A couple of weeks ago the American Society for Indexing (ASI) announced that I won the ASI Indexing Award, in the scholarly/technical category, for my index for Dialectics of the Big Bang and the Absolute Existence of the Multiverse, by Gregory Phipps (University of Alberta Press, 2024). 

I am delighted and honored. It is a privilege to win.

I also have to admit the announcement caught me by surprise. I knew it was coming, as I had been informed earlier so the press and I could provide statements for the official announcement, but I did not know when the announcement would be made. As it happened, that was quite a busy day and I didn’t get around to checking my email until the afternoon, and so was taken aback by all of the congratulatory emails. 

So thank you. My thanks to ASI and the judges for the award and to everyone who took the time to write a note. It means a lot to have such wonderful colleagues. 

I also want to thank the University of Alberta Press, specifically Cathie Crooks and Duncan Turner. The U of A Press is unusual for a university press in that they always hire indexers directly. This award would not have happened without their support and encouragement.

I first encountered the U of A Press when I moved to Edmonton ten years ago. I contacted the press and Mary Loy Roy, the then-production editor, kindly invited me over for tea and a tour of the office. We chatted about indexing and she hired me a few months later for a project. 

I’ve continued to work with the U of A Press since then, now usually working with Duncan, the current production editor, and also sometimes with Cathie, the associate director. It is due to their prompting and encouragement that I submitted the Dialectics of the Big Bang index to the ASI Indexing Award. I would’t have otherwise as philosophy is not my strong suit. But they asked, and I agreed this index was the best candidate out of the three possible U of A Press indexes I could have submitted—and the coolest subject, if I may say so—and so here we are. 

So thank you, Cathie and Duncan, for all of your support over the years. It is an honor to work with a press that cares so much about indexes and for fostering good relationships with their freelancers.

I also want to thank the author, Gregory Phipps, for his kind congratulations. As I mentioned, the U of A Press hires directly and any queries I have for the author usually go through Duncan. So I haven’t been in contact with Gregory, but I am thankful he wrote such a fascinating book, I appreciate his trust in having Duncan ask me to write the index, and I am grateful that Gregory is delighted with the index as well.

Thoughts on Indexing Dialectics of the Big Bang

Before I close, I also want to go over three aspects of writing this index. The judges very kindly described the index as appearing “effortless.” I am glad that that was the impression, as I think well-written indexes should be easy to access and navigate. Writing the actual index was anything but.

Dialectics of the Big Bang and the Absolute Existence of the Multiverse is a complicated interdisciplinary book, combining philosophy and science. Philosophy is one of those subjects I struggle to wrap my head around, and so I usually turn down philosophical texts. But the addition of the Big Bang and multiverse proved too tempting and I talked myself into accepting this book anyway, thinking maybe the science aspect would somehow make the book easier to index?

Famous last words.  

I still somehow got through to the end. It is a relief to have confirmation from the judges that the index worked out. 

So, what were some of the challenges writing this index and how did I piece it all together?

Delineating What is What

This book covers a lot. On the philosophy side, the book focuses on Hegel and five different dialectics, such as being and nothing, finite and the infinite, and space and time. Other concepts are also discussed, such as being, consciousness, and determinate content. On the science side, the Big Bang is important, obviously. The first second of the Big Bang is also broken down into six epochs, including the Planck epoch, grand unification epoch, and inflationary epoch. The book also discuses elementary particles, such as bosons, electrons, and fermions, as well as the four fundamental forces: electromagnetism, gravity, and strong and weak nuclear forces. On top of all of that is the multiverse, which required four separate arrays. 

So the first challenge is simply to understand what all is in the book, what needs to go into the index, and how all these elements relate to each other. For a book this complicated, mind mapping is your friend. When finished writing the rough draft, or even partway through the rough draft, take a step back, identify the various components, and see how they link together. 

Opposition and Interdependence

The next challenge was figuring out what could be indexed together and what needed to be kept apart. I am mainly thinking here of the dialectics, which I decided to keep together. For example, the index contains main headings for “being and nothing,” “finite and the infinite,” and “repulsion and attraction,” with cross-references from the second term. The alternative would be to have separate arrays for each element of the dialectic, with subheadings and locators double-posted under each, but that seemed unnecessarily complicated. Each dialectic is generally discussed together, as a single concept, and I thought the index should reflect that. Keeping the dialectics together also meant less double-posting and gave readers a single place to search. Following a similar rationale, I also created a single array for “absolute existence (absolute existence of the multiverse).”

That said, I also needed to be careful to not conflate related yet distinct concepts. So, the index also contains arrays for “being,” “finitude,” and “nothingness,” for example, which are discussed in and of themselves, distinct from the dialectics 

The index is complicated regardless. But I was still looking for ways to make the index less complicated. Deciding what could be kept together, such as the dialectics, was one way to keep the index simple, so to speak, by having a single place for each concept or term. Having clear distinctions between similar concepts was another way to keep the index “simple.” No unnecessary complexity.

