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.

American Library Association: The Coretta Scott King Awards, 1970–2004, ed. by Henrietta M. Smith (2004, 176 pp, US$35.00). Rev. by Paul Grunseit, Australian Library Journal, 55 (1), February 2006.

An author, title and illustrator index ensures quick and easy navigation. [The Awards are given to outstanding African-American writers and illustrators in the field of children’s literature.]

Australasian Society for HIV Medicine: HIV and hepatitis C: policy, discrimination, legal and ethical issues (136 pp, available without cost). Rev. by Peter Trebilco, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 30(3), 2006.

The index is complete and the references throughout are well assembled.

Bantam: Kublai Khan: the Mongol king who remade China, by John Man (2006, 384 pp, £20). Rev. by John Ure, Times Literary Supplement, 30 June 2006.

Imaginative illustrations, good maps and a helpful index all conspire to keep the reader focused on a remarkable story.

BBC Books: Feel-good cookbook: 150 ways to nourish your body and soul, by Ainsley Harriott (2006, 240pp, £20). Rev. by Jo Teasdale, BBC Good Food Magazine, October 2006.

The layout is clear and uncluttered, with a helpful index.

Blackwell Publishing, Sleep medicine: a guide to sleep and its disorders (2nd edn). by John M. Shneerson (2005, 330 pp, £65). Rev. by Susan M. Harding, Respiratory Care, 51(8), August 2006.

The index is carefully cross-indexed, which makes it very easy to find a diagnosis or symptom and find the appropriate material in the text.

Casper Publications: Japanese submarine raiders 1942, by Steven L. Carruthers (2006, 264 pp, Aus$29.95). Rev. by Thomas A. Lewis, The Canberra Times, 10 June 2006.

A useful collection of photographs comprehensively illustrates the story, and the book is rounded out by a well-detailed index.

Continuum: Christianity: the complete guide, ed. by John Bowden (2006, 1,364 pp, £35). Rev. by David Martin, Times Literary Supplement, 4 August 2006.

The index and the cross-references take you everywhere… The index and the cross-references are very important. For example, in her articles on Symbols, Painting and Sculpture, Diane Apostolos-Cappadona concentrates on the early period, and you have to locate the Pre-Raphaelites in Scott’s Romanticism.

Council of Science Editors (in cooperation with The Rockefeller University Press): Scientific style and format: the CSE manual for authors, editors, and publishers (7th edn), by Style Manual Committee, Council of Science Editors (2006, xvi + 659 pp, £35). Rev. by Sue Lambert, Learned Publishing, January 2007.

There are valuable end-of-chapter reference lists, including URLs to websites and a comprehensive bibliography. The index serves its purpose well, adding significantly to the navigability of a manual that also usefully lists the component sections of each chapter at their beginning.

Duke University Press: Cinematic prophylaxis: globalisation and contagion in the discourse of world health, by Kirsten Ostherr (2005, 275 pp, £60). Rev. by Priscilla Robinson, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 30(4), 2006.

… and it is well indexed.

Elsevier Academic Press: Essentials of medical geology: impacts of the natural environment on public health, ed. by O. Selinus et al. (2005, 812 pp, £59.99). Rev. by Ian Lancaster, Geoscientist, September 2005.

Although overlap is inevitable between chapters, and can frustrate efforts to build up a complete picture of an element that appears in several contexts, the index is very comprehensive and most relevant points are likely to be picked up eventually.

Epworth: The miners’ bishop, by Graham A. Patrick (2004, £19.99). Rev. by Susanne Mitchell, The Reader, 103(4), Winter 2006.

… for the non-specialist there are good indexes to enable one to focus on a particular aspect of [Brooke Fosse] Westcott’s work.

Facet Press: Managing information services, by Sue Roberts and Jennifer Rowley (2004, xiii + 242 pp, £32.95). Rev. by Elizabeth Melrose, CILIP Update, 5(7–8), July/August 2006.

This is not an easy book to read at one sitting. However, the use of the index alongside the contents list allows this reference volume to feature as both an introduction to management and information services for new practitioners and a welcome revision text for their peers.

Granta: Big babies, by Michael Bywater (2006, 262 pp, £14.99). Rev. by Nicholas Harman, The Spectator, 11 November 2006.

The index is particularly enjoyable, including the admirably obscure entry: ‘aorist tense, implied by hyphenated adverbial modifier, example of, 12n’.

HarperPress: Liberty: the lives and times of six women in revolutionary France, by Lucy Moore (2006, 464 pp, £20). Rev. by Sam Leith, The Spectator, 16 September 2006.

