Indexes Praised and Indexes 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 the American Civil War, by David Heidler and Jeanne Heidler (CD-ROM, 2001, $470). Rev. in School Library Journal, Nov. 2001.
The subject index is a comprehensive A-to-Z listing. Each selected entry shows a corresponding ‘results’ column that lists all relevant articles, along with their identifying icons.

Auckland University Press: New Zealand sculpture: a history, by Michael Dunn (190 pp, NZ$99.95). Rev. by Robin Woodward, Art New Zealand 105, Summer 2002–03.
Moreover the book is meticulously edited, accurately indexed and is supplemented by a comprehensive bibliography. [Editing and indexing by AusSI member Simon Cauchi.]

BMJ Books: The Bellevue guide to outpatient medicine: an evidence-based guide to primary care, ed. by Nate Link and Michael Tanner (2001, 403 pp, $49.95). Rev. by Susan E. Aiello, AMWA Journal, 17(4), 2002.
The back matter of the book consists of five useful appendixes, an excellent glossary, and a three-level index. . . . The authors and editors are to be commended for the overall usefulness and practicality of this book. [This book was given an award by the American Medical Writers Association – could the ‘back matter’ including the index have contributed at all to its success?]

Brill (Leiden): Medicine and the Italian universities, 1250–1600, by Nancy G. Siraisi (vol. 12 of Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance) (2001, 390 pp, $122). Rev. by Michael T. Walton, Sixteenth Century Journal, 34 (Spring 2003).
Although this book is not a thorough history of medicine and the Italian universities, it is filled with data and insights hitherto unavailable in one volume. It also has a decent index and not just a word list. It represents a respectable body of work by one of our best and most careful scholars.

Brill (Leiden): Preachers and people in the Reformations and early modern period, ed. by Larissa Taylor (2001, 397 pp, $127). Rev. by Franco Mormando, Sixteenth Century Journal, 34 (Spring 2003).
. . . the volume itself has been supplied with an intelligent, succinct, but thorough index that increases the value of this book a hundredfold. [That’s what we like to hear.]

Chatto & Windus: Rosamond Lehmann: a life, by Selina Hastings (2002, 498 pp, £25). Rev. by Geoffrey Wheatcroft, The Spectator, 18 Jan. 2003.
I ought to add that the author is a very old friend. But there’s no reciprocal civility in pointing out how enjoyable the index is. The entry for the letter ‘O’ runs in its entirety: ‘O’Brien, Edna, 362; Observer (newspaper), 244; Oliver (boatman), 23–4; Olivier, Laurence (later Baron), 294; O’Neill, Con, 172: O’Neill, Eugene, Mourning Becomes Electra, 196; Orion (magazine), RL and Day Lewis edit, 240–2, 304; Osbourne (abortionist), 76; Oxford University: life at, 48.’ Who needs Miss Wade’s tabloids? All Human Life Is There.

Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt: Geschichte der deutschen Einheit (4 vols) (1998). Rev. by Diethelm Prowe, Journal of Modern History, 74(1), March 2002.
Technically the [Foreign Relations and All-German Affairs Committee] volumes have been crafted with the care and attention to optimal utility for scholars that we have become accustomed to in the previous Quellen zur Geschichte des Parlamentarismus und der politischen Parteien, published by the Kommission für Geschichte des Parlamentarismus und der politischen Parteien e. V. in Bonn. They are generously and meticulously equipped with finding aids, source indications, and cross references. There are short biographies of all committee members; lists of meetings attended and relevant statutes and treaties; a bibliography of a very complete range of sources cited; and indexes of all persons mentioned with dates and positions as well as a well-organized subject index with cross references. The documents themselves are richly annotated with factual background and cross references. They are a joy to use.

Edinburgh University Press: Handbook for British and Irish archaeology: sources and resources, compiled by Cherry Lavell (1997, 421 pp, £29.95). Rev. by Chris Corlett, Journal of Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 129, 144–155, 1999.
. . . the book contains an enormous amount of data within a single volume and the comprehensive index does make this information accessible. [Cherry Lavell is an SI member.]

