's Bell Pepper. In contrast an index of photos would try to guide readers to the content. A historical photography of General Patten, riding a tank in Europe during World War II could be indexed under Patten, World War II, tanks, European theatre, etc. Indexing audio-visual materials differs from publication indexing mainly in the manner in which the index entries are referenced. In publications the standard is to use page locators. There is the entry and next to it is the page number where the entry can be found. With audio-video collections page locators are often not relevant and other locator systems must be created.

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