Told broadly, in chronological order, it nevertheless jumps back and forth between its six subjects, so with its huge supporting cast and ever-shifting political currents you’re grateful for its appendix listing secondary characters, and its full and helpful index.

Hart Publishing: Human rights law, by Merris Amos (2006, 412 pp, £50 hbk, £22 pbk). Rev. by Roger Smith, New Law Journal, 4 August 2006.

Somebody — the author or her publisher — has taken the trouble to give it a good index. [Index by SI member Chantal Hamill.]

Haworth Information Press: Collaborative access to virtual museum collection information: seeing through the walls, ed. by Bernadette G. Callery (2005, 123 pp, $17.95). Rev. by Mike Freeman, New Library World, 107(9/10), 2006.

Well produced and indexed, this book will probably find a specialist niche in this growing market quite easily.

Libraries Unlimited: Using Internet primary sources to teach critical thinking skills in world literature, by Roxanne M. Kent-Drury (2005, 194 pp, US$65.00). Rev. by Helen Dunford, Australian Library Journal, 55(1), February 2006.

Overall this book provides a good balance of the theoretical and the practical and contains activities and resources which would be useful to educators engaged in teaching for critical thinking and information literacy. It is well indexed and contains a site index so that favourite sites can be easily located.

Lion: What has Christianity ever done for us? by Jonathan Hill (2005, 192 pp, £16.99). Rev. by Joan Smith, The Reader, 103(2), Summer 2006.

Very readable, beautifully illustrated, well indexed, a rich resource for Readers.

Norton: From so simple a beginning: Darwin ’s four great books, ed. by Edward O. Wilson (2005, 1706 pp, £27).

Running Press: The indelible stamp: the evolution of an idea, ed. by James D. Watson (2005, 1260 pp, £19.99). Rev. by John Tyler Bonner, Times Literary Supplement, 18 & 25 August 2006.

There is, however, one material difference between the two books. From So Simple a Beginning has excellent indexes, and the footnotes of all Darwin’s books, all of which are missing in The Indelible Stamp. [Is it only the footnotes or also the indexes that are missing in the second book?]

O Books: The thoughtful guide to Christianity, by Graham Hellier (2003, 360 pp, £11.99). Rev. by Stephen Wright, The Preacher, (123) October 2006.

It is particularly helpful to have a thorough index of names with the briefest of biographical or historical information about them, as well as some helpful tables and charts of dates, texts and statistics.

Oxford University Press: The Oxford history of the Irish book, Vol. III: The Irish book in English, 1550–1800, ed. by Raymond Gillespie and Andrew Hadfield (2006, xxi + 477 pp, £90). Rev. by Helen Price Saunders, Rare Books Newsletter (CILIP), (78) August 2006.

The index is very comprehensive and a good indication of the contents (which are otherwise, with such a wealth of scholarly information, hard to summarise).

Routledge: Selling rights (5th edn), by Lynette Owen (2006, 367 pp, £29.95). Rev. by Graham P. Cornish, LOGOS, 17(4).

This latest edition is divided into 25 chapters, and also includes a brief bibliography for further reading, a list of useful addresses and contact details and a well-structured and comprehensive index.

Scarecrow Press: Technology-infused instruction for the educational community; a guide for school library specialists, by Lesley S. J. Farmer (2004, 224 pp, US$37.00). Rev. by Heather Fisher, Australian Library Journal, 55(1), February 2006.

The book has a valuable glossary and extensive bibliography followed by a detailed index.

Tottell Publishing: A user’s guide to copyright (6th edn), by Michael Flint, Nick Fitzpatrick and Clive Thorne (2006, 639 pp, £78). Rev. by Charles Oppenheim, Learned Publishing, January 2007.

The book is well laid out and clearly typeset. A good index, and the usual tables of statutes, statutory instruments and cases support the text.

University of Chicago Press: Crimes of art and terror, by Frank Lentricchia and Jody McAuliffe (2003, 200 pp, $22.50). Rev. by Bruce P. Barten, amazon.com, 20 December 2004.

The index (pp. 179–187) includes the designation ‘mentioned’ under Wordsworth for three pages where his name merely appears. Dostoevsky also has two pages listed for ‘mentioned.’ T. S. Eliot takes 5 lines in the index, with only one page designated ‘mentioned.’ This kind of index is valuable for readers who often wish to locate what they previously read and check the relevance of offhanded comments.

John Wiley: Searching for the Beaumont children: Australia’s most famous unsolved mystery, by Alan J. Whiticker (2006, 304 pp, Aus$29.95). Rev. by Martin Leonard, The Canberra Times, 4 March 2006.

… this book is quite well researched and meticulously documented with both index and endnotes.