Author: Iva Cheung

EAC Conference 2012, Day 1—Opening keynote address

Charlotte Gray, award-winning biographer and historian, kicked off the EAC conference with her thoughtful—and thought-provoking—keynote address. She praised the editor for saving her “from my own hideous mistakes.” Although she hears some writers complain that editors took out their voice, she says she recognizes that “my voice can either be a strength or a weakness.” The editor, she says, is “not only the first professional reader—but the best,” because he or she aims to help and support the editor, whereas the second professional reader—the reviewer—often approaches the text with the opposite goal.

As a writer of popular history, Gray also reflected on the malleability of history, acknowledging that words are themselves living artifacts. “In shaping history,” she wondered, “am I pulling it out of shape?” Memoirs are often assumed to be nonfiction until proven otherwise, she said, whereas John Updike’s view was that “biographies are really just novels with indexes.” She went on to describe how carefully and rigorously she seeks out primary sources for her work, walking the fine line between imagining and inventing as she uses novelistic techniques to flesh out a historical narrative.

Gray described the research and writing process for her book Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike, in which she yet again sheds light on the role of women in Canadian history, this time in Dawson—a setting she called a “pioneer Petri dish.” The book focuses on six people, including two women—a journalist and a businesswoman—and Gray colourfully recounted the “war dance” that she did at Library and Archives Canada every time she found solid evidence that her characters had actually met, allowing her to weave together their stories into a coherent narrative.

In an age where we’re constantly bombarded with information of all sorts, readers are generally less trusting, but that’s not necessarily a reflection of the veracity or integrity of sources we find today. History, Gray concluded, has always been—and likely will remain—malleable.

ISC Conference 2012, Day 2—Hands-on ebooks

David Ream and Jan Wright once again took to the stage to elaborate on indexing of digital files. Ream said that there aren’t a lot of usability studies that compare search versus indexing. BNA’s “Using Online Indexes” is one, but it would be interesting to get more universities involved in this kind of research to generate more data.

Ream then gave an overview of EPUB 3.0. It’s open source, is based on existing standards—such as XHTML, CSS3, Javascript, SVG—and was created ahead of the industry (i.e., tools and reading systems), meaning that we can all avoid costly format wars. It provides navigation and packaging information and incorporates global language support (i.e., for languages that are read left to right, right to left, or vertically). It is backwards compatible with EPUB 2.0 and has modular components and working groups.

EPUB 3.0 files will have rich metadata—Dublin Core for publication information, ONIX for supply chain information, and MARC for libraries. The metadata will be key to a digital file’s discoverability—and hence to its sale. Implications for indexers include the following:

  • no page or line limitations
  • potentially having to index rich media (e.g., time codes)
  • potentially having to index interactive ebook features (scripts)
  • potentially having to supply semantics of headings and locators (e.g, show only the statutes, show only the people, etc.)
  • being able to provide index data in multiple ways
  • cumulative indexing—of series, mashups, etc.

Jan Wright then explained the workflow for inserting anchors to EPUBs at the paragraph level. She and Olav Martin Kvern developed scripts that create identifiers for individual paragraphs in InDesign, which can then be used as part of the locator in standalone indexing programs like CINDEX or SKY Index to create a hyperlink from index locator to the paragraph. For now, this is the most realistic way of creating a paragraph-level index that will work for both print and ebook, because InDesign strips out any embedded index entries when it exports to EPUB. The digital trends task force is talking to Adobe separately about this issue, but a fix may be some time away.

Wright and Ream then allowed conference attendees to play around with various devices, from the Kindle, Kobo, and Nook to the iPad, to see the current state of the art of ebook indexing.

ISC Conference, Day 2—To award or not to award?

The Indexing Society of Canada is planning to establish a new award to recognize excellence in indexing. Indexing societies elsewhere in the world have their own awards, but Canadians aren’t eligible for most of them. At the ISC conference, Max McMaster of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers, Jan Wright of the American Society for Indexing, and the ISC’s Christine Jacobs discussed the considerations that should go in to the award criteria and judging process.

