The esteem in which the indexes of Notes and Queries are held is evidenced by the high prices they realise when they occur for sale. Mr. Tedder's full indexes to the Reports of the Conference of Librarians and the Library Association may also be mentioned.
A very striking instance of the great value which a general index of a book may possess as a distinct work can be seen in the "Index to the first ten volumes of Book Prices Current (1887-1896), constituting a reference list of subjects and incidentally a key to Anonymous and Pseudonymous Literature, London, 1901."
Here, in one alphabet, is a brief bibliography of the books sold in ten years well set out, and the dates of the distinctive editions clearly indicated. The compilation of this index must have been a specially laborious work, and does great credit to William Jaggard, of Liverpool, the compiler.
The authorities of the Clarendon Press, Oxford, are to be highly commended for their conduct in respect to the index to Ranke's History of England. This was attached to the sixth volume of the work published in 1875. It is by no means a bad index in itself; but a revised index was issued in 1897, which is a greatly improved edition by the addition of dates and fuller descriptions and Christian names and titles to the persons mentioned. The new index is substantially the same as the old one, but the reviser has gone carefully through it, improving it at all points, by which means it was extended over an additional twenty-three pages. It is instructive to compare the two editions. Four references as they appear in the two will show the improvement:
Old index. New index. "Lower House." "Lower House see Commons, House of." "Window tax v. 102." "Window tax, imposed 1695 v. 102." "Witt, John de." "Witt, Cornelius de." "Witt, Cornelius de." "Witt, John de."
| Old index. | New index. |
| "Lower House." | "Lower House see Commons, House of." |
| "Window tax v. 102." | "Window tax, imposed 1695 v. 102." |
| "Witt, John de." | "Witt, Cornelius de." |
| "Witt, Cornelius de." | "Witt, John de." |
Miss Hetherington has very justly explained the cause of bad indexing. She says that it has been stated in the Review of Reviews that the indexer is born, not made, and that the present writer said: "An ideal indexer needs many qualifications; but unlike the poet he is not born, but made!" She then adds to these differing opinions: "More truly he is born and made."
I agree to the correction and forswear my former heresy. Certainly the indexer requires to be born with some of the necessary qualities innate in him, and then he requires to have those qualities turned to a practical point by the study of good examples, so as to know what to follow and what to avoid. Miss Hetherington goes on to say:
"As a matter of fact, people without the first necessary qualifications, or any aptitude whatever for the work are set to compile indexes, and the work is regarded as nothing more than purely mechanical copying that any hack may do. So long as indexing and cataloguing are treated with contempt rather than as arts not to be acquired in a day, or perhaps a year, and so long as authors and their readers are indifferent to good work, will worthless indexing continue." [16]
[ [16] Index to the Periodical Literature of the World (1892).
What, then, are the chief characteristics that are required to form a good indexer? I think they may be stated under five headings: