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ants In Action:Adaptation in Nature,Performance in CultivationEditors, Brian J Atwell, Paul EKriedemann, Colin G NTurnbull. Macmillan Education,1999·Indexed by Michael RamsdenThis index is a fine example of text-book indexing with good judgment inthe headings and subheadings andcross references. Apparently the num-ber of pages for the index was limited.

Continued on page 27

ywacand·\.the :Elenges

This yearcltwhich could be'tion to particular sir

Making theAustralianDefence Forceby David Homer.(The Australian CentenaryHistory of Defence, volume IV)Oxford University Press, 200LIndexed by Geraldine SuterIt is apparent that this book was care-fully planned and executed with re-gard to the progress of the 'story' andthe use of illustrative material -maps, figures, tables and illustrations- and list of abbreviations, notes andbibliography. This care is also evidentin the index with selection of termsand inclusion of all illustrations. The

indexer has created a logical arrange-ment of entries fon the units of theAustralian Army, the RAAF and theRAN, with most acronyms identifiedin the table of abbreviations; but thelisting of units includes some unusualabbreviations which may leave thegeneral reader guessing, e.g. avn foraviation, rct for recruit, spt for sup-port. Since there is one blank page";

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PO Box R598, Royal Exchange NSW 1225

New MembersWe warmly welcome three new members to AusSI:Ms Elizabeth Vella of Blackburn, Vie.; Ms MaloryWeston from Mooreskyle Smith of Creswick, Vie.,and Ms Helen Skewes of Neutral Bay, NSW.

Professional DevelopmentWee k e nd: I A vie w fro mthe Backbench'The ACT Region Branch will hold a residentialProfessional Development weekend on Saturdayand Sunday, 25-26 May 2002 at Ranelagh House inthe Southern Tablelands town of Robertson.Longstanding members of AusSI may rememberthat Ranelagh House was the venue for the Branch's1996 weekend workshop on Indexing in theElectronic Age. This time, the weekend will beinward- rather than forward-looking, with memberssharing experiences and discussing issuesof interest.

The focus of the weekend will be participatory:there will be few if any guest speakers. We haveidentified a number of themes for exploration andhope to further our understanding of our practicesand profession through informal and opendiscussion. Themes to be addressed will include:o Education and educational opportunities

(including updates on activities from members ofthe newly-formed Education Committee)

o Members' Moments (which will encourageparticipants to share experiences and have theirsay about issuesdear to their hearts)

o Businessissues(covering such controversies asclearinghouses, cooperatives and otherentrepreneurial enterprises); and

o The future of AusSI (what would members likefrom their Society?)

Time will be available for 'nuts and bolts' sessions,aRound Robin of current activities, and plenty ofdiscussion, discussion, discussion! Coupled withgreat food, beautiful scenery and lovely grounds,the weekend should provide a good blend ofprofessional input and plain fun.

The weekend will run from 10.30 Saturday to afterlunch (about 1 pm) Sunday. Cost is $180.00 perperson and includes accommodation on Saturdaynight and all meals. Transport to the venue will beprovided for those arriving by train. We hope someof our members from interstate can join us toexamine our roles and goals. Numbers will belimited, so please contact Lynn Farkas by email at

Ifarkas@pcug.org.au for a registration brochure ifyou would like to secure your place at this event.(Note: ACT Region Branch members will bereceiving registration brochures through the mailshortly.)

NSW ContinuingProfessional DevelopmentI would like to let everyone know that ourContinuing Professional Development 2002 scheduleof seminars and workshops is now available on ourWeb site http://cpd.sistm.unsw.edu.au/.

We have an exciting program with more to come.

May 3,10 & 17Introduction to Book Indexing

May 24 Computer-aided Indexing

May 30 Analysing, abstracting and indexingdocuments for data bases

June 14 Indexing Web pages and documents

June 21 Synonyms and taxonomies: thesaurusdesign for information architects

Sept 6 & 13Indexing and storing images andmultimedia

Maureen HenningerCoordinator of Continuing Professional Development

The University of New South WalesM.Henninger@unsw.edu.au

Professional Developmentin Information Literacyand Searching SkillsCunning ham Library staff at the Australian Councilfor Educational Research (ACER),will present twoworkshops at ACER,Melbourne in May 2002 andagain in August 2002.

Workshop 1: Information literacy and searchingOn the completion of this workshop participantswill understand:o how information is stored and organisedo where information is available within the subject

discipline of education, human resourcemanagement and psychology

26 Australian Society of Indexers Newsletter

o how to develop a search strategy for onlinedata basesand the web environment

o how to select and retrieve information whichdeals with down loading, printing and emailing

Dates: Friday 3 May; Wednesday 21August.Cost $'32 per session (inc GST).

