Index Plus

Subjects include:

Law and criminal justice   ●    Teaching and education   ●    Psychology and other social sciences   ●    Business   ●    Finance and money management   ●    Self-help   ●    Other subjects if I believe I can do a good job with the material 

Education and training:

• Certificate of Practical Competency in Indexing from Index West, a Certificate of Participation for the Building Indexes and Taxonomies for Legal Materials workshop by Enid Zafran and Kate Mertes, and completion of the ASI Training in Indexing Course.

• Continuing education includes attending regular meetings with fellow indexers as well as ASI national and chapter meetings.

• Degrees include a JD (law degree) and a BS (psychology). Employment history includes work as an attorney, law librarian, and freelance writer. 

Professional affiliations:

• American Society for Indexing, member 2006-present. 

• Pacific Northwest Chapter of ASI, Secretary 2008-2009 and 2016-2017, Conference Planning Team 2010-2011 and 2014-2017, and Membership Coordinator 2018-2024. 

• Legal Indexing Special Interest Group of ASI, Officer 2006-2011 and 2016-present.  

• Oregon Bar Association, member 1991-1997, inactive member 1998-2024.  

A little bit about me:

https://potomacindexing.com/pi-associate-interview-maria-sosnowski  

Publications:

"Encyclopedic Challenges." Key Words, vol. 31, no. 1, Spring 2023.

"And the Pay Rate is...."  Key Words, vol. 27, no. 1, Summer, 2019.

“Unique Characteristics of Legal Indexes.”  Key Words, vol. 25, no. 4, Winter, 2017.

“Can Non-Fiction Authors Create Their Own Indexes?”  Reedsy.com blog post, July 14, 2017.

“The Logic and Language of Patterns.”  Key Words, vol. 23, no. 8, August, 2015.

“Why My Legal Indexes Will Never Win a Wilson.” IndexersInk, Summer/Fall, 2012.

"The Naked Indexer: Fred Leise."  Key Words, vol. 17, no 3, July - September, 2009.

Presentations:

“Bidding and Rates.”  Panel member.  Pacific Northwest Chapter of the American Society for Indexing, Vancouver, WA.  September 14, 2019.

“Applying the EIS Criteria to Your Own Work.”  Panel member.  Pacific Northwest Chapter of the American Society for Indexing, Vancouver, WA.  October 3, 2015.

Why do you need a professional indexer?

• Only humans can create a competent index. AI lacks the ability to create complete, accurate, well-constructed indexes. Testing shows that the indexes produced by LLMs were significantly shorter than the existing index to the book, lacked structure such as adequate cross references or handling of the metatopic, failed to include things such as names and titles of works, and made up page numbers.

• A good index requires objectivity an author lacks. An indexer can see the book from the reader's perspective, and allow the reader to access information in multiple ways.

• An indexer uses professional software that handles technical issues such as alphabetization and offers various output options.

• An indexer has technical training and practice in indexing.

• Although the author is the expert on the subject, the indexer brings a sense of priority and structure to the work from an outsider's view.

• Electronic searching is just not enough to replace a real index.

• Best Practices for Indexing as explained by the American Society for Indexing.

• In a Google Era, Indexers are the Unsung Heroes of the Publishing World.

• You can learn a lot about a book from the index.  For an example, see this article about the index to Fire and Fury.

• Want to learn more about indexing?  Indexing Books as a Career is a free asynchronous MOOC that provides an introduction to the process of indexing.