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I first got to know Tim Brookes’ writing through his advert at the social media site LinkedIn. Tim mentioned that he had a book for sale called Thirty Percent Chance of Enlightenment and he offered a sample of the work to group members. It being a travel book - and one about India at that - I longed to be able to buy it, but alas, my funds at the time did not allow me to do so. I contacted Tim and said I had enjoyed the sample and dearly wanted to read the rest, but I had to “wish list” the book for a future happy date. Tim graciously said I could read the whole text for free, and sent it accordingly.

I read the book with great pleasure. I so appreciated Tim’s wit and the fascinating climate-related stories, such as the tale of rainmaker Charles Hatfield and activity at Mount Washington observatory, home of the world’s worst weather. The regions where Tim Brookes traveled - Kerala, for example - were just the areas I would have wanted to visit if I ever had a chance to explore India myself, so I was doubly intrigued. When I was through reading the text I was so grateful that I contacted Tim and offered to index the book as a way of showing my appreciation for his freely giving it to me.

At the time I began to index the book my mother-in-law began her process of dying, so it was at times difficult to concentrate, but Tim was extremely understanding about delays. Additionally, I was at the very end of my mentoring course with the renowned indexing instructor Kari Kells. When I showed her the finished index she was pretty much blown away - she said that the keywords chosen made her want to buy multiple copies, as the indexing terms made it seem like the text held tremendous promise, not to mention entertainment value!

I appreciated having Tim’s index to add to my marketing portfolio, and as the months passed I also enjoyed subscribing to his blogs. I became a Brookes evangelist and posted tweets and Facebook mentions whenever one of Tim’s new blog posts came out.

Tim contacted me at the beginning of November and asked if I minded if he mentioned me in one of those blog posts - like I would say no? Imagine my shock and delight when I read, “What About the Worthy Indexer?” where he praises the art of indexing and excerpts some of my key words! I was speechless, to say the least.

I knew that such appreciation for indexing would boost the spirits of indexing colleagues, so I sent a link to the review to every one of my indexing contacts. The next day, my email box was completely flooded with congratulations - and most importantly, new fans of Tim Brookes. Many indexers went on to re-post the article or to comment on it in their own blogs. Tim definitely caused a sensation and gave the indexing world a boost.

Influential members of the American Society for Indexing became aware of the now famous blogpost, and inquired about the possibility of having a member interview Tim for a future edition of Keywords. Indexer Chuck Ashton of Vermont was chosen and spent a lovely day doing the interview and visiting Champlain College, where Tim heads the Champlain Publishing Initiative.

I very much look forward to Tim’s future books and hope to get the chance to work with him again - it would be my great pleasure!

Jewish Economies is a two-volume set of texts by Nobel Prize winning economist Simon Kuznets (April 30, 1901 -July 8, 1985). I recently finished indexing volume II “Comparative Perspectives on Jewish Migration.” Volume I, which has recently been released, deals with the economic structure and growth of Euro-American Jewry. Both volumes share the same preface and introduction.

The Jewish contribution to the study of economics is briefly explored in the introduction, with insight into why it has been that so many Jews have been drawn to the field. Also in the introduction, the reader learns the personal background of Simon Kuznets, who was a refreshingly humble man and an objective, careful scholar.

As an immigrant from what is now Belarus, Kuznets embraced American assimilation so completely that he refrained from speaking to his children in Russian or Yiddish, and he took pains to give them a secular childhood. He didn’t want anti-Semitism to be a part of his children’s experience, and he also didn’t want it to stain his professional work. As a contributor to the scientific study of economics Kuznets wanted to be seen as an absolutely neutral authority. He felt if it was widely known that he did research on Jewish issues, he might be seen as having some sort of bias and that his work might be questioned. So, he didn’t promote his writing on Jewish topics, and many of his papers were either left un-translated or weren’t published at all. Now, decades after his passing, the neglected parts of his cannon are finally being released.

