Indexes Completed in 2021

TitleAuthorPublisherIndexer
Melbourne University Annual Report 2021Melbourne UniversityMelbourne UniversityJon
Places of ReconciliationSarah PintoMelbourne University PressJon
Dear Prime MinisterMartyn LyonsMelbourne University PressJon
Judicial Officers Bulletin 2020 v.32 - subjects, statutes, cases, authorsJudical CommissionJudical CommissionGlenda
Australian Business Law Review v. 48Thomson ReutersThomson ReutersGlenda
Gallipoli - reindexing of new editionMike MathewsMike MathewsGlenda
Australian Intellectual Property Journal v.31Thomson ReutersThomson ReutersGlenda
Journal of Civil Litigation and Practice v.9Thomson ReutersThomson ReutersGlenda
Judicial Review v. 38Judical CommissionJudical CommissionGlenda
AFSA Annual Report 2021Australian Financial Security AuthorityNT Writing and EditingJon
OAIC Annual Report 2021Office of the Australian Information CommissionerOffice of the Australian Information CommissionerJon
I Didn't Do the Thing TodayMadeleine DoreMurdoch BooksJon

Indexes Completed in 2020

TitleAuthorPublisherIndexer
Aspiration and AnxietyChristina HoMelbourne University PublishersJon
University of Melbourne Annual ReportUniversity of MelbourneMelbourne University PublishersJon
The Most Dangerous Man in the World (3E update)Andrew FowlerMelbourne University PublishersJon
Neuroscience and PrivacyDavid GrantCambridge University PressJon
In My Past Life I was CleopatraAmal AwadMurdoch BooksJon
Journal of Civil Litigation and PracticeThomson ReutersThomson ReutersGlenda
Australian Business Law ReviewThomson ReutersThomson ReutersGlenda
Building and Construction Law JournalThomson ReutersThomson ReutersGlenda
Australian Intellectual Property JournalThomson ReutersThomson ReutersGlenda
HealthStats thesaurus - development and maintenance of thesaurus for HealthStatsNSW websiteMinistry of HealthMinistry of HealthGlenda
OAIC Annual Report IndexOAICOAICJon
Australian Public Service Commission Annual ReportAPSCIB.CreativeJon
ArgyleStuart KellsMelbourne University PressJon
Power, Participation, and Private Regulatory InitiativesBrinks et alPenn PressJon
Desire for Change. The Howard Government, vol. 4Tom Frame, editorUNSW PressGlenda

Indexes Completed in 2019

TitleAuthor(s)Published byIndexer
Angels of MercyLynette Ramsay-SilverSally Milner PublishingJon
Integrated Marketing CommunicationWinchester et alOxford University PressJon
Faith in FreedomNafiseh GhafourniaMelbourne University PressJon
Crime, Criminality and Criminal Justice 3eWhite, Perrone, HowesOxford University PressGlenda
Australian Business Law ReviewThomson ReutersGlenda
After American PrimacyDean et alMelbourne University PressJon
University of Melbourne Annual Report 2018University of MelbourneUniversity of MelbourneJon
Decolonizing the History Curriculum in Malaysia and SingaporeKevin Blackburn and ZongLun WuRoutledgeJon
150 Years of Newington RugbyBarry RossSally Milner PublishingJon
Sex in the Brain Amee BairdNewSouthJon
It's Your MoneyAlan KohlerNero PublishingJon
This Unsporting LifeMorton and LobezMelbourne University (Victory)Jon
The Hilton BombingImre SalusinszkyMelbourne University PressJon
Australian Residential Tenancy LawML BarronOpenBook HowdenJon
Foundations of Taxation Law (revision_BarcoszyOxfordJon
Fighting For Our LivesNick CookNewSouth PressJon
Delicious Magazine 2019VariousNewsLife MediaJon

