TOWARDS A THEORY OF INDEXING

The recent correspondence in this Journal nominally about PRECIS, has served to introduce what Professor Swift correctly terms a ‘major blind spot’: namely that few attempts have been made to establish the nature of the indexing process. Most studies claiming to be about indexing are, in fact, about indexes. Even practical guides to index construction rarely progress beyond concrete topics like alphabetization, variant spellings, and proof correction. Few writers achieve the level of Anderson's simple but helpful comments which guide the novice indexer to the more potentially useful sections within a text such as chapter and section headings. Anderson also observes that the preface ‘rarely needs indexing’ and that footnotes should not be ignored. This is extremely helpful, practical advice which is frequently missing elsewhere, such as in the British Standard, but it scarcely amounts to theory. Nevertheless, it does give some indication as to the way that a theory might develop.