Workshop 2: Writing, abstracting andreferencing for journal articles and reportsOn the completion of this workshop participantswill understand:o how to write abstracts for journal articleso how to cite references - APA, Harvard,

Vancouver styleso evaluating informationo how to manage references using bibliographic

database management programs e.g. PRO CITE,ENDNOTE

Dates: Friday 10 May; Wednesday 22AugustCost $132per session (inc GST)

Attendance at Workshop 1and Workshop 2 can bemade available for $250 (inc GST).

Course leaders: Margaret Findlay and MaxMcMaster.

Venue: ACER19 Prospect Hill Road, Camberwell Vic3124Australia.

Pleasecontact to reserve your place: ProfessionalDevelopment Unit, ACER,Private Bag 55,Camberwell Vic 3124.Tel: (03) 98357403; Fax (03)9835 7499; email: workshops@acer.edu.au.

Margaret FindlayManager, Cunningham Library

Australian Council for Educational Researchfindlay@acer.edu.au

http://www.acer.edu.aullibrary

AODC 2002AODC 2002, the 5th Annual Au~tralasian OnlineDocumentation Conference, is ~or anyone involvedin corporate documentation, online help, Webauthoring and technical writing. AODC 2002 willbe held at the Sheraton Towers Southgate hotel inMelbourne, '7-19 April. Further information isavailable at http://www.aodc.com.au.

Penny BradleyConference Administrator

April 2002

Indexers' MedalContinued from page 25

The colour plates are not indexed and other illustrationsincluding figures and tables are only selectively indexedleaving much information inaccessible. This is unfortu-nate because it reduces the value of a well-compiled text-book. Nevertheless the indexer is commended for finework within the limitations imposed.

Ecol 0 9 i ca I Pi 0 nee r s :A Social History of Australian EcologicalThought and Action,byMartin Mulligan and Stuart Hill. CambridgeUniversity Press, 2001.Indexed by Trevor MatthewsThis book explores the development of the understandingof the environment in Australia and the expression of thisunderstanding in politics, the arts and sciences and inpublic life. It studies the work of writers, conservationist~,trade union leaders, politicians and artists from the Hei-delberg School to Michael Leunig, from Banjo P~terson toJudith Wright and from Bob Brown to the Whitlam andFraser governments. The relationships are complex andthe indexer shows an understanding of this complexity,giving an accurate 'indication' of what the book containsas well as providing a guide to the attitudes adopted andthe atmosphere created by the authors. The index scoreshighly on all the criteria except size, having .som~ 7~O~n-tries including about 25 per cent names. While this limita-tion is set by the text and its accompanying illustrations itreduced the scope of the challenge which the book pre-sented to the indexer. However within this limitation hehas done excellent work and so he is highly commended.

Ann Bentley (Librarian)PamJonas (Editor)

Max McMaster (Indexer)John Simkin (Chairman ofJudges)

27

Anriual General MeetingsN a t 1.0 n a I and ACT Campbell and Geraldine Triffitt did Following upon the official busi-Re 9 Ion Bra n c h the same for the British course pro- ness of the night, we were delighted toThe Annual General Meeting of the vided by Ann HalL Their frank, prac- hear the announcement, by PanelAustralian Society of Indexers was tical and often entertaining Chairman, ] ohn Simkin, that Maxheld jointly with the ACT Region comments about aspects of the McMaster had won the Indexers'Branch's AGM on 26 February 2002 courses made for an interesting and Medal for 2000 with his outstandingat the Great Wall Restaurant in Can- informative evening. index to The Oxford Companion to Ab-berra. original ATt and Culture, published by

Alan Walker, outgoing President of NSW Bra n c h OUP.AusSI, outlined the recent achieve- The Annual General Meeting of the Madeleine Davis received a Highlyments of the Society and highlighted NSW Branch of the Australian Soci- Commended Certificate for her finesome of the ongoing.flctivities and is- etyof was heldaL~h~New example . aphy indexing tosues. Members t···· ave a vote of Ho········· leay hank Loti ing the Limits pub-thanks to the cu ational Com- Str at lished by . Collins.mittee and Exe or their work 6:. rch Guest • r Michael Websterover the past fe gave a .ul insight into the

The main b world of ng and his own expe-ings was the elent's Re~~rt nence w industry.cers. The eo ..Walker reported th We addened to lose ourExecutives, Co vities for NSW mem dear fri colleague, Josephine

follows: rfl :~~ ;~: g~~~~::scI ~;~t;I~jb)~~~d a ~nbe~AusSI Natiod5ibo mber. A number of trai s came a n Me . sS!.Officers 200~1;;r re held, but the Sky - Over ••he s . resi-President: Ly·· ark op was cancelled becau - dent, f theVice-Preside ..•.•.•.•.•.•.•...•.•..an ent enrolments. Panel s s an as Bging aSecretary: Sh,!£lif Ca comrnittek: rrlllntber I her death.