Indexes Completed in 2018

Title Author(s) Indexed by Publisher
Judicial Officers' Bulletin - subject, author, statute and case indexes/tables Glenda Judicial Commission
University of Melbourne Annual Report 2017 University of Melbourne Jon Melbourne University Press
Killer Instinct University of Melbourne Jon Melbourne University Press
Period Repair Manual Lara Briden Jon Macmillan
Religious Authority and Local Governance in Eastern Indonesia Jeremy Kingsley Jon Melbourne University Press
Run For Your Life Bob Carr Jon Melbourne University Press
Family Law Review Thomson Reuters Glenda Thomson Reuters
Journal of Civil Litigation and Practice Thomson Reuters Glenda Thomson Reuters
Australian Journal of Competition and Consumer Law Thomson Reuters Glenda Thomson Reuters
APS Garden Design Study Group newsletter - 2017 update APS Garden Design Study Group Glenda APS Garden Design Study Group
An India Economic Strategy to 2035 Peter Varghese Jon Wordwallah
Beyond Combat Paul O'Beirne Jon UNSW Press
Pacific Community annual report - French and English versions Pacific Community / Stuart Roberts Glenda and Jenny (French) Pacific Community
Stern Justice Adam Wakeling Jon Penguin Random House
When Galaxies Collide Lisa Harvey-Smith Jon Melbourne University Press
Whitlam's Children Shaun Crowe Jon Melbourne University Press
Australian Public Law 3Ed Appleby, Reilly & Grenfell Jon Oxford University Press
The Barefoot Investor for Families Scott Pape Jon Barefoot.com
The Blackburns Carolyn Rasmussen Jon Melbourne University Press
Garden Design Study Group newsletter Lawrie Smith, editor Glenda ANSPA Garden Design Study Group
Grammar and Writing Glenda NewSouth Publishing
HealthStats NSW website metadata HealthStats NSW Glenda Ministry of Health
Back from the Brink: The Howard Government Part II UNSW Press Glenda Tom Frame
The First World War, the Universities and the Professions Kate Darien-Smith and James Waghorne (Eds) Jon Melbourne University Press
Delicious Magazine Annual Index (online) Jon News Corporation

Indexes Completed in 2017

Title Authors Publisher Indexed by
The International Law of Human Rights McBeth, Nolan and Rice Oxford University Press Tables of Cases and Statutes - Jon
Pacific Power? Joanne Wallis Melbourne University Press Jon
The International Law of Human Rights McBeth, Nolan and Rice Oxford University Press Subjects - Glenda
Sentencing Bench Book Judicial Commission of NSW Judicial Commission of NSW Subjects - Glenda
Sentencing Bench Book Judicial Commission of NSW Judicial Commission of NSW Tables of Cases - Jon
CSIRO low fat cookbook Pan Macmillan Pan Macmillan Glenda
Judicial Officers Bulletin Judicial Commission of NSW Judicial Commission of NSW Glenda
Local Government Law Journal Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Glenda
Cardinal Louise Milligan Melbourne University Press Jon
Agitate, Educate, Organise, Legislate Ellen Warne Melbourne University Press Jon
One Halal of a Story Sam Dastyari Melbourne University Press Jon
Histories of Controversy: Bonegilla Migrant Centre Alexandra Dellios Melbourne University Press Jon
Maths Skills for Success at University Kathy Brady and Tiffany Webb Oxford University Press Jon
Australian Intellectual Property Journal Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Glenda
Bright Modernity: Color, commerce, and consumer culture Regina Lee Blaszczyk Palgrave Macmillan (work done for Twin Oaks Indexing) Glenda
WA HSC Chemistry Unit 3/4 Pearson Pearson Jon
Whiteley on Trial Gabriella Coslovich Melbourne University Press Jon
WA HSC Chemistry Unit 1/2 Pearson Pearson Jon
The Footy Lady Stephanie Asher Melbourne University Press Jon
Family Court of Australia Annual Report 2017 Family Court of Australia Papercut Jon
A Matter of Trust Kofman & Payne Melbourne University Press Jon
ASEA Annual Report 2017 Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency Wordwallah Jon
RMSA Annual Report 2014 Roads and Maritime Services NSW Wordwallah Jon
Contract Law Tables of Cases and Statutes Willmott Oxford Jon
Contract Law Casebook Tables of Cases and Statutes Butler Oxford Jon
The Enemy Within Christina Twomey UNSW Press Jon
Woellner Taxation Law 28th Edition Robin Woellner et al Oxford University Press Jon - tables
Glenda - subject index
Cases for Principles of Administrative Law Cane et al Oxford University Press Jon - Tables of Cases and Statutes
International House Melbourne 1957-2016 Frank Larkins Melbourne University Press Jon
Delicious Magazine 2017 Various News Corp Jon
Intelligence and the Function of Government Baldino and Crawley, Eds Melbourne University Press Jon
Legal texts on contracts - updating indexes Butler and Willmott OUP Glenda - Subjects
Jon - Tables of Cases and Statutes
Bikini Body Motivation and Habits Guide Kayla Itsines Pan Macmillan Glenda
China's Conservative Revolution Brian Tsui CUP Glenda
Australian Business Law Review Thomson Reuters Glenda
$50 weekly shop: weekday dinners Penguin Glenda
Core Curriculum for the Dialysis Technician Medical Education Institute Glenda
ICAC annual report 2016-17 ICAC Glenda
Murray-Darling Basin Authority Annual Report 2016-17 MDBA Glenda
Ethics Under Fire Tom Frame UNSW Press Glenda
Ascent to Power Tom Frame UNSW Press Glenda
Widening Minds Tom Frame UNSW Press Glenda

