The Practice of Indexing
Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers Conference, 15–17 October, 2009
Sydney Marriott Hotel, 36 College Street, Sydney 2010, NSW Australia.
Welcome
Welcome everyone to the ANZSI biennial Conference pages.
The theme of the conference is on practical aspects of indexing and the Conference Committee has endeavoured to program a number of useful, ‘how to’ presentations that are designed for experienced indexers as well as those new to indexing. We have also included Indexing Clinics and Roundtable Discussions to complement the formal presentations and sessions.
Follow the links to Latest Conference News, Conference Program, full details of all other aspects of the Conference and venue and the Registration Form 
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Highlights of this year’s conference:
Keynote speakers
- Hazel K. Bell, one of the world’s best-known indexers, will be giving a plenary session about her own experience as an indexer from the 1960s, about the Society of Indexers (SI) then, going on to her editing of The Indexer, up to the 1990s. Hazel’s presentation will be a filmed session followed by a Skype Q & A period. Hazel’s recent publication From flock beds to professionalism: a history of index-makers was published last year and three glowing reviews of her book appear in the March issue of The Indexer.
- Mal Booth is Director of the Education & Research Services Unit in the University Library at the University of Technology, Sydney. He was formerly Head of the Research Centre at the Australian War Memorial. Mal spoke at the ALIA Online conference in January this year, giving a very lively and colourful presentation on digital convergence (physical collections visa vis digital/online collections) at the War Memorial and its experiences covering Facebook, Flickr and blogging as well. He will talk about digital and institutional convergence at this conference.
- Dr Robin Derricourt, currently Managing Director of UNSW Press, will give a presentation based on his experience as an academic publisher, and will discuss the past and future of scholarly and electronic publishing.
- Jan C. Wright, winner of the 2009 American Society for Indexing/H.W. Wilson Award for Excellence in Indexing, the first technical indexer to ever win the award, will give a paper on trends in indexing, including ebooks, tagging and folksonomy, discussing possible futures in indexing. She will also conduct a workshop on embedded indexing.
International indexers
We are also pleased to have a number of international indexers for the conference.
- Frances Lennie from the US is one of the developers of Cindex indexing software and will give the Cindex workshop as well as a session on the importance of the visual appeal of indexes.
- Richard Shrout, currently Treasurer for the American Society for Indexing (ASI), will be presenting his theories about markup techniques for indexers.
- Noeline Bridge from Canada will present a session on indexing names. Noeline has written a chapter on names included in the ASI publication Geneology and Indexing and is currently developing a full publication on this area.
How-to and practical aspects of indexing
Other ‘how to’ presentations at the conference will include sessions on indexing names in the specific area of Aboriginal names, as well as how to create a large index of names. One session also tackles the thorny question of how to index illustrative material - tables, figures, diagrams, photos.
Further practical aspects of indexing will be addressed in sessions about Index-L the international index list serv, about what we say and what we do when we index, and how and where scholarly journals are indexed in online databases, including where ANZSI’s body of literature (specifically its conference publications) is indexed and abstracted.
In addition, the conference will cover thesaurus evaluation, indexing in the Australian Parliamentary Library and legal publisher CCH’s new Intelliconnect online searching tool based on existing indexes.
Indexing Clinics
By popular demand Indexing Clinics have been scheduled in the second half of each lunch hour. These provide an opportunity for newer or trainee indexers to bring along indexes either completed or in preparation and get some feedback from an experienced indexer on what they are doing, or how their index could be improved. (A similar session was run successfully at the Melbourne conference in 2007, where it was called ‘Indexers Road Show’.)
Roundtable Discussions
We are also introducing an event new to ANZSI conferences – Roundtable Discussions. These are modelled on similar sessions introduced at the American Society for Indexing conferences some years ago which proved highly successful. They are conducted on an informal basis as a way to cover smaller, specific interest, indexing groups. A host with experience in a particular subject coordinates discussion with a small group of people who are free to interrupt, ask questions and/or pick the brain of the host and each other. This year, five roundtables are planned – on medical and scientific indexing; on legal indexing; on history and biography; on genealogy, family and local history; and on cookbook indexing.
Other features of the conference
The Conference dinner will be held on Friday 16 October at the Hotel. Conference delegates are welcome to bring guests. The conference dinner will also provide the opportunity for any award presentations. In addition an informal dinner will be arranged on Saturday 17 October for 'orphans' staying over until Sunday 18 October.
Other important events taking place during the conference include reports from international delegates about their societies and reports from all ANZSI Branches. The ANZSI Annual General Meeting will also be held during the conference.
The Conference Committee would like to extend a special welcome to those attendees who are new to indexing or are attending an ANZSI conference for the first time. Let us know if this is the case and we will organise introductions for you to other members of ANZSI. In addition you may like to join a special table at lunch where ANZSI members will explain the Society, how it works and what services it offers and answer any other questions about the indexing profession you may have.
Venue
Important notice. Due to nearby construction work, the venue has been changed. The Conference is now being held at the Sydney Marriott Hotel. It is within easy reach of all major transport, including a direct rail line from the airport to Museum Railway Station. It is then a short walk, around or across Hyde Park, to the hotel.
All delegates who wish to stay at the hotel for the conference must make their own bookings, citing ANZSI NSW as the organiser in order to gain the discounted rate.
Workshops (Pre Conference events)
Five half day workshops will be held on Thursday 15 October at the hotel, covering website indexing, a hands-on cookbook indexing session, embedded indexing, and Sky and Cindex indexing software.
Post Conference tour/social outing
The ANZSI biennial conference gives indexers from all states and territories in Australia and New Zealand and international guests the rare chance to network, but sometimes the two days are so packed we do not always get this opportunity. A tour of the Powerhouse Museum has been organised on the morning ofSunday 18 October. The Museum is located in Darling Harbour. Everyone is invited. Further details and arrangements will be posted on the website and at the conference.
If you have any questions about the conference feel free to contact me at conference@anzsi.org
Madeleine Davis
Conference Convenor
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For further information, contact the ANZSI Conference Convenor, Madeleine Davis.
