One of the most basic functions of a professional society must be to promote the services of its members, both generally in PR and lobbying terms and more specifically for individuals. Within its modest means the Society of Indexers performs that function well: while an interesting and highly commendable journal is aimed at informing its own members, publications such as these take both the general and specific propaganda battle to a wider world. In an age of increasingly automatic index production some hand‐crafted indexes still stand out as beacons and enhance the value and prestige of the work they cover, as well as of the publishers (and authors) responsible. The humble yet expert indexer him‐ or herself is rarely acknowledged, let alone applauded. Yet how often in our own reviews do we note indexes, good, bad or indifferent, as vital parts of the works under consideration.
The guide for editors is modest both in length and production, yet it covers all that the commissioner of an index really needs to know, from “Why you need an indexer”, through finding and commissioning one, to what to look for in the index when received. There is a suitably short list of further reading, and an even shorter glossary, some examples of indexing and, yes, an index. This might seem superfluous to a 16‐page pamphlet, but is not, especially in the circumstances: it serves to show how a good index can locate and highlight useful information in even the most modest publications.
Apparently Scotland has only 20 registered indexers, scattered across the country and with a very wide and sometimes rather esoteric range of specialist subjects. They are all listed here and so their services made more accessible, with less excuse for the burgeoning and highly active body of Scottish publishers to ignore this most basic of adjuncts to any work of non‐fiction.
Hopefully the Society can afford to put its guide on the desks of all relevant editors (an operation probably not going to cost too much seeing the rate at which the function has been deleted from many publishing houses), and whatever means are used (all the indexers listed in the directory seem to use a computer program) retain the essential quality of this necessary component of reference and other books.