A new thesaurus standard for the web

By Glenda: First published in Online Currents – Vol.18 Issue 4, May 2003

Information specialists who have grappled with the task of using thesauri or other controlled vocabularies for information retrieval on the Web, will be delighted to hear of the revision of the standard Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Thesauri, ANSI/NISO Z39.19 currently underway by NISO (the United States’ National Information Standards Organization). These guidelines, last revised in 1993, form an important basis for thesaurus construction and use in library and database environments, and the revision aims to make them more appropriate for use on the Web and with a wide range of online documents.

In addition, the revision will take into account the fact that thesaurus management software has changed significantly, that research has shown the need for usability testing of controlled vocabularies, and that it is now assumed that thesauri will be used for both indexing and searching (http://www.niso.org/committees/TRAG/ThesaurusAG.html ).

As I read through the details of the discussion paper I thought ‘Yes, this is just what we need’. The revision is a timely and well-considered development to expand the usefulness of the standard from its traditional role to the wider arena of online retrieval, where many of the struggles are with the management of unstructured data and information on intranets and the Web. For those of us who believe that traditional library and information science approaches have value for the Web, any road map showing best practice will be much appreciated.

The revision is being coordinated by Dr Amy Warner, with an Advisory Group drawn from the NISO members and institutions funding the work. Funding has come from the Getty Foundation, the H.W.Wilson Foundation, and the National Library of Medicine. Peter Morville (an IA consultant, and co-author of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web) posted information about a survey on a number of mailing lists, and received 71 responses from members of SIG-IA, WEB4LIB, Index-L, AIFIA-members, NKOS, and SIGCR-L.

The first question asked how people had used the Z39.19 standard. Answers included: for thesaurus and taxonomy design; for metadata tagging; in education; haven’t; for periodical indexing; for copy cataloguing; to introduce client groups to the principles of thesaurus construction; and for automated categorisation.

The second question asked about competing or complementary standards. A number of people mentioned new XML-based standards including XFML (for faceted classification), VocML (Vocabulary Markup Language), topic maps, and RDF (Resource Description Framework), as well as work done on the semantic Web in general. Others noted traditional library tools including Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), MARC, Library of Congress Classification (LC), and the Dewey Classification (DC), as well as the existing BSI (British) and ISO (international) thesaurus standards, including those on multilingual thesauri. One respondent noted the importance of internal corporate standards.

