Indexes Praised and Censured are extracted from Indexes Reviewed, a regular feature in The Indexer.

These extracts from reviews do not pretend to represent a complete survey of all reviews in journals and newspapers. We offer only a selection from quotations that members have sent in. Our reproduction of comments is not a stamp of approval from the Society of Indexers upon the reviewer’s assessment of an index.

ABC-CLIO: Encyclopedia of women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England, ed. by Diana Robin et al. (2007, 459 pp, $95). Rev. by Ann Welton, The Booklist, 104 (1), 1 September 2007.

The index is comprehensive and accurate. 

Ashgate: British librarianship and information work 2001-2005, ed. by J. H. Bowman (2007, 566 pp, £70). Rev. by Richard Turner, New Library World, 108(9/10), 2007.

The whole work is supremely indexed and this eases access further to what could easily have been a turgid reference work, but instead is a vibrant reflection of a diverse profession that is ably meeting a myriad of challenges.

Rev. by Bob Duckett, Library & Information Update, 6(10), October 2007.

A feature of the volume is the impressively detailed index covering 35 double-columned pages. As both a ‘state-of-the-art’ read and a reference resource, this is a ‘must have’ for library managers and committed professionals.

Chicago University Press: Deforesting the earth: from prehistory to global crisis -- an abridgement by M. Williams (2006, 520 pp., £16, US$25). Rev. by Thomas Harvey, Progress in Human Geography, 31(5), October 2007.
There is the grand historical and geographical sweep; there is the elegant prose; there are the wonderful bibliographic essay, footnotes and index; and there are the still numerous tables, plates and figures.

Chicago University Press: A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations. Chicago style for students and researchers, by Kate L. Turabian (2007, 436 pp, £10). Rev. by John Taylor, Editing Matters, September/October 2007.

A 26-page index (three levels) will help you locate anything in this comprehensive manual.

SPCK: Serving the parish, by Martin Dudley and Virginia Rounding (2006, 160 pp, £10.99). Rev. by Ken Bakewell, The Reader, 104(2), summer 2007.

This is an excellent and well-indexed book.

Schlütersche: Wilhelm Busch: Die Bildergeschichten. Historisch-kritische Ausgabe, i: Frühwerk; ii: Reifezeit; iii: Spätwerk, ed. by Hans Ries and Ingrid Haberland (2002, €199). Rev. by Brian Alderson, The Library: Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, 8(1), March 2007..

This is a magnificent achievement whose exhaustive character is perhaps best exemplified through its sixteen indexes, which not only provide a full guide to the intricacies that crop up in individual articles but also include separate listings for such topics as Busch’s use of exclamations, internal rhymes, and zeugmata!

Springer: Deadly dermatologic diseases: clinicopathologic atlas and text, by Michael B. Morgan et al. (2007, 188 pp with CD-ROM, £74.50).

Division of the book into major topic areas partly works, but subdivision of topics under these headings by alphabetical sequence splits up logical links (such as granulomatous slack skin and subcutaneous panniculitis-like lymphoma, both of which are unusual variants of T-cell lymphoma). Similarly, hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia is classed as an inborn error of metabolism, rather than as a vascular disorder, and amyloid as paraneoplastic, even though most amyloidosis isn’t myeloma-related. However, this classification and sequence problem is solved by a clear index.

Wiley: Copyediting & proofreading for dummies, by Suzanne Gilad (2007, 384 pp, £13.99). Rev. by John Taylor, Editing Matters, September/October 2007.

The 16-page index is exemplary – it’s comprehensive, structured and sums up the quality of this must-have book.

World Book: The World Book encyclopedia (22 vols) (2007, $899). Rev. by Barbara Bibel and Shauna Yusko, The Booklist, 104(2), 15 September 2007.
The index is detailed and easy to use, and the ‘Research Guide’ found in the index volume is useful for students who need help organizing a project.