I index for academics and often they are only concerned with the argument their book is putting forth and that's how some topics get missed. If you read the book thinking of it as being on the periphery of another discipline suddenly a lot more gets picked up.

Darlene Cypser@darlenecypser.bsky.social · last wk.

Manually indexing is a painful process. I've done it. It often makes me wonder why so many book indices miss obvious entries.

Indexers are often the last set of fresh eyes on a proof. I recently had one of the cleanest proofs I've ever worked on and it had a typo that had been missed by everyone.

Nicola King@nicolaking.bsky.social · 2w ago

Your indexer will not usually tell you about 'factual' errors, they may highlight internal inconsistencies within the book where first you say one thing and then later another. We're not there to tell authors they got things wrong, even if they did. The indexer may identify typos and spellings.

Having tee shirts made that say "everything I know I learned from reading books in fields I wasn't trained in" who wants one?

Rebecca Colesworthy@rcolesworthy.bsky.social · 2mo ago

"Vandy" has trained so many scholars in Latin American and Caribbean studies, for example--Hispanophone, Lusophone, and Francophone--doing some of the most thoughtful, nuanced, rigorous, award-winning work on and using different epistemological frameworks--but go off, I guess.

Getting ready to present and then take in American Society for Indexing @asindexing.bsky.social's two-day conference. AI & indexing, the state of scholarly publishing and indexing during disasters. Relevant to this academic indexer and her summer indexing locale in wildfire territory. #BookIndexer

Wrapping up a book on crunk #AmIndexing #LoveMyJob #ethnomusicology

Indexing about the early years of advertising films and the ethics of being transparent that a travelogue was an advertising vehicle. #AmIndexing 📽️ #AcademicSky

My Grandfather's Cat is a legitimate nationwide charity that helps place the pets of those at the end of their lives. If you are in Ontario and are looking for a cat, please assist. FB link (do not read the comments) www.facebook.com/mygrandfathe...

New week, new book, new index. Leaving Lebanon and its Syrian refugee farmworkers and heading north for a look at unemployment in Norway. #BookIndexing #LoveMyJob #AcademicSky

Amazing 🧵

Erin L. Thompson@artcrimeprof.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Sitting here crying while after getting WhatsApped the photo on the right, so let me tell you a little story about how we got here from the photo on the left and why repatriation research matters!

New funding for early-career scholars in History and Area Studies publishing their first book #AcademicSky #skytorians 🗃️

Cambridge University Press@universitypress.cambridge.org · 4mo ago

The inaugural Cambridge Amplify Grant will support early-career scholars in History and Area Studies in publishing their first book, providing financial and editorial support over 12 months. ⏰ The closing date for submissions is 13 April 2026. Find out more 🔗 https://cup.org/3NJAd1a

A variation on a theme: author disappointed by the lack of an index #IndexSky

Rebecca Shapiro@rebeccashapiro.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I just found out that my book isn't allowed to have an index. I find that so awful, so brain-hurty.

Indexers use the title given in the book and then sort the index entries based on the alphabet. I would never expect to see École des Beaux-Arts under S for School...! People want the version of the actual book that was consulted, because not all books have the same pagination among other things.

Gabrielle Hecht 🇵🇷 • she/elle/ella/cis⚔️ • AOC 4USpresident@gabriellehecht.bsky.social · 4mo ago

A note to amateur translators: Do not translate titles in the references. Or names of institutions. The point is for readers to be able to find the source I can’t believe I have to say this, but it’s happened with 2 different translators, so

Starting off the week with a new book. Early March was linguistic anthropology and Malaysia, today its economic anthropology and the Middle East. #AmIndexing #AcademicSky

I think it's simultaneously this and the fact that many enthusiasts seem to have a narrow sense of what job tasks are/can look like. There's a lot of "you don't understand what AI can do" coming at some of us and a legitimate response is "you don't understand what I can do, and need to, in my job."

Faine Greenwood@faineg.bsky.social · 5mo ago

my main point: a lot of people who are skeptical of AI are speaking from a place of pretty damn rational and reasonable anxiety about what their future looks like, not just petty beefs about being outclassed at trivia (and like, Wikipedia has existed for a very long time, so what)

Ask about production process in detail. Many large publishers rely on third party vendors for production who are implementing many cost saving (to them) measures. Those short cuts affect the result, which may show up in your book and can't be fixed unless there is a second printing.