Organisations that were mentioned included the American Library Association (ALA), American Society of Indexers (ASI), American Society for Information Science & Technology (ASIST), Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI), Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), National Federation of Abstracting and Indexing Services (NFAIS), Networked Knowledge Organization Systems/Services (NKOS) forum, and Open Language Archives Community (OLAC). (A field day for acronyms!)

The third question asked about relevant software products. Many of the answers suggested that the guidelines should be generic, rather than listing specific products. This is appropriate; however, the standard must not be divorced from the software capabilities it will be used with. Software categories included thesaurus management software, automatic categorisation and classification tools, and content management systems. Specific thesaurus management packages that were named include MultiTES, Term Tree, Lexico and WebChoir. In addition, relational database management systems, such as MS-Access and Oracle, were said to be important back-end components for various packages.

Suggested revisions were offered by 44 out of 71 respondents. These included:

  • Definitions for the following terms: controlled vocabulary; thesaurus; taxonomy; ontology; glossary; lexicon; classification system
  • An XML structure for thesauri
  • Guidance on how to create Web services that deliver or interact with thesauri (including integration of the thesaurus with the document database, and online presentation of thesauri)
  • Guidelines for harmonising one thesaurus with another
  • Information on machine-assisted generation of thesauri
  • Information on graphical displays, including term mapping (visualisation)
  • Information on alternatives (thesauri-lite)
  • Guidance on the development of taxonomies or category structures with a limited number of top terms, which are opened successively to show lower levels of the hierarchy
  • Clarification of the difference between compound terms and pre-coordination (the suggestion is that pre-coordination is more suited to the development of Web navigation schemes, and that post-coordination is better suited to Boolean searching).
  • Fuller discussion of the effect of removing terms from context on their usefulness for describing and finding information
  • Scenarios of real-world use
  • read more

    An Overview of Patents Online

    By Glenda: First published in Online Currents – 20 (6) July/August 2005

    Patents are an important source of scientific, technical and business information.  For anyone planning to apply for a patent, a search is crucial to identify the existence of ‘prior art’, which affects the patentability of an invention.  For researchers, patents can be important as they are often the only published information on specific topics, and can provide insight into research directions.  Patents are also used by marketing and competitive intelligence professionals, to find out about work being done by other companies.

    Many library Web sites have excellent introductions to patent literature, and specific information on resources available to members of those libraries.  Good introductions are found at the following sites:

    Trade marks, designs and plant breeders’ rights are other forms of intellectual property.  They are usually managed by the same organisations that manage patents, and information about them will often be found on many of the sites discussed below.  They will not be specifically discussed in this article.

    =&2=&WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) has good introductory material (=&3=&), including a section on ‘Women and Intellectual Property’ (=&4=&).

    WIPO also has a number of economic development bureaux for geographic areas.  These bureaux develop intellectual property policy and systems modernisation; they also create value through licensing opportunities and they promote global protection systems.  The WIPO Web pages for each bureau provide information about their aims and activities, and link to national patent offices throughout the world:

    =&10=&The WIPO-administered Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) provides for the filing of a single international patent application with a request for protection in as many signatory states as needed (=&11=&).  The PCT applies to over 100 countries (=&12=&

    ANZSI Conference Report 2005

    By Glenda: First published in Online Currents – 20 (4) May 2005

    The renamed Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (previously AusSI, the Australian Society of Indexers) recently held a two-day conference at the delightful Rydges Riverwalk hotel on the Yarra River, in Richmond, Melbourne.

    The conference covered the usual wide range of topics, including indexing of sound, journals, books and databases, as well as thesaurus construction and a user’s approach to indexes.  However, for me, the most stimulating and productive parts of the conference were the various meetings, which, while specifically related to indexers, also addressed issues that many societies are now considering.

    The conference proceedings will be available in September 2005 for $50.00; send enquiries to findlayhughes@connexus.net.au.

