What is it that professional indexers do? Do indexers construct an index, draft an index, provide an index, etc...?
To say one compiles an index is not encouraged, because of the connotation of a computer compiling information. That is, to compile an index makes it seem like a mechanical, not a human, activity.
A specialist in books on yarn work says she crafts an index, while the cookbook expert proclaims she prepares indexes. One indexer with a legal background likes to think of himself as drawing an index, as one would draw up a will. Then there is the poetry fan, who composes indexes.
Some might think it is easiest just to state that indexers write an index and leave it at that, but there is resistance to that wording as well, with the reason being given that the action of indexing is not the same kind of endeavor as writing a thesis or a novel or even a letter.
Because there is no consensus, it may be said that what indexers do for a living is to create an index, for there seems to be no strenuous objection to that term. However, index developer may be a good candidate for promotion, as it goes along the lines of web developer and program developer in this computer age.
As one contributor to Index-L stated, maybe we should just think of indexing as akin to the act of the parting the Red Sea, "It's part reading, it's part analysis, it's part writing, it's part just typing, it's part creative editing, it's part agonizing, it's part swearing, it's part . . ."
