Information is useful. Accessible information is valuable. But easy access to pertinent information is crucial to success in modern life. Indexers provide this access, by identifying and ordering important aspects of the information we deal with.

In order to do our work properly, indexers must understand both the theory and practice of indexing. We are fortunate to have a number of publications worldwide that assist us in learning and applying indexing skills.

The Indexing Companion is the most recent addition, and the first Australian contribution, to the growing number of publications on indexing. In it, Glenda Browne and Jonathan Jermey contribute to the corpus of indexing in a number of significant ways: through their focus on interoperability, not only between the diverse strands of indexing but also among the various information professionals who create and use indexes; through their placement of ‘traditional’ indexing within the broader context of the information industry (including describing what other information professionals do and how indexing is incorporated into museum, library and archive activities); and through their treatment of the entire spectrum of indexing, from traditional back-of-book ‘closed system’ indexing to ‘open system’ journal cumulation, website and database indexing.

Browne and Jermey acknowledge that indexing is an international profession with much common ground but some regional differences, and explain the various standards and guides used in different countries and by different publishers.