Audiences and Accessibility (Creating Better Indexes, Part 10)

This is the tenth and last installment in Margie Towery's Creating Better Indexes series. For more in-depth discussion of each of these topics, you can order Margie's new book, Ten Characteristics of Quality Indexes: Confessions of an Award-Winning Indexer through InfoToday.

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By Margie Towery
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Audiences and accessibility together form one of what I call the “Ten Principles for Creating Better Indexes.” The other principles (or characteristics) are accuracy (part 6), comprehensiveness and conciseness (parts 4–5), common sense (part 2), consistency and clarity (parts 8–9), reflexivity (part 3), metatopic and index structure (part 7), and readability (part 1).
 
In one way, it’s fitting to discuss audiences at this juncture in the Heartland chapter’s concerns. The chapter’s shift from newsletter to blog communications is due in part to audience considerations, and it will also aid accessibility.
 
This final essay in the Creating Better Indexes series also comes with its own transition, from a series of short newsletter essays to a full-length, expanded book, Ten Characteristics of Quality Indexes, set for June 14, 2016, publication.*

On the other hand, it’s a bit odd to leave audiences to the end because it is one of the first things I consider and gather information on when I am starting a new index (and it is the first characteristic discussed in the book). In fact, I keep audiences and accessibility in mind throughout my indexing process. They are key to how each index is structured.
 
Most books will be read by multiple audiences. In the scholarly domain, many books reflect the interdisciplinarity of recent and current research. The ability to think beyond just one type of audience is part of the argument against the author indexing her own book. A key part of our job as indexers is to create indexes that can be used by multiple audiences, which in turn affects how we foster accessibility: the index structure and cross-reference system, term choices and commonsense language, and clarity.
 
There are several places to find clues about intended and other possible audiences:
 
• Online book descriptions (author’s, publisher’s, and booksellers’ websites)

• Front matter, which may include a preface with audience clues

• The book’s introduction (or first chapter), which often has audience and terminology clues

• Author’s concept lists, which may provide terminology and cross-reference clues

​• The subject knowledge of you the indexer; if you don’t have the basic underpinnings of the topic, research and learn it.  

I would like to highlight one tool for creating the best index possible for multiple audiences. Indexers must have “mad word skills.” One of the best ways to gain those skills is to read widely, across many genres. Such exploratory reading can make indexers adept at finding “just the right word.”

Most importantly, be the indexer that the book’s audiences need!

 
*Preorder price of $21.60 includes free shipping (I am not sure when this expires); ASI members’ price is $36, nonmembers’ price is $45. While you’re on the InfoToday website, check out Janet Perlman’s new book, too: Indexing Tactics and Tidbits.


Copyright 2016 Margie Towery. Used with permission.