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8 - Quality Control and Interoperability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Glenda Browne  and
Jon Jermey
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Summary

THIS CHAPTER COVERS general topics related to quality control and the sharing of indexing – evaluation, consistency, and interoperability. Markup languages are included as they facilitate the transfer and sharing of information, while embedded indexing allows the reuse of indexing information.

Evaluation

Indexing is a multi-step process. After entering terms to describe concepts, indexers spend time evaluating their entries and editing the initial terms to make the index into a coherent whole (Term editing as you index in Chapter 5).

When editors or other clients receive the index they have to evaluate it against the brief and check that the content has been covered adequately and the index is accurate. Book-style indexes may also be evaluated through peer review, by book reviewers, and when submitted for awards. Collection indexing is evaluated by editors, and sometimes in more formal large-scale studies. These are all discussed below.

Book-style indexing

There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing until the end, until it be thoroughly finished, yields the true glory.

Francis Drake

Editors need to evaluate indexes against the brief which was provided. Janet Mackenzie (2004) writes:

Indexes are usually edited on screen. If the index is professionally prepared, the editor need only make a quick check to ensure that the indexer is competent and to correct typos and consistency with the text. Usually, though, the index is prepared by an amateur – the author. In most cases this is a false economy. An amateur index usually needs both substantive editing and copyediting.

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The Indexing Companion , pp. 113 - 127
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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