McMaster, a three-time winner of the ANZSI medal for outstanding indexing, has also been a judge for the medal. The judging panel consists of three experienced indexers, but they will consult an outside expert if the subject matter of a submitted work is too esoteric for them to understand. He suggests that the ISC be careful not to limit the types of works that can be eligible for the award and to provide a certificate or plaque to the publisher of the winning work as well—good PR for indexing. Publishers should be encouraged to submit their books for consideration, but more often it will be indexers who submit their own work. McMaster warns indexers that they’re at the mercy of the book’s editor and typesetter: he had once submitted an index he thought was award worthy before realizing that the publisher had inadvertently removed all of the index’s indentation, severely compromising the final index’s usability.

Jan Wright won the ASI’s H.W. Wilson Award for her index to Real World InDesign CS3. She hasn’t been a judge but has spoken to the judges on the panel that granted her her award. Submissions for the award go to the ASI’s chapters around the country, and they are anonymized. Cheryl Landes remarked that many indexers would be willing to pay a high entry fee to submit their work if it meant that they would receive feedback on their submissions.

Christine Jacobs gave an outline of what the ISC’s award might look like. The awards committee plans to announce the award at the next AGM and issue a call for nominations. They hope to accept submissions in either English or French and both print and online works. Currently there’s no cash prize attached to the award, but the awards committee is taking a step-by-step approach, and it may be part of the award later on. Jacobs emphasized how the award can be a form of validation for a winning indexer and that it would help raise the profile of the profession and encourage high standards.

ISC Conference 2012, Day 2—New standard, more interoperability

Michèle Hudon, associate professor at l’École de bibliothéconomie et des sciences de l’information at l’Université de Montréal, spoke at the ISC conference about ISO25964, a new standard for thesauri.

ISO25964 will replace ISO2788 and ISO5964, out-of-date standards for monolingual and multilingual thesauri, respectively. These standards don’t address subject headings or taxonomies and are ill-suited to a networked environment of linked data, so in 2008, an international working group was struck to create the new standard based on the content of BSI8723, created by British information specialists. The working group, of which Dr. Hudon is a part, includes both practitioners and researchers.

Officially titled “Information and Documentation—Thesauri and interoperability with other vocabularies,” the ISO25964 project consists of two parts, the first of which, “Thesauri for information retrieval,” was published in August 2011 and covers general principles for developing and managing monolingual and multilingual thesauri. Part 2, “Interoperability with other vocabularies,” addresses crosswalks and mappings and is scheduled to be published at the end of this year.

“Interoperability”—a bit of a mouthful, as Hudon admits—refers to an ability to “act together coherently, effectively, and efficiently to achieve common objectives.” In the world of information science, it means the “capability of agents, services, systems and computer applications to exchange data, information and knowledge while preserving their integrity and full meaning.” (Zeng and Chan, 2009)

Thesauri are great tools for information retrieval for local users, but there may be multiple thesauri on the same topic that have different classification schemes and subject headings and thus can’t talk to one another. Having multilingual thesauri adds another layer of complexity.

In traditional information systems, thesauri allow a searcher to use the same search terms and strategies to search several databases and provide an efficient way to cross the language barrier. With the web, semantic interoperability becomes even more relevant. It allows for effective searching in several situations, including with the same language in different countries, two or more natural languages, a natural language and a language of specialty, a natural language and  an indexing and retrieval language, and one or more indexing and retrieval languages (e.g., Library of Congress and Dewey).

Interoperability implies equivalence, but many would argue that absolute equivalence, particularly between distinct languages, doesn’t exist. Part 2 of the standard gives recommendations for establishing and maintaining mappings between multiple thesauri or between thesauri and other types of vocabularies. As Hudon said in her talk, “Because it necessarily exists in a particular cultural, social, professional and linguistic context, semantic and terminological interoperability of indexing languages depends on compromises to compensate for the lack of absolute equivalence between concepts and between terms.” She also emphasizes that semantic equivalence is dynamic and ever evolving.