    Meetings
    The recent formation of a New Zealand branch of the society has led to a number of changes, the renaming of the society being one of the simplest.  New issues included the name of our ‘umbrella’ committee, previously the ‘National Committee’, now ‘ANZSI Committee’ (as we cover two nations) and the relevance of New Zealand economic conditions to our recommended rate for indexing.

    Important changes to the administrative guidelines include broadening the definition of ‘meeting’ to include other methods of communication (e.g. electronic, telephone, and videoconferencing, plus any as yet undreamt of technologies), and the acceptance of proxy votes.  For a smallish organisation with distributed membership, these changes are important.

    The most significant issue discussed was our fledgling mentoring scheme.  The Victorian Branch had identified a gap between introductory indexing training and the indexing and business skills necessary for someone wanting to work as a freelance indexer.  To fill this gap they established a mentoring scheme in which those being mentored create an index to a published work not currently indexed, with the aim of selling the index as a standalone item to libraries holding those works.  With this aim in mind, the name ‘Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers Index Series’ was established, and ISBNs and an ISSN obtained.  The person being mentored was guided through the process by the mentor – taking on average four to six hours of the mentor’s time per index.  This session was presented by Max McMaster, a mentor, and Jane Purton, the client, who produced the first published index in this series (which we were able to view).

    The ACT Region and New Zealand branches are also planning mentoring schemes, and discussions were held on making the processes consistent throughout the society.

    Non-English Indexing
    Two Iranian sisters, Masoumeh and Mansoureh Bagheri, from the University of Tehran and Azzahra University, spoke at the conference on the development of thesauri and indexing education in Iran.  I was most interested in the different human aspects of their work.  There were two major historical reasons for an increase in interest in documentation and thesauri in Iran – the first was the Islamic Revolution, and the second the Iran–Iraq war (with information on military matters being particularly important).  Some of their early thesauri were translations of English or French thesauri, but these proved not to be close enough to the needs of the Iranian literature they were indexing.  Later projects included the creation of specifically Iranian thesauri, including those in specialised areas such as Islamic Logic.  Iranian library catalogues include material in Persian (Farsi), English, Arabic and other languages – these are all catalogued in the language of the material itself.  English material is catalogued using Library of Congress Subject Headings, while Persian language material is catalogued using Iranian thesauri.

    An increase in the number of documents being published in Iran, and the subsequent growth of information centres, led to the need for more staff trained in indexing and abstracting.  Two important developments were the establishment of the Iranian Documentation Centre (IranDoc) in 1968, and the introduction of information and library science programs in universities.  Some early training was done with assistance from the (former) USSR.  There are now six universities with LIS programs, and some Masters degrees with specialised indexing education.  IranDoc also runs some short courses.  A questionnaire found that people were not satisfied with their training in indexing, and suggestions were made to introduce courses to the Bachelors program and to increase the credit hours in the Masters courses.  In order to be of value, the teaching also needs to be hands-on, and perhaps to include internships.

    The keynote speaker, Neil Archbold, a geologist from Deakin University, spoke from the point of view of a user of indexes.  Information access is crucial to his work; he said he has always known of the importance of ‘cultivating librarians’.  Foreign language indexing is also important to him, as his area of specialisation includes brachiopods (fossil shells) and the history of geology.  For research into both of these, he uses a lot of Russian and Chinese materials.  One of the books he praised had a number of specialised subject indexes, and then other indexes leading from entries in one language to entries in the other language.  The names in the Chinese index were ordered by the number of strokes in the Chinese letters (from 2 to 23 strokes).  [An alternative way of sorting Chinese index entries is by the English transliteration, even if the index is only written in Chinese.]

    Neil wrote a biography of a Russian scientist, born in 1889 and shot in 1938 for plotting against Stalin.  The scientist became a non-person – he was not referred to, and pages in books that mentioned him were glued together.  With some help, Neil created an almost complete bibliography of the scientist’s works.  When Russian Communism collapsed he published the book, causing much amazement; someone sent him another six references.  He concluded that this sort of work is rarely done.  His talk was also a reminder that, while for a lot of our clients speed and low cost appear to be the priorities, there are also people who rely on the excellence of information retrieval devices to do their research.

