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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.
Allen Lane: The command
of the ocean: a naval history of Britain, 1649-1815, by N. A. M.
Rodger (2004, 907 pp, £30). Rev. by John Parfitt, The
Spectator, 23 October 2004.
If it happened and it mattered even a tiny bit you will
find it, decently listed, indexed and annotated (there are 322 pages of
appendices and notes, all useful)… [Index by SI member John Noble.]
Bloomsbury: Schott’s Original Miscellany, by Ben Schott (2003,
158 pp, $14.95). Rev. by Susan H. Woodcock, School Library Journal,
January 2004.
There is an extremely useful index, which is necessary
for this apparently random collection of stuff.
Burns and Oates, Compendium
of the Social Doctrine of the Church, by Cardinal Renato Martino
(2005, 448 pp, £25). Rev. by Philip Crispin, The Tablet, 11
June 2005.
Punctiliously indexed, ranging from Abortion to Youth…
Cape: Mao: the unknown story, by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday (2005,
814 pp, £25). Rev. by John Weston, The Spectator, 4 June 2005.
… this admirably annotated and indexed book…
Chicago Review Press: Cuba
and its music: from the first drums to the mambo, by Ned Sublette
(672 pp, $36/ £31.50). Rev. by Stephen Brown, Times Literary Supplement,
1 July 2005.
… the book is well produced, well indexed, and a
bargain besides.
Facet Publishing: The
CILIP guidelines for secondary school libraries, ed. by Lynn Barrett
and Jonathan Douglas (2004, 110 pp). Rev. by Richard Turner, New Library
World, 105(1206/1207), 2004.
The book has a good bibliography, a glossary of acronyms
and a decent index.
Facet Publishing: Know
it all, find it fast: an A-Z source guide for the enquiry desk (2nd edn), by Bob Duckett, Peter Walker
and Christinea Donnelly (2004, 368 pp, £26.95).
Rev. by Richard Turner, New Library World, 106(5/6), 2005.
The second welcome addition is an index. I realise that
the book is alphabetically arranged but cross referencing via ‘See
Also’ is, to me at least, less effective than a decent index for
one-stop access to a book’s contents on a particular topic.
FT Prentice Hall, Business
information management: improving performance using information systems,
by Dave Chaffey and Steve Wood (2004, 688 pp).
Rev. by Patricia Daze, http:www.freepint.com/bookshelf.
The Glossary and Index are excellent. It was effortless
for me to find content relevant to my own work.
Geological Society of London: The
geology of Spain, ed. by W. Gibbons and J. Morreno (2002,
649 pp, £85.50 hbk, £27.50 pbk).
Rev. by A. W. Baird, Mineralogical Magazine, October 2004.
The sizeable index of 40 pages makes it easy to locate
descriptions of the geology of specific areas, sedimentary basins, fossil
localities, geological structures, mineral deposits etc.
Harvard University Press: Blackett:
physics, war and politics in the twentieth century, by Mary Jo Nye
(2004, 255 pp, £25.95). Rev. by Graham Farmelo, Times
Higher Educational Supplement, 28 January 2005.
Scholars will especially appreciate the excellent index,
which makes it easy to locate the book’s many factual gems.
Haworth Press: Internet
and personal computing fads, by Mary Ann Bell, Mary Ann Berry and
James Van Roekel (2004, 210 pp, $39.95). Rev.
by Peter Chapman, Library & Information Update, 3(12),
December 2004.
More than 1000 terms are arranged alphabetically, supported
by an index which picks out key references and alternative ways of referring
to the same or similar concepts.
Heinemann: The know-it-all, by A. J. Jacobs (2005, 386 pp, £10.99).
Rev. by Gregory Normington, Times Literary
Supplement, 27 May 2005.
Even the index is worth a visit, with entries like ‘Encyclopaedia
Britannica (…) admirable anality of,
301-5’ or ‘nose, ignorance of what is right under, 216’.
Logaston Press: Vernacular buildings of Shropshire,
by Madge Moran (2003, xvi + 576 pp, £25). Rev. by Bob Meeson, The
Antiquaries Journal, 84, 2004.
There are editorial problems; the tables are not uniquely
numbered, and the lack of enumeration of the figures or plates is a serious
weakness, making cross-reference difficult, especially as passing reference
is made to particular buildings in numerous sections of the book; some
of these difficulties are ameliorated by a reasonable index.
Mosby: Pocket guide to clinical
examination (3rd edn), by Owen Epstein,
G. David Perkin et al (2004, 274 pp, £15.99).
Rev. by Claire Vandevelde, Hospital Medicine, 65(5),
May 2004.
The only problem with this book is that the small size
and many illustrations mean that the print is frequently interrupted, making
it rather difficult to read. Fortunately, if at first view it is not always
easy to find something, the index is very thorough.
Oxford University School of Archaeology: Oxford
before the university: the late Saxon and Norman archaeology of the Thames
crossing, the defences and the town, ed. by Anne Dodd (2003, xviii
+ 477 pp, £19.95). Rev. by Derek Renn, Antiquaries Journal, 84, 2004.
The extensive index allows the reader to search easily
from a variety of starting points.
Penguin: The stories of English, by David Crystal (2005, 400 pp, £8.99).
Rev. by Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian,
21 May 2005.
It is a career-defining work; as he is a professor of linguistics
with a particular knowledge of Shakespearean English, you would not expect
otherwise. (He has also been president of the Society of Indexers; and
I am pleased to note that the indexing here is very good.)
Ripley Entertainment: Ripley’s
Believe It or Not! (2004, 256 pp, $25.95). Rev. by Elizabeth Stumpf, School Library Journal, February 2005.
A thorough index adds to the appeal because of the number
of celebrities mentioned.
Springer: Volcanoes, by Hans-Ulrich Schminke (2004,
324 pp, £61.50). Rev. by Duncan Woodcock, Geoscientist, November
2004.
The book has a glossary of terms, over 400 references and
three indexes. I particularly liked the index of geographical names that
is arranged by region.
University of Toronto Press: Records
of early English drama, ed. by John R. Elliott Jr et al (2 vols, 1,306 pp, Can$400).
Rev. by Emma Smith, Times Literary Supplement, 19 November 2004.
A full index includes proper names, but extends to a wider
range of headings: ‘wine’, ‘women’ (subdivided
as ‘brawling’, ‘cleaning’, ‘disreputable’, ‘midwives’, ‘mutes’, ‘noble’),
and ‘songs’ are to be expected, and there is ‘ale’ (but
no ‘cakes’). It also enables otherwise potentially unwieldy
volumes of material to be quickly searched for ‘wigs’, ‘walls’, ‘may
games’, ‘legal records’, ‘homosexuality’, ‘crimes’, ‘boy
bishops’, ‘animals’ and ‘books’, and to trace
any number of narratives through these rich, fragmentary annals. Each entry
gains from the accumulation of small detail.
World Health Organization: Manual
of basic techniques for a health laboratory (2nd edn, 2003, 384 pp, Sfr. 50). Rev.
by John Elliot, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 82(3),
March 2004.
The manual is rounded off by an excellent index, which
makes it very easy to find the details on any of the procedures, reagents,
equipment or other information provided.
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