Uncategorized Archives - New England Indexers

2020 Fall Virtual Meeting

New England ASI (NEASI) Fall 2020 Virtual Meeting

Saturday, October 3rd
1 to 3 pm (EST)

COST:

FREE for New England chapter members

$5 ASI members

$10 non-ASI members

PROGRAM:

Nan Badgett, author of The Accidental Indexer, will discuss themes from her book including marketing, deadline management, and work-life balance. Nan will provide tips and strategies based on material from her book, other outside resources, and anecdotes from her own experience. The presentation includes a few exercises to help move your indexing business forward. Every participant will be entered into a drawing for Nan’s book during the meeting. Nan’s book is an enlightening, engaging read. It belongs on every indexer’s bookshelf and a copy can be purchased here.

Nan Badgett, dba Wordability, has been providing freelance indexing services to publishers, authors, and corporate clients since 1992. Her work is focused on trade books and textbooks in a wide range of subjects. She is a past ASI board member (2018–2020) and chaired the 2014 ASI Excellence in Indexing Award.

NOTE: Zoom links for this virtual meeting will be sent to registered participants the day before the meeting.

Registration Form

Online payments: Pay online through ASI’s shopping cart feature (for non-NE chapter members and non-ASI members only)

Check payments must be postmarked by September 26th. Please mail them to:

Melissa Stearns Hyde
Ivy Indexing
265 General Miller Rd.
Peterborough, NH 03458

Questions? Email the event coordinator: Ray Davis Murdoch Curry at ray.davis.murdoch.curry@gmail.com

2020 Summer Virtual Meeting

New England chapter (NEASI) Summer 2020 Virtual Meeting

Friday, June 26th
noon to 1:30 pm (EST)

COST:

FREE for New England chapter members

$5 ASI members

$10 non-ASI members

noon: Indexing Exercise and Review:

If you couldn’t attend the 2019 NEASI winter meeting, here’s another chance to do this exercise with other New England Indexers!

Peer reviews are a helpful way to see the work of other indexers and discuss the challenges of indexing. This indexing exercise goes beyond the typical peer-review process by having all attendees prepare a short index prior to the meeting: two chapters from the book The Invention of the Sewing Machine by Grace Rogers Cooper. At the meeting, we will discuss the similarities and differences among our indexes. Upon registration, a pdf of the entire book will be sent to the participant so register early! You will not be required to share your index with other chapter members but to fully participate in the discussion you should have completed the index ahead of time.

1 pm: “Coffee Break” and networking

1:30: NEASI Business Meeting (New England chapter members only)

Zoom links for this virtual meeting will be sent to registered participants the day before the meeting.

Registration Form

Pay online through ASI’s shopping cart feature (for non-NE chapter members and non-ASI members only)

Fall 2019 Meeting

New England chapter (NEASI) Fall 2019 Meeting

Saturday, December 7th
10 am – 3:30 pm

The Richard W. Black Community Center
48 Lebanon Street
Hanover, New Hampshire 03755

$10 members/$20 non-members
(lunch included)

10:00-10:30 Registration and Coffee

10:30-10:45 Welcome and Introductions

10:45-12:00 Using Tablet Computers for Indexing

Marking up proofs for indexing is a mainstay practice for many indexers, yet many of us prefer greener work habits and enjoy the portability of our work. Enter the tablet! With special electronic “pens” indexers can mark up proofs right on screen and even use their tablets as a second monitor while inputting index terms. Tablets can also be used for other business practices such as signing contracts. Michelle Guiliano and Joan Shapiro will demonstrate how they use iPads for indexing in conjunction with Windows-based computers. (A version of this workshop was presented at ASI’s “Bloom in the Desert,” Scottsdale, Arizona, April 27, 2019.) We’ll even do a live demonstration of marking up an excerpt from The Invention of the Sewing Machine (see below).

12:00-1:00 Lunch

1:00-1:30 Business Meeting

Preview of “Indexing Crossroads,” 2020 national conference

1:30-2:45 Indexing Exercise and Review:

Peer reviews are helpful way to see the work of other indexers and discuss the challenges of indexing. This indexing exercise goes beyond the typical peer review process by having all attendees prepare a short index prior to the meeting. We will all be indexing two chapters from the book The Invention of the Sewing Machine by Grace Rogers Cooper and at the meeting we will discuss the similarities and differences among our indexes. Upon registration, a pdf of the entire book will be sent to the participant so register early! You will not be required to share your index with other chapter members but to fully participate in the discussion you should have completed the index ahead of time.

2:45-3:30 Wrap-up and networking opportunity

Registration Information

There is parking onsite and overflow parking on the street.

