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Every
serious book of non-fiction should have an index if it is to
achieve its maximum usefulness. - The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th
Edition
What
is
an
index?
An
index is an ‘ordered arrangement of entries ... designed to enable
users
to locate information in a document or specific documents in a
collection’ (ISO
999, 1996). A document may be a book, an issue or volume of a magazine
or
journal, audiotape, film, computer file, or any other information
source.
Why
use a professional indexer?
The construction of a good index
takes training and practice. A good index is one which makes the
content of the book easily accessible to the reader, containing
references to the concepts which the reader wants to find. The author
of the work may be too close to the text to be objective about the
terms used.
Can't computers generate the index
automatically?
Computer
software can generate an alphabetical list of words (a concordance)
from the text but it cannot recognise themes or concepts, or highlight
related terms. A computer search cannot identify text which has the
same meaning but which uses different words. It also cannot
differentiate between important references and passing mentions.
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