Mini-update

Apologies to readers who are waiting for the rest of my conference notes. I’ve just had a heap of deadlines run into one another, but I’m hoping to get caught up by the end of next week.

In other news, I had an inspiring meeting with EAC-BC programs co-chairs Micheline Brodeur and Frances Peck this week to plan out this upcoming season of meeting topics and speakers. I’m so thrilled to be working with them, and it’s looking as though we’re going to have a great year, with a little something for everyone.

In other, other news, publishers have generously sent me copies of some editing-related books to read, and I’ll be starting up book reviews for this site early this summer. In the queue so far are Editors, Scholars and the Social Text, edited by Darcy Cullen, and The Only Grammar & Style Workbook You’ll Ever Need by Susan Thurman. Stay tuned!

ISC Conference 2012, Day 2—The re-indexing dilemma

Max McMaster, an award-winning indexer and representative of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI), spoke at the ISC conference about reindexing. For a new edition of a book, a subsequent annual report, or a bilingual document, do you adapt was has already been done, or do you index from scratch? Further, are there ethical issues in reusing an existing index?

In Australia, trade publishers will often buy foreign rights and revise a book for the Australian market. In many cases, this means that although the content of the two editions is similar, terminology can vary substantially. Moreover, North American indexers tend to produce lengthier indexes than Australians are used to. When re-indexing for the Australian edition, the index may end up being 30% shorter.

If a new edition of an existing book is just a repagination, it’s absolutely most efficient to reuse the index headings. (McMaster adds 1000 to all the old page numbers to keep track of what he’s changed and what he hasn’t.) If changes to a new edition are minimal and you created the first index, reusing the existing index, with necessary revisions, may be easiest. If changes are substantial, however, it’s much more efficient to start from scratch. McMaster is emphatic in dispelling the myth, however, that re-indexing, in whatever form, is easier than creating an index for a new work.

If you didn’t create the first index and want to re-index a book, it’s still useful to see the existing index. The previous indexer may have found a way to solve a problem that will save you a lot of time or you may spot weaknesses that you should avoid.

In Australia, government annual reports are all required to have an index, so this is a boon for indexers in that country. Since the design and the components of an annual report rarely change from year to year, re-indexing is a snap. Basically, once you land a contract to do one annual report, you’ve got it for life. (McMaster has co-authored a guide for non-indexers on how to index annual reports.)

For bilingual documents, you can’t reuse pagination, since the structure and length of the two languages will be different. One possibility is translated embedded indexing. However, Heather Ebbs pointed out that translating an index doesn’t really work, since there are cultural and contextual differences.

As for ethical issues, McMaster once had a publisher reuse his index for a book that he did for Australia that was then repackaged, with a different title, in New Zealand. In Australia, because an indexer is under contract, he or she doesn’t retain copyright of the work; however, McMaster would have appreciated being notified at the very least that his index would be reused (and a bit of additional compensation wouldn’t have hurt, either). Mary Newberry said that in Canada, copyright of the index does belong to the indexer.

McMaster’s presentation brought up the issue of credit; in one of his anecdotes he mentioned that his name was on a book’s copyright page, which led me to ask him whether crediting an indexer is standard practice in Australia. He says that an indexer is credited only maybe 5% of the time. Christine Jacobs had an interesting approach to the credit issue: she invoices for a credit line (and, incidentally, for a copy of the finished book). She asks for a credit on the copyright page, in the acknowledgements, or in the index itself, and lists this as a separate line item on her invoice. In cases where she doesn’t approve of the changes an editor, author, or publisher has made to the index, she simply removes that item, and her name doesn’t appear.

ISC Conference 2012, Day 2—What is the future of indexing?

Cheryl Landes is a technical writer and indexer who sees a changing role for indexers—one that is rife with possibilities.

Today people are consuming content in four main ways: through print, on e-readers, on tablets, and on smartphones. In the past year, more people have been moving towards tablets and smartphones rather than e-readers, since the former devices offer colour and other functionality. Many software vendors of authoring tools are adding outputs to accommodate tablets, and more and more companies are publishing technical documentation that can be read on tablets or smartphones (for example, Alaska Airlines replaced forty pounds of paper pilots’ manuals with iPads). Despite the movement towards mobile devices, however, Landes doesn’t believe that print will ever go away.