The Hanover Garden Club will be holding their annual Holiday Sale from 9 a.m. to noon in the same building. They will be selling fun things like scarves, plants, and food as a fundraiser for their activities.

Spring Joint Event with Bookbuilders of Boston

The New England Chapter’s spring event was a co-organized meeting along with the ASI Digital Publications Indexing SIG and Bookbuilders of Boston, held Thursday evening, April 5, at the offices of the publishers Cengage Learning, which is also an organizational member of ASI.
The program theme, “Indexes in Ebooks and Embedded Indexing” brought together three speakers and an opportunity for discussion. As most of the 22 attendees were members of Bookbuilders of Boston, it was an opportunity to raise the awareness of embedded and ebook indexing among publishers, so that they don’t simply discard the index in ebook editions.
The evening’s featured speaker, Stephen Ingle, President and CEO of WordCo Indexing Services and a past president of the New England Chapter of ASI, addressed the issues the publishers face with digital publications in his presentation “Indexes for Digital Publications: ‘The Battle of the Books’.” The issues to be “battled” and resolved include: whether or not to even have an index in a digital book/ebook, whether a hyperlinked index should be page-hyperlinked (usually based on what was the print page) or precision-hyperlinked (to an element, such as a paragraph), and whether indexes should be fully functional. Fully functional may include allowing user input, taking advantage of the digital potential, and giving the user an improved experience over print.
Marty Rabinowitz, Executive Director of Content Services at Cengage, presented briefly on how Cengage currently handles the indexing process for print products and what is done with ebooks and courseware. Marty raised issues and questions: Do customers find value in indexes? Is it worth the investment? Should we make the same investment for digital indexes as we do for print?
Teresa Elsey, Senior Managing Editor of the group that produces ebooks for the Trade division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, presented the process for and issues in converting indexes created for print books into hyperlinked indexes for subsequent ebook editions.
Good questions were raised during the Q&A, and there was time for discussion and networking. The ASI New England Chapter and the Digital Publications Indexing SIG provided food, and there was table of ASI information literature and copies of printed article on digital publications indexing. There was interest in Bookbuilders of Boston and the ASI New England Chapter cooperating in future events.

Spring 2018 Event

Event:
Indexes in Ebooks and Embedded Indexing

Date: Thursday, April 5, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Location: Cengage Learning, 10 Channel Center, 3rd floor, Boston, MA
Evening rate parking is available in a lot on A Street for $8 or in the Necco Street garage for $10, or take the Red Line to Broadway. It’s also not far to walk from South Station.
This event is free.

In an event co-organized by Bookbuilders of Boston, the New England Chapter of the American Society for Indexing (http://newenglandindexers.org), and the Digital Publications Indexing Special Interest Group of American Society for Indexing (https://digital-publications-indexing.org), and hosted by Bookbuilders member Cengage Learning (www.cengage.com), we will learn and discuss issues in incorporating the book index into digital publications.

We will have a featured presentation on Indexes for Digital Publications followed by brief presentations on the status of index production from two leading publishers: Mary Rabinowitz, Executive Director, Higher Education Production for textbooks at Cengage Learning and Teresa Elsey, Senior Managing Editor of the group that produces ebooks for the Trade division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This will be followed by a Q&A, and hopefully some good discussion. There will also be networking time and food sufficient for a light supper (rice bowls from Grainmaker). Join us!

“Indexes for Digital Publications: “The Battle of the Books”
Presented by Stephen Ingle
In 1704 the Irish author Jonathan Swift satirically described a literal “battle of the books” in the King’s Library in London. Today we are witnessing several battles in the digital publishing sphere: between proponents and opponents of indexes, between freelance indexers and their customers who want more for less, and even between individual indexers about the best way to approach indexing for digital books. The good news is that we are starting to see some emerging solutions to these conflicts. This presentation will offer suggestions on how publishers can maximize customer value by utilizing the potential of digital indexes in the most cost-effective way.

Stephen Ingle is the president and CEO of WordCo Indexing Services, Inc. (www.wordco.com), founded in 1988 and located in Norwich, Connecticut. He has served on the national board of the American Society for Indexing (ASI). His interests include publishing workflows, especially as they pertain to digital publishing. He is presenting at the Textbook & Academic Authors Association annual conference in Santa Fe in June.

Please direct any questions to Heather Hedden at heather.hedden@cengage.com

2018 Lead Officers Announced

Michelle Guiliano and Jennifer Spanier have been elected as Lead Officers for the New England Chapter for 2018. Thanks to all who voted in the election. We look forward to working with members in the coming year as we plan chapter activities and events!