
Many of the Society of Indexers’ members combine indexing with other work. In this post, professional indexer Carlos Garcia-Jane discusses combining indexing with librarianship.
My background
I am a qualified, professional librarian and have worked at The British Museum and the Royal Academy of Dance; I now work full-time as Project Librarian at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. I am also a bibliographer at the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, the book reviews editor at the Buddhist Studies Review, and the communications officer for the UK Association for Buddhist Studies. I am also a part-time PhD researcher on Buddhist Studies at the School of Divinity, New College, University of Edinburgh. As I celebrate my first anniversary as an indexer, I would like to reflect on what is it is like combining indexing with my library and other roles.
Why did I choose indexing?
Shortly after qualifying as a librarian, and having worked in libraries for a while, I applied for membership to the Society of Indexers (SI) and I enrolled in their training course. Thinking of career opportunities, transferable skills, and professional development, I thought indexing was the right step for me to take. The SI offers the training necessary to qualify as an indexer and provides advocacy and professional support. Having completed the training course in December 2023, I am now an accredited Professional Member of SI.
How did I set up an indexing business?
After completing the training course, I filled out my profile in the SI Directory, I designed my website, I followed the SI advice on how to set up a business, I registered as self-employed, and I set out to accept my first commission. At the close of my first year as an indexer, I have completed five indexing commissions, one of which is a continual engagement with a learned society. I already have two other commissions lined up for next year, and I am in discussion with another learned society to index their journal. For negotiating these commissions and contracts, I have relied on the professional guidance and expertise provided by SI. It is clear from this that I average one commission every ten weeks. This number would be higher if I were not also doing a part-time PhD, which takes most of my (spare) time. This has been a realistic prospect for me as this has allowed me to practice my indexing skills whilst consolidating my business and setting a work routine.
How do I combine indexing with librarianship?
The prospect of combining indexing with other work is not daunting if you like to keep busy and have other interests outside of work or other responsibilities.
These are five crucial strategies for managing my workload:
- Subject knowledge: expertise makes indexing easier, the index better, and the experience an enjoyable one. I accept commissions on topics I am knowledgeable about.
- Priorities and time management: I only consider a commission if I can give it the necessary attention, that is, whenever I can index around other duties. This means indexing early in the morning and later in the evening whilst working on a commission, but also dedicating some time to seek out future indexing opportunities.
- Meeting deadlines: I accept commissions whose deadlines are sufficiently flexible. So far, I have had contact with authors who have cared more about whether I was a suitable indexer for their title rather than about workloads and deadlines. The main impediment for me, however, is the inability to accept last-minute commissions.
- Enthusiasm and conviction: the concentration, intensity, and accuracy necessary for indexing, particularly when combining it with other work, does not come easily without the enthusiasm and conviction.
- Development and networking: although unable to participate in networking events, I keep up with the profession by reviewing indexes, reading about indexing, particularly the literature produced by the SI, and by keeping an eye and participating in student and professional discussion forums run by the SI. Other members have been very informative and supportive.
What does combining indexing with librarianship mean to me?
The relationship between indexing and librarianship is for me one of family resemblance:
- I think of myself both as an information or knowledge professional as well as an indexer and a librarian.
- Indexing and librarianship define a set of tasks and purposes in particular settings. The competencies and skills required for both are not only similar, but also transferable.
- The skills of indexing, thesaurus development, taxonomy construction, cataloguing, and classification are all related tasks or processes of metadata management for organising and retrieving information effectively.
These affinities between indexing and librarianship have meant that I have been able to use my indexing skills for some library tasks, but also my librarian skills for my indexing work. Importantly, becoming an indexer made me realise that indexing was key for my role as cataloguer and classifier when creating access points to the library collections, databases, and repositories.
As I establish myself in the profession, combining indexing with other work constitutes an ideal solution for me. Not only does indexing represent an additional source of income, but it also gives me the opportunity to think flexibly about career options in the future. My personal ideal would be to work part-time as a librarian and part-time as an indexer. However, until that becomes a reality, combining indexing with other work gives me the security of a regular income and allows me the time and space to perfect my indexing skills whilst I establish myself professionally.
Carlos Garcia-Jane is an indexer and librarian based in London.
The image shows the State Library of Queensland, Australia, by Kgbo, used under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons