About Indexing

About Indexing (from the American Society for Indexing)

An index is much more than an alphabetical list of topics with page numbers attached.

A good index is a road map that leads both experts and novices in your field to every pertinent sentence you've written, regardless of their point of departure and without dead ends or annoying detours.

An index is a tool that helps users locate information. Users of indexes include:

Potential buyers and bookstore browsers, when deciding whether to buy your book;
Librarians and educators, when deciding whether to acquire or adopt your book;
Book reviewers, when deciding whether to recommend your book;
Your peers, when judging your book's completeness.

Creating a good index takes understanding of the reader as well as the subject.

The index is meant for the reader, often a non-expert, who may not be as familiar as you with the concepts, thrust or vocabulary of the topic.
A professional indexer will look at your book from the reader's perspective, using synonyms, main headings and subheadings, double-postings, and cross-references to guide the reader efficiently back into the book.