Book indexers have long laboured in obscurity. Now, they’re getting a long-overdue moment in the sun - The Globe and Mail

Most indexers are freelance and most are women. Quite a few are also librarians or book editors. Many have specialties, such as cookbooks or theology. They take their job seriously. The Indexing Society of Canada declined to hand out its annual award this year because it decided no index reached the required level of excellence.

Steps into a reflection on indexes as a curated window to a book—directories, not search—and points out the shortcomings of ebooks in this way, where indexes often don’t exist, or don’t work! (A great reminder that “I wish this book had ctrl-F” might not be as fruitful as we dream.)