i~~~~f~i: . ~~~s ~e~l~~f~II~~eh ~!:~~n~~tACT Branchii versiiMradi!!~t~ Uni;xr er cheerful

g~::~~t~e ;ff ;~12.~sa~lfjl;n~q~Fleru~::~e~f

Hyslop, Pa her ana hat eetingRegistrati . her in t t. I w ou allHarringto to a to .. dv.Members . ers.9~ ': aWyatt ante ..;....)...e organi.. •.•.•.I~~the

~~~~~, ¥ih, .•~~:.:!~~~1~:-~~;;Abstralia~§meditors and i.............e first ......••••••••••••••••sing on the

u~~;. s of;thee~~II~.j~~~ded all Sat totouch om n anI profes;~nal fo ..it's north The ....hasn't

happened! On Saturday 36June, MrFrank Prain, Library Manager of TheAge Newspaper demonstrated to anumber of Vie Branch members theresources of both the full-text and pic-ture collection databases which com-prise the in-house services for userswithin the Fairfax stable of publica-tions.

The Indexing Software Work-shop, held at ACER on Saturday J 8August attracted many participantswho were treated to an introductoryoverview of this topic byJohn Simkin,and then each of the demonstrators

Region Bran...::::::::~/:::::::.2002.I·

eraldine Triffitfdyth Binkowski .

Pat Stone .•ent: Lynn Farkasi.\: Shirley Campb~Il, ...rue

Sandra Henderson, RobertSusan White, Penelope

AusSI (ComrniPresideSecretaTreasPast PComrrhDeacon,Hyslop,Whitten.

The Society welcomes all new andongoing officers to their positions.

The AGMs were followed by shortpresentations from three ACT Branchmembers about their experiences asstudents working through the dis-tance education back-of-book coursesoffered byAmerican and British agen-cies. Sally Goodenough outlined thecourse offered by the US Departmentof Agriculture and gave her views onits level and effectiveness, and Shirley

Report on AusSI Medal 2001Alan Walker read from the report ofthe judges for the Medal, and pre-sented a certificate to TrevorMatthews, whose index was highlycommended. Trevor was congratu-lated on his achievement.

Victorian Branch

Annual Report 2001Our calendar year commenced withthe Annual General Meeting and Din-ner, held once again in the graciousenvironment we have here tonight.

28 Australian Society of Indexers Newsletter

gave a lO-minute 'show and tell' oftheir respective programs before ev-eryone divided into small groups forintensive sessions of play and practicewith the various software packages ondisplay. Our grateful thanks to Fran-ces Lennie (CINDEX),Michael Wyatt(SKY Index ), Max McMaster(MACREX)and J ennifer Csorba andMicky Ashton (InmagiC/DBTextworks) for making this seminarsuch a valuable experience.

Which one's the Picasso? OnThursday 25 October we were treatedto a fascinating tour of the Exhibitionand Collection Management Depart-ments of the National Gallery of Vic-toria at their temporary location inNorth Melbourne. How fortunate wewere to be able to view the 'hiddentreasures' of the gallery and what awonderful visit this was to an unknownpart of the NGV. We look forward tolearning more about the cataloguingand recording of this collection inApril when David Belzycki, Manager,Cataloguing will be our guest speaker.

A pre-Christmas get-together washeld at the President's home on 4 De-cember and provided a most enjoy-able end to the year's activities.

Max McMaster, ably assisted byMargaret Findlay, ran a number oftraining sessions for Back-of-the-Book, Database Collection and J our-nal indexing, both at ACER in Mel-bourne and interstate locations.

Throughout the year numerous re-sponses were submitted by the VieBranch to issues raised at NationalCommittee level, including the vexedquestion of Registration standardsand procedures. Max McMaster andJohn Simkin have been seconded onto the Educational Training and Stan-dards Sub-Committee.

John Simkin represented AusSI atIndexing at the Cutting Edge, held inJuly at Sheffield in the UK. He hasonce more scoured the shelves of theState Library to provide a short list ofrecommended titles containing out-standing indexes and MargaretFindlay did a mail merge to the pub-lishers involved inviting their submis-sions, which has resulted in agratifying response. The IndexingMedal Award Sub-Committee of JohnSimkin, Max McMaster, Anne Bentleyand Pam J onas, was constituted againby the Vie Branch and we thank themembers for their commitment and

wisdom in the reviewing and award-ing process.

On behalf of the Victorian Branch,I thank the members of the Commit-tee for their support. Ann Philpott(Treasurer) has negotiated the intri-cacies of the GST with constant goodhumour and agility. Jennifer Csorbajoined our ranks this year and was im-mediately cast into the role of Secre-tary which she has accomplished withadmirable aplomb. Josephine hadbeen our Postmistress for many yearsand I am grateful to John Simkin foragreeing to take on this role, throughthe rigours of fire and relocation. Eliz-abeth Wood-Ellem has quietly doneall that was asked of her, without com-plaint.

To Max McMaster and MargaretFindlay, I offer my especial thanks fortheir constant support and advice.

In closing, we must acknowledgethe assistance of the Australian Coun-cil for Educational Research whichhas kindly provided its meetingsrooms for Committee meetings, work-shops, training sessions and generalmeetings.

Jenny RestarickPresident, 2001

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30 Australian Society of Indexers Newsletter

Keynote address to the'Partnerships in Knowledge' Conferenceheld Canberra 20-23 Aprir 2001