The first selection in Volume II of Jewish Economies explains the US census process and provides general information on immigration to the United States. The reader learns of the discrepancies and errors in census taking and what steps were taken to reconcile data. This first section doesn’t really highlight Jewish immigration in particular - that is left to the third chapter, which details the immigration process of Russian Jews to America. There the reader learns that the bulk of US Jewish immigrants came from the Russian Empire, which had its borders drastically changed after the Great War. Within that Russian group, it was Lithuanian Jews from the northwest region of the Pale that made the most moves, and it was New York City which drew them, especially since they were able to transfer their skills to create success in the clothing industry.

The middle section of the text highlights the economic success of Israel and explains the reasons for Israel’s high GDP and GNP. The immigrants to Israel tended to be highly educated and tremendously motivated. Recent Israeli immigrants soon matched the status of “veteran immigrants” so that the country did not experience a great gap between the rich and the poor. This made them unique, and Kuznets provides many tables to illustrate the amazing triumph of the Israeli economy.

Kuznets was careful to stick to facts and numbers in his work and refused to go too far into speculation. So, although Kuznets brings up many interesting points in the text he leaves it to future researches to explore them further. Jewish Economies is a great starting point for those wishing to study the Russian Diaspora, Israeli success, and the history of immigration in the United States.

Jewish Economies Volume II will be released in 2012 by Transaction Publishers.

Godly Seed is the history of the birth control movement in America from 1873, when the prohibitive federal Comstock Law took effect, to 1973, when the passage of Roe v. Wade made abortion a legal option.

After a short section on reproductive issues in ancient times and a primer on the views of the Protestant Reformers on fertility and marriage, the author delves into the legacy of the formidable Anthony Comstock. Comstock, of Puritan descent, devoted his life to the suppression of sexual information.

Equating contraception with abortion and pornography and working with organizations like the YMCA, Comstock lobbied politicians until laws were passed in each state forbidding the possession of contraceptive devices, obscene material, and abortifacients.

The federal Comstock Law resulted in the arrests of hundreds of business owners and individuals who bought or sold such materials.

So much fear was generated due to the Comstock Law that publishing houses no longer produced medical textbooks containing information on reproduction.

Nurse Margaret Sanger had a patient who died due to a botched abortion. When Sanger tried to conduct research into the human reproductive system to try to understand what had gone wrong with the pregnancy termination, she was appalled to discover that due to the Comstock Law she could find no information on the subject.

Sanger then decided to make it her life’s mission to undo the work of Anthony Comstock and to make reproductive information not only available, but to make contraception seem respectable by renaming it first “birth control” then “family planning.”

Sanger went on to help found the Planned Parenthood Association of America, which stressed the notion that the ideal family was one in which each child was scheduled for birth according to the needs and desires of the parents, rather than a family whose children were born by chance.

Christians had traditionally adhered to the idea that God would decide how many children should be born to each family, and they eschewed contraception. However, with the passage of time and the new fear of world overpopulation, some began to rethink this notion.

One of the public figures who helped Evangelicals in particular to accept birth control and thus help to cut down on the population explosion was preacher Billy Graham. In his worldwide revival crusades Graham had seen firsthand what overpopulation could do to a country.

Concerned and wanting to do something to help, Graham commissioned Christian theologians and founded Christianity Today magazine, which had the early mission of convincing Protestant Christians that contraception was not only acceptable to God, but that it could possibly be a sin not to engage in birth control.

Christianity Today sponsored reproduction symposiums and even editorialized that abortion was a valid choice for the Christian believer.

Catholicism had never found birth control or abortion acceptable options, but all the Evangelical discussion on the subject of reproductive choice sparked debate within the American Catholic community.

Many Catholics hoped that the Pope would agree with the new views of Evangelicals with his Humane Vitae encyclical, but this was not to be - the Pope sided with tradition.

One group of Protestant Christians applauded the Pope’s stance - the Fundamentalists. Convinced that Evangelicals had become too liberal and had gone too far with their acceptance of abortion, a group of Fundamentalists decided to return to strict Biblical teaching on fertility.

These believers founded the Quiverfull movement, which holds that families with large numbers of children are especially blessed by God.

The Quiverfull adherents do not use contraception and they trust that overpopulation will be remedied by God, in that He will always provide for believers.