Sarah Bull@sarahebull.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Some academic publishing contract advice: make sure your contract specifies 1. a qualified human copyeditor will copyedit on the MS; 2. a qualified human proofreader will proofread the MS; 3. that production must have a proper system for version control (!).

I was burnt out from non-profit management. I liked words, problem solving, project based work and needed the flexibility of working for myself. I was considering editing, saw indexing was part of the training. Remembered a librarian who told that people specialize in indexing. Sold!

Society of Indexers@indexers.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Are you thinking about indexing as a new career direction in 2026? Is it the right fit for you? In our new Ask the Indexers blog post, our panel share how they came to indexing, and how they knew it was right for them. Current indexers - what's your origin story? #IndexSky

Pick up the nearest book. Turn to page 42. Post the second sentence. "Authors must be prepared to review the index quickly, usually within a day or two of its receipt."

Matthew L Reznicek@drreznicek.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Pick up the nearest book. Turn to page 42. Post the second sentence. My own view, then, is that care is both a practice and a value.

No new pictures - where are you mentally?

Dan Hassler-Forest@danhf.bsky.social · 7mo ago

No new pictures – where are you mentally?

Great thread on wine pairings for 🎥 🐟🍿🍫 and trivia about all of that and more

PT Klein@ptklein.com · 8mo ago

I used to manage wine programs for movie theaters and I am in the extremely unique position to say with professional certainty that the answer here is a crisp Albariño.

Can't it be my current novel, where I've inherited wealth and I pay someone to run the household?

Index in the Joy of Cooking

There’s an excellent and devastatingly thorough article in the latest @indexers.bsky.social journal by Elizabeth Bartmess and Michele Combs demonstrating that LLMs are worthless for indexing

"Writing with Robots" students presented in their unessays yesterday & here are a just few I was especially excited about & I got permission to share Most unessay projects are accompanied by an "artist’s statement" outlining the argument of the piece—I will try to get to the core of those here+

However the book indexer DID read every word of the indexable part of the book. If you have your own tome coming out soon start looking for you indexer when you submit your final manuscript. Larger books take longer and not all indexers take on large books. #SkyIndex #Academia 📚🎥🏛️

Joseph Rezek@rezekjoe.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Looking at a book jacket for a new non fiction tome (big 6 publisher) and there is NO WAY all of the blurbing people read every word of this book.

I don't care how short your NF book is or how well you think you organized it, IT NEEDS AN INDEX. #Academia

🎬 Meet a winner: THE SITUATIONSHIP reimagines a 1920s silent film & took third place in the Internet Archive's 2025 Public Domain Day Film Remix Contest. Now it’s your turn—create a 2–3 min short using public domain works from 1930 & earlier. ℹ️ Details 👉 blog.archive.org/2025/12/01/2...

I'm obsessed with this stat: "with more than 4,000 degree-granting institutions and fewer than 130 university presses in the United States and Canada, this vital [publishing] infrastructure is directly supported by less than 3 percent of the institutions it benefits"

I actually have a pair of shorts with his face with this exact quote on them. David Lynch was an ally, and an incredible artist with a beautiful mind. I miss him.

Eric Shmeric@ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 9mo ago

I feel like we have the opportunity to turn David Lynch's quote into this moment's "Keep Calm and Carry On" and it's a far better rallying cry too.

IndexSky, what do we think about #danceindexing? I don't think it's for me, as I can't focus on reading for understanding and dancing simultaneously. However, I am however about to get into some #danceinvoicing

manes@michaelanes.bsky.social · 9mo ago

The return of #dancegrading. War Pigs has been the theme song of my Portraits of Holocaust Violence class. I’m grading a quiz about memorial architectural approaches to the Holocaust - and how these spaces may affect us. (We consider a few other, non-Holocaust memorials as well).

My current indexing project is about the development of photography programs in post-secondary education in the US and a book I indexed earlier on Minor White last year is showing up in the notes. So nice to external proof of this strange yet wonderful career. 📷 🏛️ 📚 #BookIndexer