Richard WalshThe future of the know/edge society' has been reproduced over the January/February and March issuesandconcludes here.

Halfway between E-books and printedbooks, which are now sometimes re-ferred to as P-books, there is theD-book, the Digital Book.Dbooks.com for example is a com-pany located at North Sydney whichuses Fuji Xerox digital printers toproduce very low print-runs from ex-isting pdf files. D-books are printedboth sides of the paper and then per-fect-bound as a paperback with afull-colour cover. Printing off just onesingle copy of a 200-page book maycost you as little as $15; if theprint-run is a modest 200, the pricecomes down to $7-odd per copy. Atthe moment this technique is beingused for micro-reprints or to providepublishers with a small number of ad-vance copies of a new book before itcomes off the big printing presses.However, the future application ofthis technology is obvious.

In America, machines capable ofprinting and binding digitised textsare already being deployed byIngram, the leading American bookwholesaler, and are now being placedin the Barnes and Noble distributioncentres and in publishers' ware-houses. Jason Epstein in his essayforesees a future in which less expen-sive versions of these machines' can behoused in public libraries, schools anduniversities, and perhaps even in postoffices and other convenient places ...where readers can download digitisedtexts in electronic form or as printedcopies, bypassing retail bookstores ...Though books manufactured in verysmall quantities or one at a time bythese machines will cost more to pro-duce than factory-made books, theirultimate cost to readers will be less,since publishers' distribution costs

April eooe

and 'retail markups will not figure intheir price ... the convenience of thesemachines in thousands of locationswith access to potentially limitless vir-tual inventories, catalogued, anno-tated, and searchable electronically,will profoundly affect current bookmarketing practice, to say nothing ofthe effect on readers and writers.'

I do not quite understand why Ep-stein foresees these developments as'bypassing retail bookstores'; I sus-pect, rather, that such new technologywill simply transform the traditionalbookstore. The capital cost of ma-chines that can spit out instantD-books is certainly declining dramat-ically. A conference in Melbourne lastmonth on Book Production in Transi-tion was informed that the cost of ahigh-powered laser colour printerwith built-in collating and bindingfunctions capable of producing an en-tire paperback book in one smoothprocess has recently dropped from$750,000 to $350,000 per machine.

Nonetheless, this is a- substantialoutlay and sufficiently high to preventthem sprouting like mushrooms onevery street corner. What we are morelikely to see is a new type of highly at-tractive retail outlet where you can lin-ger and eat, where you can listen torecords or browse through old-fash-ioned printed books or, if you wish,where you can order from the vast in-ventory of available digitised texts aD-book or two, which may be pro-duced for you while you wait. This isthe bookshop of the future. ratherthan the bookshop bypassed.

Publishers are well advanced in us-ing the net to promote their books.One of the most dynamic ways of en-couraging book sales is by posting

excerpts online; Alien & Unwin, forexample, is a local publisher doingthis very successfully. Steve Ditlea, inhis article last year, to which I've al-ready referred, draws attention to theefforts of veteran science-fiction pub-lisher Jim Baen who in September1999 initiated what he callseWebScriptions; for $10 a month, visi-tors to Baen's website may downloadquarter-of-a-book-sized instalmentsof four titles about to appear in print.Even after receiving the full text inHTML, 'more of our subscribers buythe finished book than don't buy it',claims Baen. By March last year one ofhis earliest eWebScriptions titles,Ashes of Victory by David Weber, hadturned up on hardcover best-sellerlists in America, partly propelled byBaen's online activities.

A O-book or twomay be producedfor you while youwa it. rh is is thebookshop of thefuture, rather thanthe bookshopbypassed.

31

Once upon a time, as you may re-member, all books were publishedfirst in hardback and the most popu-lar of them were offered as paper-backs. Today most books appear atfirst in paperback and only those of-fering special commercial prospectsappear in hardback. But we are prob-ably moving towards a tomorrowwhen books will mainly appear ini-tially on-line and then the best ofthem will later appear in print, andmaybe - and this would be the ulti-mate accolade - sometimes even ihhardback.

Some books may be trialledon-line; others may be excerpted.There may also, for example, be sub-scription sites where for a few dollars aweek you can get a fresh new poemeach morning.to inspire you throughyour day. Short poems are ideallysuited to the computer screen. Butprobably for a long time yet - maybeeven forever - the most prestigiousway in which an author may dream ofbeing published will be as a printeditem. It may even be that the classics ofour times will be printed lovingly, us-ing hot-metal type on handmade pa-per with elaborate end-papers and soon. Once upon a time people onlyhired videotapes but in the future a li-brary of great films on DVD and fa-vourite books, handsomely printed,may well be the ultimate distinction ofa cultured human being.

On the other hand, clearly somecategories of books are unlikely everto be seen in print again. Referencebooks, for example, are exquisitelywell suited to the net. In the past read-ers were asked to outlay large sums ofmoney for a set of printed encyclope-dias, but the text was already out ofdate on Day One and 90 per cent ofthe contents would never be read.On-line publishing allows referencebooks to remain up-to-date at alltimes and the cost to the reader can bebetter calibrated to usage.MacquarieNet is a local pioneering at-tempt to achieve this. For a monthlyfee subscribers can tap into the wholeof the Macquarie Library of booksplus other syndicated reference mate-rial.

A report in the Sydney Morning Her-ald's /. T. section last month on Ran-dom House's new digital imprint,AtRandom.comBooks, noted: 'Manyobservers think E-books work best a'san information medium, not a story-telling one, and statistics indicate thatduring the next few years,

32

education/reference books will dobetter in electronic form than fictionand other mainstream genres. In astudy released last week by JupiterMedia Metrics, the research firm pro-jected that 6 per cent of college booksales would be in electronic form by2005, compared with just 1.5 per centof consumer titles.'

Such books havethe potential to bepublished initiallyin a special kind ofbasic English thatcan beinstantaneouslymachine-translatedinto anyone of anumber of globallanguages

Academics, in particular, see thenet as a magnificent opportunity toovercome, in one mighty leap, allthose tiresome obstacles that stand be-tween them and publication. No morepeer reviews, with their murky machi-avellian politics; no more irritatingeconomic realities. The availability toanyone interested of every mono-graph ever written, of every PhD the-sis (however arcane), of everyintellectual contribution ever con-cocted, is a triumph of New Media in-tellectual democracy. To attempt toedit any of this would be what real torscall over-capitalisation.

On-line publishing really comesinto its own with specialised titles,whether scholarly or of other kinds.Steve Ditlea cites an example of anon-line title called A Potter's Geology,which is far too specialised a book forany publisher in a single country. Theweb allows those interested in such atitle, however thinly dispersed overthe planet, to access its text.

What Ditlea doesn't mention is anenticing future prospect. Such bookshave the potential to be published ini-tially in a special kind of basic Englishthat can be instantaneously ma-chine-translated into anyone of anumber of global languages selectedby the prospective reader. Thus abook like A Potter's Geology can beavailable online not merely to the cou-ple of hundred people in each conti-nent who are interested in its contentsbut in whichever principal languagethey prefer to read it. While machinetranslation is still in its infancy, it canin fact be very accurate if the authorand editor work within the disciplineof a limited and predictable vocabu-lary with a simplified, stripped-downsyntax. Michael Singh, Professor ofLanguage and Culture at RMIT, hascontributed a fascinating chapter onthese possibilities in a volume calledC-2-C (standing for Creator to Con-sumer), the proceedings of the Mel-bourne conference on AustralianBook Production in Transition organ-ised by RMIT last month and pub-lished instantaneously by theirCommon Ground operation as aD-book.

Most E-books these days are con-ceived of as being very text-oriented.Anything too complicated on-linesimply takes too long to download,leading to reader impatience. But weshould never forget that there is an-other kind of non-print book entity.Here is the ever-eloquent New Mediacommentator, Ralph Lombreglia,wallowing in a little nostalgia in hiscontribution last December to the At-lantic Unbound:

In the early nineties, my wife and Iwere hired by a small developmentcompany ...The result was A Jack KerouacROMnibus, published by PenguinElectronic in 1995 .. _if a more am-bitious 'multimedia ilIuminatio' ofa full-length literary text has everbeen attempted, I'm not aware orit. Hundreds and hundreds ofphrases in Kerouac's text werelinked to pop-up annotations invarious media: photographs ofpeople, places, memorabilia fromthe author's estate, and pages fromhis note-books; audio readings ofvarious texts; clips from films: orig-inal interviews videotaped for theproject. All these years later, it stilllooks great. Unfortunately, youcan't see it, because it's no longeravailable. 'When we started the pro-

Australian Society of Indexers Newsletter

ject, no one had ever heard theword Netscape. When we finishedit, the word Netscape was every-where, and before long the WorldWide Web helped kill the CD-ROMpublishing business and in the pro-cess set multimedia productionback at least five years.I should add here that I myself was

involved peripherally in a similar ven-ture to this all those years ago - anelaborate version of J oseph BanksJournal, published by the State Li-brary of NSW. I think they still havecopies available in their bookshop ifyou were interested in seeing it.

Ralph Lombreglia concludesrather sadly:

Most readers never saw the elec-tronic books of the 1990s. That'sbecause serious, well-producedCD-ROMs were too far ahead oftheir time - too far ahead of thesoftware, the hardware, the digitaleconomy itself. The general publicmay well believe 'e-book' to be abrand-new, twenty-first-centuryidea ... [but] electronic-multimediabooks could indeed become the fu-ture of reading, or part of it. Justlike they used to be.Despite every attempt to provide

high-speed access to the internet, theinformation highway may never be asfast as we wish it to be. Just as when webuild motorways in the real world theysimply seem to encourage more trafficand so their immediate beneficial ef-fect is dissipated, so it may be that, forall the cables that are frenetically be-ing laid, we may never be able to keepup with digital demand and deliverthe download speeds the onlinespruikers are predicting as justaround the corner. For this reason it isnot impossible that the CD-ROM,which delivers a succession of still andmoving images so rapidly and effort-lessly, may yet make a comeback andprove as durable as the printed book.

And so at last we come to a questionwhich may conceivably be of morethan passing interest to those of yougathered here on this bright Canberramorning: In all this maelstrom ofchange, you may well ask, what exactlydoes the future hold for today's indus-trious and highly experienced editorsand indexers?

Well, there is good news and thereis good news.

Firstly, I think all of us have to ac-cept that: the new technology offers asophisticated and timely solution tothe two greatest impediments to

April 2002

modern book reading. The two great-est complaints laid against the bookby dedicated readers is that books arenow too expensive and too unavail-able, meaning by the latter that it issimply too difficult to locate a book-store that stocks any specific title weare after at that particular moment.

These problems are nobody's fault,as we know, but a direct outcome ofover-publication. We are spoilt forchoice, which is wonderful given thatour interests and tastes are sowide-ranging, but this torrent of titlesis its own undoing. Print-runs areshorter, therefore cover prices soar;there are so many new and recently oldtitles that no bookshop, however large,could ever be expected to stock themall or anticipate from which directionthe next surge of demand will arise.

Amazon Books and its imitatorshave made an important early contri-bution to book availability but ulti-mately online technology, via eitheron-screen texts or advanced E-bookreader machines or digital printingon demand, will deliver 100 per centavailability of most titles anywhere onthe planet at any hour. Apart from be-ing a giant step forward in conve-nience, consider for a moment theimpact of this on world literacy andworld enlightenment and rejoice.

The second point to make is thatthese changes will in time createcheaper books. Today in Australiaone of the largest costs publishershave to meet is their writedown ofstock; across the whole industry it un-doubtedly costs more than $100m.per year to write off stock that ulti-mately has to be sold at well below itsmanufactured cost. This, in account-ing terms, represents the size of therisk publishers embrace each timethey print copies of any book - acrossall the titles a large publisher pro-duces in any year this cost alone mayrepresent 10-15 per cent of the rec-ommended retail price.

The new technology lowers the in-vestment publishers have to make inprinted stock per book and thus it.lowers the interest they have to pay totheir banks or shareholders; it lowersthe risk they take and thus theirwritedown costs; it lowers their ware-housing costs and their distributioncosts. Because it may lower the cost ofa bookseller's inventory it may evenlower the discount that is appropriateto the retailer.

In time readers can expect not onlyto see the price of books come down,

in relation to other kinds of goods, butalso to experience less agonisingdoubt in choosing which titles to buy.Today our friends recommend a bookto us as a must-read; on the otherhand, we may have read some reviewsof this particular book which areequivocal-we hesitate in purchasingit because we fear disappointment.Reading an excerpt on the web can bemuch more reassuring than sneakinga quick squiz in a bookshop.

To be able to buy what we want,when we want, at a more manageableprice and with greater certainty ofreader satisfaction - this represents agiant step forward in anybody's lan-guage. Particularly in a world wherenewspaper reading is declining andwhere - in relation to one tradition-ally important sector of book reader-ship - there is an ever-swellingpopulation of retired people who aregoing to enjoy good health and goodeyesight for many decades to come.

What exactly doesthe future hold fortoday's industriousand highlyexperienced editorsand indexers?

Now, as publishing professionals,you are entitled to feel a little agogrieved that there are going to beplenty ofliterary and unliterary worksflying around cyberspace that havenever experienced the gentle and car-ing touch of a publishing editor. But itdoesn't pay for you to get too excitedabout that. In our personal lives welong ago have had to get used to thefact that our friends - even our writerfriends - sometimes send us letters,and these days e-mail, that surprise uswith their carelessness and near illit-eracy. All you can do is grit your teeth,shrug your shoulders and get on withyour life.