    A Singaporean, Chung Lee Geok, provided a handout on the Singapore Periodicals Index on CD-ROM, which is produced by the Bibliographic Services Unit, Library Support Services Group of the National Library Board.

    The Past
    Dianna McClellan became interested in metadata for Indigenous collections when working on a pilot project, which was based on requests from Indigenous community elders to create a cultural database for materials gathered by La Trobe University researchers.  More detail on the project is available athttp://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/publications/mw-conference_papers.html (a paper presented by Ted Chrisfield at the Computing Arts 2004 Conference).  The project considered software that provides access to information by geographical area, along with geospatial and other metadata and cataloguing issues.

    Nel Fredericks worked on a project at the State Library of South Australia, which aimed to create a practical tool for use by Indigenous people researching their family histories.  She chose to work on the Point McLeay Aboriginal Mission Records.  The users may be Aboriginal people or Link-Up workers searching on behalf of Aboriginal people.  Issues she considered were the usability of the tool and its consistency with other resources.  For this reason, data was added to an existing database rather than creating a new one.  Information that might be considered sensitive (e.g. annotations such as ‘illegitimate’ or ‘25% Aboriginal blood’) was not transcribed, although it is still accessible on the source microfilm.  Other issues, common to many old archives, include the illegibility of handwriting and the decay of the source material.

    These are both points mentioned by Shauna Hicks from the Public Records Office, Victoria.  Unfortunately, I missed her talk, although I have since read her paper.  It focused on the indexing of materials of interest to family history researchers, much of which is done by genealogical groups, as there is no money to pay for professional indexing.

    I also missed the talk by John Simkin on ‘AusSI: Aspirations and Achievements Since 1976’ – a timely session, as it rounds off an era, this being our first conference as ANZSI not AusSI.

    The Future
    Lynn Farkas discussed the evaluation of annual reports, using the CAPABLE criteria (coherence, accessibility, performance, appearance, balance, learning, engaged).  The ‘appearance’ criterion includes effective indexing and cross-referencing within the document, and to other sources as appropriate.  The winners also have their online version evaluated – this is done using the ADEPT criteria (accessible, discoverable, easy to use, presented well and technically sound).  The ‘discoverable’ criterion includes the ease of finding the report from the home page, and its navigability.  Technical soundness includes the use of AGLS compliant metadata.  The National Archives and National Library had good metadata, as would be expected, but some departments had none at all.  PDF files with back-of-book indexes were often the best for finding information, so agencies should consider using linked indexes.

    Susan Keogh, from Cambridge University Press, spoke about its XML Indexing process, in which indexers index to a marked location in the text rather than to a page number.  Typesetters then insert XML tags for the creation of index entries.  The advantage is that, if pagination changes (e.g. some sections are deleted) or new editions (e.g. for students) or new formats (e.g. large print) are published, the index does not need to be recreated.  The disadvantages are the extra time taken for indexing, and the risk that, when using embedded indexing, there is a tendency to use the exact phrase structure of the text, rather than rewriting entries, and thinking of alternative access points.  There are also issues in that, if changes are made, they may not be done by the original indexer, thus risking the introduction of inconsistency into the index.

    Emeline Haight, a Web librarian from Tasmania, spoke on open access information.  Her printed paper provides an overview of the topic, starting with a timeline and moving on to specific initiatives, including the Budapest Open Access Initiative, the Bethesda Statement, and the Berlin Declaration.  Her suggestions for furthering open access include:

  • spreading the word
  • keeping some copyright rights
  • resisting ‘big-package’ deals, but rather choosing specifically the journals that the library budget allows, and getting the remainder on open access
  • helping institutions create open access repositories
  • indexers learning and using DC metadata and XML notation
  • asking the government to support open access.
  • read more