How to Make an Index

by Henry B. Wheatley

During his work the indexer must constantly ask himself what it is for which the consulter is likely to seek. The author frequently uses periphrases to escape from the repetition of the same fact in the same form, but these periphrases will give little information when inserted as headings in an index; and it is in this point of selecting the best catchword that the good indexer will show his superiority over the commonplace worker.

This paramount characteristic of the good indexer is by no means an easy one to acquire. When the indexer is absorbed in the work upon which he is working, he takes for granted much with which the consulter coming fresh to the subject is not familiar. The want of this characteristic is most marked in the case of the bad indexer.

In printing references to the entries in an index it is important to make a distinction between the volume and the page; this is done best by printing the number of the volumes in Roman letters and the page in Arabic numerals. When, however, the volumes are numerous, the Roman letters become cumbersome, and mistakes are apt to occur, so that one is forced to use Arabic numerals; and in order to distinguish between volume and page, the numbers of the volumes must be printed in solid black type.

When a book is often reprinted in different forms it would be well to refer to chapters and paragraphs, so that the same index would do for all editions. The paragraphs in Dr. Jessopp's edition of North's Lives of the Norths are numbered, but they are not numbered throughout. The references are very confusing and require a key. Thus, P stands for Preface; F for Life of the Lord Keeper; D, Life of Dudley; J, Life of Dr. John; R, Autobiography of Roger, and also Notes; R L, Letters from Lady North; R I, Letters from Roger North; and S, Supplementary. In the Letters the references are to pages and not to paragraphs. With such a complicated system, one is tempted to leave the index severely alone. This is the more annoying in that the index is not a long one, and the pages might have been inserted without any great trouble.

Much confusion has been caused by reprinting an index for one edition in a later one without alteration. An instance may be given by citing the reprint of Whitelock's Memorials, published at the University Press, Oxford, in 1853. The original edition is in one volume folio (1682, reprinted 1732), and the new edition is in four volumes octavo. But to save expense the old index was printed to the new book. The difficulty was in part got over by giving the pages of the 1732 edition in the margin; but as may be imagined, it is a most troublesome business to find anything by this means. Moreover, the old index is not a good one, but thoroughly bad, with all the old misprints retained in the new edition. As a specimen of the extreme inaccuracy of the compilation, it may be mentioned that under one heading of thirty-four entries Mr. Edward Peacock detected seven blunders. Although Mr. Peacock had no statistics of the other entries, his experience led him to believe that if any heading were taken at random, about one in four of the entries would be found to be misprinted.

In the case of a large index it is necessary to take into consideration the greatly increased work connected with arrangement. The amount of this may be said to increase in geometrical rather than in arithmetical progression. When the indexer comes to the last page of a great book he rejoices to have finished his work; but he will find by experience, when he calculates the arrangement of his materials, that he has scarcely done more than half of what is before him.

If cards or separate slips are used, these will only need to be arranged for the press; but if sheets of paper have been, written upon, these will have to be cut up. There is little to be said about this, but it is worth giving the hint that much time is saved if shears or large scissors are used, so that the whole width of paper may be severed in two cuts.

In the case of a small index there is little difficulty with material, for it can be arranged at once into first letters, and when the table is cleared of the slips these can be placed in the pages of an ordinary book to keep them distinct, and can then be sorted in perfect alphabet and pasted down. In the case of a large index it will be necessary to place the slips in a safer place. Large envelopes are useful receptacles for first letters; and when the slips are placed in them, the indexer will feel at ease and sure that none will be lost.

It is well to go through the whole of the envelopes of first letters and sort the slips into second and third letters before the pasting is commenced, so that you may know that the order is correct, or make such alterations as are necessary before it is too late. The final perfect alphabetical arrangement can be made when the slips are placed on the table ready to be pasted.

The sorting of slips into alphabetical order seems a simple matter which scarcely needs any particular directions; still such have been made.