I have mentioned previously aD-book called C-2-C, which was

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produced last month, reproducingthe papers presented at a Melbourneconference on Australian Book Pro-duction in Transition. This was pub-lished by Common Ground, apublishing endeavour associated withRMIT and specifically its Faculty ofArt Design and Communication. Nota bad provenance, you might be for-given for thinking; and indeed its con-tents are very stimulating indeed. Butas a piece of professional publishingit's a joke. It's in very great need ofgood subbing and competentproof-reading; its index, no doubtproduced by a computer, is almostuseless.

The view of the future promoted bythe text of C-2-C is superficially seduc-tive for authors - it suggests that,through a reduction in printing andpublishing costs, authors may nowhope for larger royalties than theyhave ever previously dreamed of. Ofcourse, the folk from Common'Ground are talking about royalty rates- these people seem to be mildlyinnumerate in not understanding thata professional writer is ultimatelymore concerned with total incomethan royalty rates. After all, it's a tri-umph if authors get a 25 per cent roy-alty but somewhat of a pyrrhic victoryifthey only manage to sell 500 copies.

(-2-('S index, nodoubt produced bya computer, isalmost useless.

The world we are entering is goingto be even more intensely competitivefor authors than the world that pre-ceded it. In the past it's been only aminor achievement to write a book;the real achievement has been gettingit published. Now we have a situationwhere getting published is only a mi-nor achievement but to gain widerrecognition and a significant reader-ship will certainly take more skill thanthe mere capacity to digitise text. Tobe properly edited and professionallyindexed and marketed - these are

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the kinds of cutting-edge advantagesfew professional writers will want tosacrifice.

In the last decade there has been amarked increase in the activities oflit-erary agents in trade publishing - itis estimated that today 90 per cent ofgeneral books issued by major pub-lishers come to them via agents.Clearly, from what I have said, I seethe conventional roles of publishersand agents merging. Editors will workfor these new entities as they have tra-ditionally done - encouraging au-thors, assessing new clients, preparingmaterial for publication. Some manu-scripts may well at first be test-drivenon the internet in an unedited formbut, having evoked a positive re-sponse there, they may then need tobe professionally edited and preparedfor their next step up the literarychain, as a D-book or an off-set-printed P-book.

Ideas expressed in written wordswill continue to be the most significantway of analysing and arguing aboutthe great social and political issues ofthe day. However, the border betweenwriters and editors and polishers andcheckers and researchers will overtime blur. Material that is publishedand produced by the famous 10Smith', in whatever medium, may wellbe the output of six or eight writers oreditors, in the same way as daily gos-sip columns are produced - in thelanguage of Renaissance art, such ma-terial may come from the studio of J0

Smith.Once upon a time ideas expressed

in written words were almost exclu-sively the province of the print media- of Father Bear, Mother Bear andBaby Bear. Give or take a bit of graffitiand some other minor exceptions,there was simply no other way of writ-ten words reaching out to people. Butwe now need a new way of describingeven this notion because no longer isit true to say that ideas expressed inwritten words must of necessity ap-pear as print on paper. The old tri-partite separation of the print media- based on three distinctive manufac-tured products - is clearly no longersustainable. But whatever new pub-lishing configuration arises, there willalways be a continuing vocation forthose who can assist writers reachtheir fullest potential and their widestpossible readership.

The new technology brings with itthe promise of more reading, not less.Yes, more unedited manuscripts on

the web but also, when it matters,more material to be professionally ed-ited and marketed and published thanever before.

To be properlyedited andprofessionallyindexed andmarketed - theseare the kinds ofcutting-edgeadvantages fewprofessional writerswill want tosacrifice.

As always throughout human his-tory, we cannot fight technologicalprogress, we must instead use our bestefforts to harness it to our greatest ad-vantage. But never forget this. For themedia the big story of the 20th cen-tury was the creation of film andbroadcast media. But to enjoy radio,to enjoy movies, to enjoy TV you didnot need to be able to read or write-literacy may at times help you enjoythose media but it is not strictly neces-sary. However, right at the very end ofthe 20th century, along came the in-ternet. It is virtually impossible to usethe internet without being able toread or write. Indeed, the popularityof the PC has meant that more people- yes, even men - know their wayaround a keyboard. The internet is lit-eracy striking back.

As literate folk you should cele-brate this remarkable, dramatic andrecent change. Somewhere in all thisrapid, dazzling and sometimes con-fusing evolution of mass literacy thereis certain to be an exciting role forthose who love language and valueknowledge, and want to share thatlove with other readers.