Relationships

Being such an interdisciplinary book, relationships are everywhere and need to be reflected in the index. This is partly done through cross-references, but mostly through double-posting. To give a couple of examples, “consciousness” is both a main heading and appears as a subheading in eighteen other arrays. The dialectic “finite and the infinite” appears as a subheading in fifteen other arrays. The result is an index that is an interconnected web. Readers should be able to go to any array and find everything they need to know about that topic, including how that term relates to other terms.

All of that double-posting takes time and thought. See mind mapping to clarify relationships. I also recommend double-posting early, while creating the entries, instead of waiting to double-post at the end. I know some indexers save double-posting for later. While that can work if the number of double-posts are limited, if double-posts are extensive, I think trying to do them all at once retroactively could be overwhelming and confusing. I think it is easier to plan ahead, create them early so that the emerging index structure is visible, and then check and adjust as needed while editing the index.

Dialectics of the Big Bang was fascinating to read, and a real puzzle to piece the index together. My takeaway is that while difficult books are certainly slow and challenging to index, writing a good index is possible if I can identify all of the moving pieces and figure out a good plan. Understanding the book is half the equation, while understanding how an index works is the other half. If you hone your craft, you can index just about anything. (Though I think I’ll still pass on most philosophy books, thank you.)

Still, I thought I’d jot down a few highlights while the conference is still fresh in my mind.

• One of my key takeaways was to better learn how to vet books (to use Enid Zafran’s term) prior to indexing, and to get a much better handle on the index structure at the beginning of the indexing process, as per Fred Leise’s excellent presentation. This feels like a natural next step in improving how I index.
• I also have much food for thought on how to run my business from Pierre Joyal’s presentation on incorporation, as well as from conversations with another more experienced indexer. I feel like I have to be very careful in how I grow my business, as I don’t want to focus on growth to the exclusion of writing. If anything, I want to index less so that I can write more. At the same time, I expect that I will index for many years to come, so I do need to pay attention to the business side of things. I think what I need is a business that grows in such a way to support the work and life that I want, rather than growth at any cost. 
• I am very thankful to have attended Enid Zafran’s all-day workshop on indexing names, especially as Enid announced that she is slowing down and that this might be her last workshop. She is a masterful teacher and indexer, and I definitely learned a few things about names that I did not know before. 
• Kate Mertes is also an excellent presenter, and her talk on index locorums was illuminating. That said, outside of Biblical citations, I don’t feel at all qualified to take on an index locorum. Kate definitely has a unique set of skills.
• This conference felt like the beginnings of a generational turnover. There are a number of indexers in both the Canadian and American societies who have decades of experience, and who have done so much to teach and mentor. It seems like more of them are starting to either slow down or retire. I am glad that they are still with us, but this conference did seem to be a reminder that a new generation will need to step up in the next few years. 
• I am no longer a coordinator for the Mary Newberry Mentorship Program. That responsibility is now passed on to Linda Christian and Alexandrea Jory. I think they will do an excellent job, and after two years of putting the program together, I am ready to pass it on. Still, letting go is bittersweet. 
• For a door prize I picked up a hard copy of the manual for the new Cindex 4.0. I guess this means I better upgrade. 
• The biggest surprise of the conference was being given the Tamarack Award, which is for volunteer service “above and beyond the call of duty.” In my case, so I was told, largely for putting together the mentorship program. I was also told that my face turned several shades of red while receiving the award. Many thanks to all present for your kind words and acknowledgement. If you are interested in knowing what the award looks like, here it is perched on one of the bookshelves in my living room.

Personally, I’ve had mixed results trying to market myself with specific subjects. It might be a foot in the door, but once I’m in I can end up being asked to index anything and everything. For example, an academic publisher who publishers in Asian studies and religious studies, two areas I am interested in, is also likely to publish in sociology and African studies, for example, and if they like me as an indexer I am just as likely to get any of the above or something else entirely. It really depends on what their next book is. So while there are particular areas in which I feel uniquely qualified or have a special interest in, I’m open to indexing almost anything within the social sciences and humanities. That seems to be as narrow as most of my clients are willing to pigeon-hole me. It might be different, though, for subjects such as law or medicine, which have their own dedicated publishers and conventions.

All that said, in this post I am going to briefly discuss a niche that I inadvertently discovered and have had opportunity to reflect on, most recently in The Indexer, the international journal of indexing, which is a wonderful publication and a must read if you are an indexer.

Indigenous studies is an area I first grappled with as an indexer when writing my award-winning index for the book Strange Visitors. I go into more detail about that book and winning the Purple Pen Award here. For now, as a recap, it was my first introduction to the contested language that so often surrounds Indigenous issues in North America, as well as the emotionally charged tensions that surrounds colonialism and the ways in which we tell these stories. I also found this topic difficult because I am myself a white settler. In the story of colonialism, I am the bad guy, to put it simply. How do I deal with that when indexing a book that is angry at people like me?