Farrar, Straus and Giroux: Philip Larkin: a writer’s life, by Andrew Motion (1993, 506 pp, $35). Rev. by Christopher Cardiff, New Criterion Online.
His book is the high-art critical-bio version of Daddy, Dearest, but it’s Daddy, Dearest all the same, and the English-language audience for poetry has been snapping it up like some sort of hardcover tabloid, clucking their tongues with condescending pleasure over just how bad the Old Man really was. Nugget-diggers will find the excellent index invaluable, especially, under ‘Larkin, Philip Arthur’ (1922–1985), the subheadings SEX(‘attitude to women . . . complains about expense. . . sexual log books . . . pornography’) and ATTITUDES AND OPINIONS (‘dislike of children . . . fear of marriage . . . loathing of abroad . . . right-wing politics . . . racism’). It’s a map to what Tom Paulin, the British press’s foreman nugget-digger, calls ‘the sewer under the national monument Larkin became.’

Haworth Press: Men’s health on the internet, ed. by Sandra M. Wood and Janet M. Coggan (2002, 117 pp, $19.99). Rev. by Sam Burgess, Update 2(5), May 2003.
It is often difficult to find a particular website within a book of internet resources: here, the index resolves this problem by listing each website under either the name of the parent body or the disease.

Hodder & Stoughton: Hitchhiker: a biography of Douglas Adams, by M. J. Simpson (393 pp, £10.99). Rev. by Euan Ferguson, The Observer, 16 March 2003.
The index is good. [The headline to the review reads: ‘So long, and thanks for the index.’]

Jessica Kingsley Publishers (with the National Autistic Society), Caring for a child with autism, ed. by M. Ives and N. Munro (2002, 304 pp, £19.95 + £3.95 p&p (from the NAS)). Rev. by Doreen Ritchie, Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities 16, 89–93.
References are set out chapter by chapter, at the end of the book, followed by a clear and simple alphabetical index. [Index by Registered Indexer Sylvia Potter.]

Macmillan: Slipstream: a memoir, by Elizabeth Jane Howard (493 pp, £20). Rev. by Gabriele Annan, The Spectator, 16 Nov. 2002.
Memoirs tend to be short and concentrate on one period or aspect of a person’s life. This one tells all, including the tale of Howard’s colostomy (the index entry under ‘Health’ is considerable). One might not want to know quite so much, but most of it is an absorbing read . . .

National Autistic Society: Challenging behaviour and autism: making sense – making progress, by Philip Whitaker et al. (121 pp,£14.99). Rev. by Lynn Plimley, Good Autism Practice 3(2), 2002.
The innovative index is in two parts: the first dealing with an a–z of problem behaviours e.g. curtains – tearing down; hair-pulling; inedible substances – eating; washing up liquid – drinking. The second part is more extensive and along more positive lines (e.g. Circles of friends; developing self-control.) [Index by David Potter, AI.]

Nature Publishing Group: Encyclopedia of life sciences, ed. by Gina Fullerlove and Sarah Robertson (Web and print versions). Rev. by Tom Gilson, Against the Grain, Sept. 2002.
But the real show piece of volume 20 is a 435-page comprehensive subject index that provides access to relevant volume and page numbers. [Index by Registered Indexer Jan Ross.]

Oxford University Press: Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, Vol. 5: Indexes and addenda, by N. L. Ker, ed. by I. C. Cunningham and A. G. Watson (2003, 501 pp, £150). Rev. by David McKitterick, Times Literary Supplement, 11 April 2003.
Fifty years ago this year, the late Neil Ker was given official encouragement to prepare a catalogue of all the medieval manuscripts in British libraries not already covered by major published catalogues of their own. Between 1969 and 1992, four volumes of this work appeared, beginning with London and then reverting to alphabetical order from Abbotsford to York. . . . But there were no indexes, and there must be many people who have read through the volumes in quest of particular authors or topics. Indeed, the indexing posed a considerable problem, so much so that it was not seriously embarked on until 1999. This volume is the result: nine indexes in all, not just of authors but also of such matters as provenances, origins and dates, secundo folios, non-Latin languages, iconography and subjects. The opportunity has also been taken to include some addenda. It is, quite simply, indispensable.

University of Sussex: Poets and polymaths: special collections at the University of Sussex, by Neil Parkinson (2002, 1+ 24 pp). Rev. by Mike Freeman, New Library World 104(1189), 2003.
These wonderfully rich and disparate collections are well recorded in this book; well indexed and clearly laid out – a ‘must’ for any library aiming to cover modern social, political, cultural and literary history and sociology.