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.

Australian Library and Information Association:  Uniting a profession: the Australian Institute of Librarians 1937–1949, by Jean P. Whyte and David J. Jones (2007, 279 pp, A$42.50). Rev. by Anne Hazell, Australasian Public Libraries and Information Services, 20(4), December 2007.

Uniting a profession has numerous photographs, eleven informative appendices, and a thorough index. These are all commendable. [Index by ANZSI member Sherrey Quinn.]

Bantam: The scent trail: a journey of the senses, by Celia Lyttelton (2007, 320 pp, £15). Rev. by Mary Furness, Times Literary Supplement, 16 November 2007.

Her book could… well be used as a reference work by the enthusiast, as it contains a useful glossary, bibliography and index.

Beaumaris and Citizens Association: Beaumaris Newsletter index January-June 1953, vol. 7 (2007, 25 pp). Rev. in Royal Historical Society Newsletter of Victoria, no. 252, November/December 2007.

This is an index of the journal of the Beaumaris and Citizens Association at the time before the massive suburbanisation of this area from the 1960s. It is a model of index presentation and a valuable reference tool for the papers themselves that are held by the State Library with microfilm in local and other sites.

Facet Publishing: Essential law for information professionals (2nd edn, 2006, 278 pp, £34.95). Rev. by Mike Freeman, New Library World, 108(11/12), 2007.

… this is a helpful, clearly written and well-indexed book, which will be of considerable value to LIS practitioners and students. It is good to see CILIP and Facet Publishing responding so well to the current and pressing needs of practitioners with this well targeted and readable book. It is thoroughly recommended.

Facet Publishing: Ethics, accountability and recordkeeping in a dangerous world, by Richard J. Cox (2006, 298 pp, £44.95). Rev. by Mike Freeman, New Library World, 190(1/2).

The book has a good Reference List and is well indexed, well laid out and readable. [But see a different view of the index under ‘Indexes censured’.]

Facts on File, The Facts on File companion to the American novel, by Abby H. P. Werlock (2006, 1,520 pp, £124.50). Rev. by Joseph Thomas, Booklist (date not available).

Although some topics – feminism, the Jewish American novel, and science fiction, among others – are not represented in the topical essays, they are amply referenced within entries, with access provided by an in-depth index. The index helps make up for the lack of a complete list of entries, something that others in this series also need. In many cases, the index provides excellent research assistance; for instance, the index entries on themes, such as African-American middle class, immigrant experience, and miscegenation, lead to many specific novels and authors. Cross-references in the index would be helpful. [Suzanne Peake, who compiled the index, comments: ‘These must have been removed by the publisher’.]

Neal-Schuman Publishers: Making the writing and research connection with the I-search process: a how-to-do-it manual(2nd edn), by Julie I. Tallman and Marilyn Z. Joyce (2006, 167 pp + CD-ROM, A$55.00). Rev. by Lyn Linning, Australian Library Journal, 56(2), May 2007.

The table of contents and index are comprehensive and well set out.

Pantheon Books: The Landmark Herodotus: the histories, tr. by Andrea L. Purvis, ed. by Robert B. Strassler (2007, 1024 pp, $45). Rev. by Brooke McLane, ‘What are you reading?’, Laurence Journal-World, 30 December 2007.

I’m reading The Landmark Herodotus. It’s a translation of an ancient Greek historian, and this edition contains maps and other references combined with an incredible index.

Portrait: Dublin: a view from the ground, by Neil Hegarty (368 pp, €29.95, £20). Rev. in Books Ireland, December 2007.

A ‘further reading’ piece is in chatty narrative form which is never helpful when you want to look up a book, but there’s a good index.

Royal Dublin Society: It’s part of what we are: some Irish contributors to the development of the chemical and physical sciences, vols 1 and 2, by Charles Mollan (2007, 1,815 pp, £35) Rev. in Books Ireland, December 2007.

The contents list, both alphabetic and chronologic, is provided for both volumes in volume 1, while volume 2 only has its own. Conversely, volume 2 provides the magnificent bibliography and index.

Springer-Praxis: Quirky sides of scientists, by David R. Topper (2008, 210 pp, £24.50). Rev. by Colin Knappitt, Astronomy Now, February 2008.

If you enjoy a well indexed and cross-referenced work of scholarship… then I warmly commend this book.

Ulster Historical Foundation: Overlooking the river Mourne: four centuries of family farms in Edymore and Cavanalee in county Tyrone, by Michael Cox (2006, 174 pp, £11.99). Rev. in Books Ireland, October 2007.

But the book does conclude on a splendid note, with no fewer than twelve appendices and an excellent index.

Viking: A voyage round John Mortimer: the authorized biography, by Valerie Grove (2007, 542 pp, £25). Rev. by Brenda Maddox, Times Literary Supplement, 14 December 2007.

The jokes… are good and the index impeccable, but the book is too long and the life too unreflectively messy.