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Indexing periodicals



I have been indexing our institution's publications for years (although as our workload gets heavier and heavier, I have not been able to do as much of it as I would like), and it is one of the best things I have ever done.  I use indexing for minutes as well; if you have a handle on both governing board minutes and things like employee newsletters, you can locate information in the general archival collections much faster because you have dates and other particulars for clues as to where to look.  Publications also help you to zero in on photos, either for identification purposes or to find a specific one for somebody.

I started indexing in the old fashioned way with cards, etc., but with the advent of computers, I have happily been using CINDEX for a number of years.  It is specifically produced for professional indexers.  There are a few really minor inconveniences in the software, but I haven't seen anything nearly as good.  Something like this is necessary, as far as I can see, to avoid the numerous false drops and unindexed concepts that result from automatic indexing.  The cross references you can add are invaluable for tying jargon that is only used for a few years into some sort of standard vocabulary.  Once you get used to it, you can go really fast.

Contrary to what you expected to hear, I think you are doing something that you will NEVER regret.  I wish I had the time I used to, so that I could get around to indexing all of our publications and important minutes.  I wouldn't spend half the time I do now looking for things.  I think it is especially valuable in an institutional archives where your administration asks questions by email or over the phone and you are the actual researcher.

Fred Lautzenheiser
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
lautzef@ccf.org

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