Australian Society of Indexers Newsletter

Glenda Browne

An Index to theOccult Review1906-1928 LondonThank heavens for indexers, theInternet, and interlibrary loan. Foryears we had a book on our familybookshelf by Alice M Browne, my fa-ther's great-aunt. I never read it, be-cause my father had implied that itwas vanity-published and oflittle liter-ary worth, and the title, That Colony ofGod, didn't suggest a gripping yarn.Now that I am planning to visitLeamington, where she lived (it is verynear the SI conference site atCheltenham) I have taken more of aninterest, and found a love story worthyof Mills and Boon, along with a seri-ous analysis of the newfound interestin spiritualism and seances. That col-ony of God' referred to the soul.

Having rediscoveredgreat-great-auntAlice, I hoped to findsomething about her book on the web.Nothing, untilJon retrieved an indexto the Occult Review, with a referenceto her book. Now I'm offto the local li-brary, through which I hope to get acopy of the 1924 review. (Update: notheld in Australia - will have to tryfurther afield.)

PS: Although she called it'Leamington' in all her writings, it ison tourist maps as 'Royal LeamingtonSpa' - yet another issue for indexers- to file it at 'L' or 'R'? (I also recentlysaw a list of places in a travel brochurein which the Philippines was filed at'T' (for The). Would anyone lookthere?

The ConcatenatorThe Newsletter of WesternIndexingI've been browsing some back issues ofThe Concatenator, published twice ayear by Western Indexing (director,Lee Brentlinger). Each issue focuseson one area, and extensive bibliogra-phies are provided. Topics includepersonal names (Autumn 1995), Ro-man alphabetisation (Autumn 1996)

Apri/2002

From theI era ure•

and place names (Autumn 1997). Formore information see the website athttp://www.westernindexing.com

Among other things, WesternIndexing provides a consultancy ser-vice to authors. One fee covers writtenmaterials and answers to questions.Could .be, harcLwork, but giventhatmany authors compile their own in-dexes, the provision of a service toprovide indexing expertise soundslike a good idea.

Sidelightsno. 4, Winter 2001Audrey Judkins wrote on 'Referencestarting points: History' (pp. 1-3) andlisted a number of important sources,including Pears Cyclopaedia (London:Penguin, published every year). Shebought Wheatley's What is an Index?(Index Society, 1878) at Hay-on-Wye,the second-hand-book capital of Eu-rope. Jon, Bill and Jenny will bescouring the shelves there while I goto the SI conference (and I believe an-other international indexer is plan-ning a visit too). I asked Bill if 30towns with one bookshop each wouldbe as good as one town with 30 book-shops. He said 'No, because there'sless walking if they're all in a row.'

SI has arranged discounts on insur-ance products (pp. 5-6). Even withoutthe discount they sound much betterthan we get. For example, 110 poundsper year plus tax for Professional In-demnity Insurance. I have beenquoted figures around A$2000 peryear for metadata work.

As of I January 2002, SI recom-mends minimum rates of £ 15 to £20per hour, or £1.20 to £2.00 per page.They note that experienced indexersworking on specialised texts will nor-mally charge well above these rates,and that the fee negotiated will de-pend on complexity of the text, depthof indexing, page and type size, anddeadline.

SI vice-presidents have recentlyprepared a strategy document setting

out aims for the society (report pp.6-7). They feel that one importantthing is to 'get across to the public atlarge what indexers actually do.' Theysuggest testing the credibility andcomprehensibility of newer termssuch as 'information architects' and'knowledge _ management' to seewhether they might be more informa-tive. Indexers in Sydney have at timesmade similar suggestions, but as far asI am concerned I index, therefore thebest way to describe myself is as an in-dexer. The other terms mentioned allhave much broader implications thanpure indexing so are much less useful.As soon as I explain what indexers dopeople have no trouble understand-ing the idea. They also suggest devel-oping stronger links with publishers(a great idea) and investigating un-conventional sources of work (anothergreat idea). I occasionally get job of-fers from the public service and othergroups who are not mainstream pub-lishers, but are responsible for the oc-casional book. I thought they are anuntapped market, although obviouslysome ofthem are making their way to-wards AusSI members. Creation ofmetadata for websites and intranets isanother field that should be burgeon-ing, but I don't know who is doing thework (if anyone).

Local and special interest groupsreported on their activities. TheThree Choirs Group met at a mem-ber's house in Cheltenham; they rec-ommend this as a nice sort of venuefor small meetings.

Online Currentsvol. 17, no. 1, Jan/Feb 2002System Roundup notes that La TrobeUniversity has received a grant to in-dex The Argus, a Melbourne newspa-per, from 1870 to 1879. The indexwill be available online through theNational Library. (Earlier issues ofThe Argus have been indexed, andGeraldine Suter won an AusSI Medalfor this work.)

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