Digital content means users are able to search, but searching doesn’t yield the speed of information retrieval or context that an index offers. Indexers have to be proactive about educating others about the utility and importance of indexes, and emerging technologies are providing many opportunities for indexers to apply their skills beyond the scope of traditional back-of-the-book indexing.

Partnering with content strategists

Indexers can serve as consultants about taxonomies and controlled vocabularies, which are key to finding content. (An example of a taxonomy is the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia’s Index to Debates.)

Database indexing

Growth in this area is anticipated as more companies move their catalogues online, particularly in retail.

Embedded indexing

Embedded indexing tags content directly in a file and allows for single-sourcing, which is ideal for publishers who want print and digital outputs for their content. (Landes echoes Jan Wright in saying that for the past decade technical communicators have been grappling with issues trade publishers are facing now, yet they’re not talking to each other. How do we start that conversation?)

Search engine optimization

Indexers understand what kinds of search terms certain target audiences use. Acting as consultants, they can create strategies for keywording in metadata.

Blog and wiki indexing

This area is likely to grow because more companies are turning to blogs to promote products and services, and they are using wikis for technical documentation.

Social media

Possible consulting opportunities abound in this quickly changing field. Facebook’s Timeline and Twitter’s hashtags are both attempts at indexing in social media, but one can envision the need for more sophisticated methods of retrieving information as more and more content is archived on these platforms.

ISC Conference 2012, Day 1—Getting work with the federal government

I’ve attended a number of “getting work with the feds” presentations, but Marion Soublière’s at the ISC conference was by far the most engaging, informative, and coherent of them all. Soublière is a writer and editor and the author of Getting Work with the Federal Government. In her talk, she outlined short-term, medium-term, and long-term strategies that independent contractors can use to get government work.

Almost two hundred federal departments, agencies, and crown corporations will need the skills of writers, editors, and indexers, so the work is diverse and interesting. Best of all, the compensation can be quite good. With this spring’s round of budget cuts, many civil service positions were eliminated, meaning that the government will have to rely on more contractors to fulfill their needs. What’s more, many baby boomer bureaucrats are in a position to retire, so the opportunities are many.

Soublière dispelled myths that the government works only with large companies (in December 2010, 98% of suppliers were small or medium-sized firms); that you can only work for the government if you go through temp agencies; and that you need to be bilingual (most tenders ask for specialization in one official language or the other).

Public Works and Government Services Canada does 85% of the shopping for more than one hundred departments and agencies, and 93% of these are what’s considered “low-dollar buys” (less than $25,000). PWGSC runs buyandsell.gc.ca—your gateway to a lot of government opportunities. It is also behind the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises, which offers free seminars about doing business with the Government of Canada.

One of the first steps to working with the government is to register as a supplier. Go to buyandsell.gc.ca, register in the Supplier Registration Information (SRI) database, and get your Procurement Business Number (distinct from your GST/HST business number), which you will need in order to get paid. The government uses the SRI for low-dollar buys. Be sure to keep your profile updated every quarter, because it could be deleted if it’s deemed dormant.

Next, join MERX. Even if you don’t want to bid on tenders there, you need to be able to sign in to see who has bid for them, and this information may lead to subcontracting opportunities.

Since bidding on a standing offer can take months, your best bet to get government is a multi-pronged approach with short-term, medium-term, and long-term strategies.

1. Short term

Search MERX for “temporary help services.”

Try to subcontract to a firm that already has a Government of Canada contract. See the Contract History section of buyandsell.gc.ca to find suppliers who have been awarded contracts.

2. Medium term

See the list of departmental material managers on buyandsell.gc.ca, and ask to be added to their departmental source list.

Search the Government Electronic Directory Services site for managers in your field (i.e., communications) and contact them via email.

