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What Is Indexing?

© Dawney Spencer

What is an index? The Random House Webster's Dictionary defines it as an "alphabetical list of names, places, and topics with the page numbers on which they are mentioned." Indexes are often confused with concordances, which leads us to the question: What is a concordance? The same dictionary defines it as "an alphabetical index of the principal words in a book with their immediate context." The dictionary entries sound similar because indexes and concordances are alphabetical, list page numbers, and consist of 'main heading' words; however, there are many differences. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) gives us this definition of an index: "A systematic guide to items contained in or concepts derived from a collection."

A back-of-the book (BOTB) index is not easy to define. However, we recognize a BOTB index when we see it. We know how to use it. We know the frustration that comes with a poorly written one, or none at all. Further, we all agree on the purpose of an index, which is easier to define. Its purpose is to enable readers of a book (or other item that is indexed) to locate information as quickly as possible.

I prefer to think of indexing as a specialized form of writing that is granted copyright protection. It is a creative work that takes a special talent. This directly contrasts with the general thinking that computers complete the task of indexing.

But, "Wait!", some say. "My word processing program does indexing." Yes, it does, but not the type you are thinking of. Word processing software packages do "embedded indexing". This is ideal for indexing online help, but this is not a practical tool for BOTB indexing.

When a software program creates an index, it only uses words found in the document. This makes it either a concordance, or an embedded index, but not a BOTB index. Remember ANSI's definition? An index also contains concepts, ideas developed but not stated verbatim.

For example, let's look at my car manual (yep, this is a real-life example). It consistenly refers to "headlamps." I don't call the "lights" on my car "headlamps". I call them "lights", as in: It's getting dark, so I'll turn on the lights.

In a computer-generated index there isn't an entry for "lights" because that is not a word in the document. The first time I had to look for information about my "lights" it took a very long time since it never occurred to me to look under "Headlamps"! In addition, a computer-generated index will have separate entries for headlamp (singular) and headlamps (plural) when just one entry is needed, especially if all the entries were on

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