In other ways, however, is Indigenous studies really all that different from other disciplines? If Indigenous history, how is that different from other types of history? If Indigenous literature, how is that different from, say, Chinese literature? I think this is a good point to make: the type of content and how it is indexed may not be so different from other disciplines. What is different is how contested and emotionally charged the material can be, which includes my own personal involvement in the issues by virtue of living in a country in which colonialism and reconciliation are contemporary realities.

I was able to first explore these issues in a short article I wrote last year for Geez (Fall 2015, issue 39), a Canadian magazine which bills itself as “contemplative cultural resistance.” Then, earlier this year, Maureen MacGlashan asked me about writing something for The Indexer. Bouncing ideas back and forth, I mentioned the Geez article. Maureen liked it, asked to reprint it, and asked if I could expand my reflections, so The Indexer version (just published in vol. 34, no. 3, Sept. 2016, and also available online here) contains a postscript which is longer than the original article.

Now, I don’t want to claim that I am an expert just because I have some published thoughts on indexing in Indigenous studies. At the same time, I’m no longer a complete novice in the subject either. I think I can claim an edge when it comes to indexing Indigenous studies. Let’s call it, then, an edge in process. I hope to continue indexing in Indigenous studies and increasing my knowledge and effectiveness. I hope you have a chance to read my thoughts, in either Geez or The Indexer. If you do, perhaps send me a note or leave a comment below. I’d be glad to hear your thoughts on this subject as well.

And, for those of you curious, below is a list of Indigenous studies books I’ve indexed so far.

Teach, Learn, Challenge: Approaching Indigenous Literatures, edited by Deanna Reder and Linda M. Morra (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2016)

The Colonial Problem: An Indigenous Perspective on Crime and Injustice in Canada, by Lisa Monchalin (University of Toronto Press, 2016)

From Treaty Peoples to Treaty Nation: A Road Map For All Canadians, by Greg Poelzer and Ken S. Coates (UBC Press, 2015)

We Are Coming Home: Repatriation and the Restoration of Blackfoot Cultural Confidence, ed. by Gerald T. Conaty (AU Press, 2015)

You Will Wear a White Shirt: From the Northern Bush to the Halls of Power, by Nick Sibbeston (Douglas & McIntyre, 2015)

Strange Visitors: Documents in the History of Indigenous and Settler Relations in Canada from 1876, ed. by Keith D. Smith (University of Toronto Press, 2014)

Conversations With a Dead Man: The Legacy of Duncan Campbell Scott, by Mark Abley (Douglas & McIntyre, 2013)

We Are Born with the Songs Inside Us: Lives and Stories of First Nations People in British Columbia, by Katherine Palmer Gordon (Harbour Publishing, 2013)

The PDF of the book I needed to upload for the competition was big. The internet, as I mentioned, was slow and unreliable. I couldn’t tell from my email program if the files had sent or not. I restarted the process a few times. I might have successfully sent those files a couple of times without realizing it.

Had I been at home with reliable internet, instead of in the wilderness with my dear love, would I have been more on top of submitting to the competition? I hope so. Sending the files certainly wouldn’t have been so nerve-wracking. I was still confident, though, in my chances for winning that I pressed on with the submission.

And the end result of all that time spent huddled over my laptop on that lovely summer day in southeastern British Columbia, not to mention the hours spent writing that particular index?

I won the award.

It was 2014, my second year as a freelancer and my fourth as an indexer. I won the inaugural Purple Pen Award for best new indexer, given by the Institute of Certified Indexers. My winning index was for Strange Visitors: Documents in the History of Indigenous and Settler Relations in Canada from 1876, edited by Keith D. Smith, and published by the University of Toronto Press in 2014.

Why was I so confident that I might win? There were three reasons.

1. I figured that a prize-winning index should be unique in some way, which meant that the book indexed should be unique. You want to stand out, right? The book I won for, Strange Visitors, was a collection of primary documents spanning a hundred years and covering over a dozen subjects within Indigenous and settler relations in Canada. It wasn’t your typical monograph or anthology. When I received this book I sensed that this was an index I could experiment and apply new techniques and skills to.
2. But to show off skills, you must first, of course, acquire them. I wrote the index for Strange Visitors shortly after attending the annual conference held by the Indexing Society of Canada. I left that conference with a list of new ideas and techniques that I wanted to put into practice. Thankfully I soon received just the projects to do that with.
3. At this point I was also realizing my own progress as an indexer. I could see that I was learning and implementing new techniques. I was indexing more challenging books and my clients seemed happy with the results. I could look back at early indexes I had written and critique them. So, while still recognizing that I wasn’t yet an indexing vet, I wasn’t a complete rookie either. Just possibly my recent work was good enough to win an award.

In the end, the judges, of course, had their own criteria (which can be found here) by which they judged the submissions. Perhaps they would have been just as happy with another index of mine from that time period.

I am thankful, though, for the recognition given to me by the judges. It tells me that I am on the right track with my indexing, and I am excited to keep learning and improving. I am also thankful to the University of Toronto Press for asking me to index Strange Visitors. They publish beautifully written and designed books, and I am proud to work with them.