From Library Journal
Give a hearty welcome to this much-needed and highly understandable handbook covering the mechanics of book index preparation. Written by a professional indexer, this thorough how-to guide covers such topics as the book production process, assigning headings and subentries, laying out and editing an index, rules for proper names and alphabetizing, cross references, indexing standards, and methods and tools for indexing, including a list of available indexing software. While it does not cover a broad theoretical base and is limited to "back-of-the book indexing," Mulvany's extensive work will be an excellent supplement to Donald and Ana Cleveland's Introduction to Indexing and Abstracting (Libraries Unlimited, 1990 . 2d ed.) and Hans Wellisch's Indexing from A to Z (H.W. Wilson, 1991). Of value as a reference source and as a textbook, Indexing Books will be of immediate use to indexers, teachers, authors, editors, technical writers, and library school students. Highly recommended for academic and public library professional collections.
- Angela Washington-Blair, Texas Woman's Univ. SLIS, DentonCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
Indexing Books will be welcomed by authors and professional indexers as a much-needed guide to index preparation that is thorough, accessible, well organized, and up-to-date.
Nancy C. Mulvany builds on various style guides, particularly The Chicago Manual of Style's extensive chapter on indexing. She expands its treatment of mechanics with more in-depth discussions of analysis and editorial judgment calls—deciding what is and what is not indexable, and establishing the structure of entries. She also discusses the concept of indexing and how it fits into the publishing process; deciding when to prepare one's own index and when to hire a professional; deciphering publishers' indexing guidelines; and choosing appropriate software.
Mulvany's evaluation of available embedded and dedicated software is especially useful as a current guide to what works best for which tasks. While she advocates use of computers for certain tasks, she demonstrates that no software can replace the analysis provided by a good indexer.
Appendixes provide a worksheet for general index specifications, the table of ASCII characters, tables of commonly used generic characters, and a list of additional resources.
The most extensive and up-to-date reference available, this will become the standard indexing guide for authors, technical writers, editors, beginning and advanced professional indexers, and all others involved in writing and publishing nonfiction books.
This practical and thorough guide to indexing shows how to determine what is and what is not indexable, select terms to create clear and succinct entries, establish the external and internal structures of entries, choose headings and subentries, cross-reference, manage foreign names, abbreviations, acronyms, numbers, and multiauthored works, lay out an index, and edit an index.