Continuing Professional Development is an important part of any professional job. In this blog post, indexers Sue Penny and Tanya Izzard give an overview of the CPD opportunities that are out there for indexers.
Formal training and workshops
Most Society of Indexers members learned to index through our training course. The course provides you with a detailed and thorough grounding in the basic principles of indexing, the production of useful, well-structured indexes, and it develops the skills essential for a career in professional indexing. Our website gives information on course structure, assessment and costs; our blog series offers a more detailed view of the training course from a former student’s perspective.
We also offer self-study workshops on a variety of indexing topics, including eBook indexing, editing the index, indexing texts about the past, and writing index entries. All of these can be studied at your own pace and – for Society of Indexers members – they offer CPD points to support your progression through our membership grades.
Conferences and webinars
The Society of Indexers and our sister societies offer an indexing conference most years. Increasingly, these are held online, often alternating with in-person conferences, allowing indexers from around the world to attend and participate. Conference sessions may focus on indexing, software or business skills, and keynote talks often help relate indexing to the wider information or publishing context. There’s always time for networking and socialising, too.
Our friends at the American Society for Indexing offer a selection of webinars, which can be joined live or watched on replay, and cover a wide variety of indexing and business topics. SI members benefit from a discount on ASI webinars.
Groups
For SI members, there are two monthly online groups dedicated to discussing aspects of indexing practice, business management and to sharing expertise and problem-solving. Each meeting has a theme, and different members will introduce that theme, sharing a dilemma, a case study, or an interesting approach to a book.
We also have local groups, which offer SI members a chance to get together and discuss indexing – or anything else they might enjoy talking about.
ASI also has local groups, called Chapters, and offers a range of Special Interest Groups, which focus on specific subject areas or aspects of indexing work; most groups meet regularly online, and have a mailing list for discussion, too.
There are a number of online mailing lists and forums for indexers. Indexing societies will have their own forums for members, but the independent lists Indexers Discussion Group, Scholarly Indexing, and specialised groups for index software users welcome all indexers.
Mentoring
Several indexing societies have mentoring schemes to support professional development. If your society doesn’t have a scheme, you may be able to access mentoring more informally. Mentoring is not just for newbies – maybe you’re considering a change to your indexing business, or preparing for retirement. Mentoring can help you negotiate these changes. It’s also a great development opportunity
Books and journals
You can always improve your indexing practice, and reading about indexing is an easy way to start. There are a wide range of books about indexing; you may have to hunt for some of the older ones, but it’s worth looking out for secondhand copies. Our professional journal, The Indexer, is the place to find out about new developments in indexing practice; SI membership includes a subscription to this journal. And all the indexing societies have useful membership newsletters which will also support your professional development.
If this post has whetted your appetite for some CPD, don’t forget to book your place at this year’s Society of Indexers Conference, ‘On the Same Page: Indexers Embracing Collaboration’. Our conference this year is held online and runs from 11–12 November 2026.
About the authors
Sue Penny qualified as an indexer in 2021 after a career as a school librarian. She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Society of Indexers, and indexes books in the arts and humanities. She is CPD Director on the SI Executive Board.
Tanya Izzard indexes scholarly and trade books in the humanities, producing standard and embedded indexes for authors and publishers. She has been indexing full-time since 2017 and is an Fellow of SI and the Marketing Director on the SI Executive Board.
Image of a lightbulb on an open book via Adobe Express
AI Artificial Intelligence Ask the Indexers authors as indexers automated indexing Awards Becoming an indexer Biography indexing books of the year Client feedback clients Commissioning an indexer computers and indexing conferences Continuing Professional Development cost management CPD difficult texts embedded indexes honorary president Indexers indexes indexing indexing careers Indexing names Index quality Membership national indexing day networking passing mentions politics of indexing portfolio jobs project tracking reference sources self-indexing self publishing Society of Indexers time management Training as an indexer Working with authors
