Indexing Books

"Indexing Books" is a guide to index preparation. 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 judgement 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 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 an 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.