Approach other key contacts, including PWGSC procurement officers for your community (find these through the Procurement Allocations Directory on buyandsell.gc.ca) and PWGSC regional offices, which will tell you about opportunities in your area.

Apply to get registered in Professional Services Online, which handles buys up to $78,500. Soublière suggests that if you’re a sole proprietor, list yourself as the consultant as well as the owner; keep your per diems, dates available for work, and years of experience updated; and submit quarterly activity reports whether you received work or not.

3. Long term

Bid on standing offers and supply arrangements. Requests for proposals are usually for a one-time contract, and since bids take a long time to prepare, it’s more cost-effective for you to go for opportunities that offer ongoing work. Check MERX daily, and don’t dismiss multi-million-dollar tenders, which could be appropriate for sole proprietors if multiple standing offers are involved. Businesses can also team up to bid on a job.

Tips

  • Don’t bother bidding if you don’t meet all the mandatory requirements
  • Don’t use a solicitation document someone emailed you. If you don’t get on the document request list yourself, you could be disqualified.
  • Ask questions; all questions are circulated to everyone who downloaded the solicitation document.
  • Follow the instructions exactly. Mirror wording and sequence in the solicitation document.
  • Keep work samples handy.

If you don’t have security clearance and you have what the government considers “a possibility of a contract,” you can ask in a bid that a buyer sponsor you. Once you have the clearance, don’t let it lapse—it could take up to one year to renew.

Soublière notes that the more proposals you put together, the faster you’ll get, because much of the material becomes boilerplate. She also emphasizes the importance of marketing yourself—on a website, on LinkedIn, on Twitter. List your standing offers, and follow up with contracting authorities to remind them of your availability.

***

This is just a summary of what Soublière covered in her extremely thorough presentation. More information can be found in her book and on buyandsell.gc.ca.

ISC Conference 2012, Day 1—American Society for Indexing’s Digital Trends Task Force

ASI’s David Ream and Jan Wright gave the ISC a report on their work with the Digital Trends Task Force (DTTF), which came into being  in the summer of 2011 after the issue of electronic publication indexing was brought up at the ASI conference earlier that year.

The task force actively participated in the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), a consortium of businesses and organizations involved in defining the new EPUB 3.0 standard. By establishing a special indexers’ working group in the IDPF, and with the Australia and New Zealand Society of Indexers’ membership in the IDPF, indexers made their presence known to a much wider community of players driving the future of electronic publishing. (EPUB is the open source format that can be read on the iPad, Nook, Kobo, Sony readers, and other e-readers. The notable exception is the Kindle, which uses a different format.)

The task force also set out to do industry outreach at such events as the Digital Book World and O’Reilly’s Tools of Change conferences. With this kind of outreach, the ASI could establish itself as an authority about indexing in a digital age. At the latter conference, a recurring concern of electronic publishers was the issue of discovery, since traditional channels, like bookstores and libraries, are now out of the equation. Indexing—and indexers—Ream and Wright pointed out, was the gateway to discovery, and because discovery means money, publishers are more likely to listen to indexers if we emphasize discovery. (Interestingly, Amazon did not participate in Tools of Change.)

Wright also presented at the WritersUA conference. WritersUA, based in the U.S., is a group of technical writers, which have had to deal with the issue of single-sourcing—and a move to XML—years ago. They have experience solving the kinds of problems trade publishers are only now beginning to face.

Wright’s outreach extended to being a guest on #ePrdctn Hour on Twitter, which, as a platform, Wright said, was more powerful than she could have ever imagined. After her Twitter hour, establishing herself as an expert in the nascent field of ebook indexing, Wright was able to reach organizations and companies that otherwise would have been much harder to access. For instance, she is now able to talk directly to Adobe engineers about InDesign’s scripts for ebooks.

The ASI is trying to get the Digital Trends Task Force to conferences that indexers don’t usually attend, focusing on the themes of monetization and semantic metadata.

To stay informed about digital trends affecting indexers, Wright and Ream suggest joining the DTTF’s LinkedIn group and following TidBITS, Peter Meyers (@petermeyers on Twitter), and Joe Wikert.