How to Make an Index

by Henry B. Wheatley

S knowledge increases and books and magazines gather in number, the need for many indexes becomes daily more evident. We often are certain that something has been written on a subject in which we are interested, but in vain we seek for a clue to it. We want a key to all this ever-increasing literature.

As long ago as 1842 the late Thomas Watts, of the British Museum, one of the most learned and all-knowing of librarians, spoke to the late Dr. Greenhill of Hastings on the need for the formation of an Index Society. This date I give on the authority of Dr. Greenhill. Mr. Watts was a perfect index in himself, and few inquirers sought information from him which his fully stored mind was not able to supply; and he was not jealous of the printed index, as some authorities are. Twelve years after—in 1854—an announcement was made in Notes and Queries of the projected formation of a "Society for the Formation of a General Literary Index." In the 2nd Series, vol. i., p. 486, the late Mr. Thomas Jones, who signed himself "Bibliothecar. Chetham.," commenced a series of articles, which he continued for several years, as a contribution to this general index; but nothing more was heard of the society. Inquiries were made in various numbers of Notes and Queries, but no response was obtained. In 1876 a contributor to the same periodical, signing himself "A. H.," proposed the formation of a staff of index compilers. In 1874 the late Professor Stanley Jevons published his Principles of Science. In the chapter on Classification he enlarged on the value of indexes, and added:

"The time will perhaps come when our views upon this subject will be extended, and either Government or some public society will undertake the systematic cataloguing and indexing of masses of historical and scientific information, which are now almost closed against inquiry" (1st ed., vol. ii., p. 405; 2nd ed., p. 718).

In the following year Mr. Edward Solly and I, without having then seen this passage, consulted as to the possibility of starting an Index Society, but postponed the actual carrying out of the scheme for a time. In July of this same year, 1875, Mr. J. Ashton Cross argued in a pamphlet that a universal index might be formed by co-operation through a clearing-house, and would pay if published in separate parts. In September, 1877, some letters by Mr. W. J. Thoms, who signed himself "A Lover of Indexes," were published in the Pall Mall Gazette, in which the foundation of an Index Society was strongly urged. In October, 1877, Mr. Cross read a paper before the Conference of Librarians, which was a revival of the scheme previously suggested. Mr. Robert Harrison, late Secretary of the London Library, in a report of the Conference of Librarians published in the Athenæum for October 13th, 1877, wrote:

"Could not a permanent Index Society be founded with the support of voluntary contributions of money as well as of subject matter? In this way a regular staff could be set to work, under competent direction, and could be kept steadily at work until its performances became so generally known and so useful as to enable it to stand alone and be self-supporting. Many readers would readily jot down the name of any new subject they met with in the book before them, and the page on which it occurs, and forward their notes to be sorted and arranged by any society that would undertake the work."

Mr. Justin Winsor, the late distinguished librarian of Harvard University, writing to the Athenæum, said:

"We have been in America striving for years to get some organised body to undertake this very work."

Following on all this correspondence, the Index Society was founded; but after doing some useful work it was amalgamated with the Index Library founded by Mr. Phillimore, having failed from want of popular support. This want of permanent success was probably owing to its aim being too general. Those who were interested in one class of index cared little for indexes which were quite different in subject.

I fear that the interest of the public in the production of indexes (which is considerable) does not go to the length of willingness to pay for these indexes, which from the fewness of those who care for these helps must always be expensive. When suggestions were made in Notes and Queries for the compilation and publication of certain needed indexes, Mr. J. Cuthbert Welch wrote that the editor of a journal offered to publish an index if he could obtain sufficient subscribers. Respecting this offer, the publisher said, "Altogether I had six offers to take one copy each." This rebuff caused Mr. Welch to say, "Is it not rather that people are not energetic to buy such indexes than that publishers are not energetic enough to issue them?" [25]