Godly Seed is well-written and objective - one is never sure to which side of the contraception debate the author adheres, with the exception that the reader is sure to realize that Gnostics are not a particularly favorite group of Mr. Carlson.

Godly Seed is available from Amazon.

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My first paid indexing job was a book on hospice care and counseling, written by a chaplain. I was offered this assignment due to my indexing specialty being with spiritual and religious texts. Naturally I was overjoyed to work on my first paid gig.

But the subject had me spooked.

I had had my first experience with hospice just a few months earlier, when my mother-in-law passed away. I really didn't understand the process at that time, though.

Through indexing this text I was able to get over some of my fear of the dying process and the issues that inevitably arise from it.

Little did I know that I would soon put to use what I had just learned when a family friend, Annie, was diagnosed with a rare stage four cancer and entered into hospice care soon afterward. My sister was distraught, as Annie was not only her neighbor, but her young son was best friends with my niece.

I was so grateful that I had the hospice book on my shelf (the chaplain had sent me a signed copy) and was able to loan it to my sister so that she could find some comfort and understanding in Annie's last days.

My elderly father is ill with post-polio syndrome now and not yet in hospice care. But if hospice becomes his path, I will once again bring out this wonderful text and leaf through the index, looking for comfort and guidance.

I was first introduced to the manuscript for the golfing memoir 'King of Clubs' when I struck up a conversation with a fellow member of the networking site LinkedIn. We were discussing the short window of time that freelancers have to complete an index, as it is the final activity before a manuscript goes to publication.

Author Jim Ducibella expressed his concerns. He was in the process of final editing and deciding whether he wanted to have an index to accompany his text.

I asked to have a look at the manuscript, and after reviewing it, I let him know that an index would definitely add value—not to mention a scholarly sheen—to his work.

I also saw—because it is not only the history of two particular golf marathons in the 1930s, but a memoir of golfer James Ferebee—that it would be a complex text to work with. I knew I would have to do some special research on biographical techniques.

So, we made an agreement that I would create a preliminary index to get a head start before the final pages were due. We felt that it would be a greater service to the index to take this extra step, rather than waiting until there was just a two-week window to complete the assignment.

Since beginning this project I have been consulting colleagues through various indexing forums on the technicalities. I have even set up a small group of students who will be practicing with this text.

They are feeling a bit intimidated to be working on one of the most difficult types of indexes, but once they are finished and their work is peer-reviewed they can be proud of the hard work they have done.

One of the written sources I have consulted is an article by Hazel Bell from "The Indexer" magazine's April 1989 issue:

Indexing biographies:
lives do bring their problems (PDF).

Ms. Bell, *the* authority on biographical indexing, explains that the difference between indexing technical material and "soft" material (such as memoirs) is that there is no right answer when it comes to making index decisions.

That is, there is a lot more leeway for style choices in biographical indexes.

This can frighten an indexer who is more comfortable following strict indexing standards. Indexing of memoirs can also require extra queries and research on the part of the indexer, which can irk those who pride themselves on speed.

Key terms in biographical indexes have an ambiguity that is lacking in technical material.

For example, does "marriage" mean simply the wedding date, or does it mean events throughout the lives of the couple?

Does "family" include siblings and parents, as well as the children of the main subject?

Ms. Bell also warns that great care must be taken in keyword selection.

As an example, the author may tip-toe around someone's sexuality, but the indexer may decide to enter "Smith, Joe, homosexuality of." This could potentially result in a libel suit…

Another point made by Hazel Bell is that a biographical index looks better when using the run-in style as distinct from indented style.

She argues that an indented index for a biography gives a "disjointed effect," whereas a run-in index is better suited to a memoir because it provides a continuous sequence, i.e. a narrative effect that reads and flows better.

Finally, it is suggested that the indexer not shy away from a longer-than-usual list of undifferentiated locators.

With traditional indexes, it is advised to break out into subheadings after five locators.

Ms. Bell argues that to break out just to follow traditional rules, may lead the reader to believe that the mentions are more substantial than they are—causing disappointment in the reader believing that there is going to be more of a weighty discussion.

Rather, Ms. Bell reassures the indexer, if the mentions are slight, then the presence of many undifferentiated locators tells a worthy "story of its own."

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