Indexes praised, October 2007

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.

Ashgate: The mercery of London: trade, goods, and people, 1130-1578, by Anne F. Sutton (2005, xvii + 670 pp, $144.95). Rev. by John Oldland, Sixteenth Century Journal, 38(425-416), 2007.

She must have realized that her book would become a key reference work, as scholars will find it particularly easy to use by leafing through her seventy-six page index.
Bloomsbury: Agent Zigzag: the true wartime story of Eddie Chapman - lover, betrayer, hero, spy, by Ben Macintyre (2007, 384 pp, £7.99). Portrait: Zigzag: the incredible wartime exploits of double agent Eddie Chapman, by Nicholas Booth (2007, 360 pp, £12.99). Rev. by Will Cohu, Daily Telegraph, 27 January 2007.

Macintyre is a crisp, quick and well-organized writer and his book is much better edited and indexed . . .
British Records Association: Documenting the history of houses, by N. W Alcock (2003, 110 pp, £9.50). Rev. by Adam Longcroft, Vernacular Architecture, 35(119-136), 2004.

In an age when too many publishers seem content to omit an index, it comes as a relief and a surprise to find a very detailed eight-page example in such a small book.
Cambridge University Press: The correspondence of Charles Darwin, ed. by Frederick Burkhardt and Duncan Porter, vols 14 and 15 (2004 and 2006, 705 and 655 pp, £75 each). Rev. by Jim Endersby, Times Literary Supplement, 16 March 2007.

Given how invaluable the Correspondence’s footnotes, bibliog raphy, index and appendices are, it is a shame that the University of Pennsylvania Press did not reset Morse Peckham’s [edition of the variorum text of Origin of species] and provide an updated editorial apparatus.
Facet Publishing: Developing the new learning environment: the changing role of the academic librarian, ed. by Philippa Levy and Sue Roberts (2005, 237 pp, £39.95). Rev. by Richard Turner, New Library World, 108(3/4), 2007.

Each chapter of the book has a good list of references and the whole work is made more accessible by an adequate index.
Facet Publishing: Digital preservation, ed. by Marilyn Deegan and Simon Tanner (2006, 288 pp, £39.95). Rev. by Cliff Morgan, Learned Publishing, 20(2), April 2007.

There is also a useful five-page Glossary - really just an acronym list, but very welcome in an area that is replete with acronyms - and a detailed 16-page Index that is twice as long as one normally finds in a book of this size - and quite properly so too.
Facet Publishing: Essential thesaurus construction, by Vanda Broughton (2006, v + 296 pp, £29.95). Rev. by Keith V Trickey, New Library World, 106(3/4), 2007.

Vanda also provides a helpfully rigorous glossary (pp. 208-225) and a useful index (pp. 281-96).
Facet Publishing: Training library staff and volunteers to provide extraordinary customer service, by Julie Todaro and Mark L. Smith (2006, 160 pp, £39.95). Rev. by Richard Turner, New Library World, 108(5/6), 2007.

The index is short but effective, and the whole work is especially well structured.
Robert Hale: The collegiate churches of England and Wales, by Paul Jeffery (2004, 480 pp, £60). Rev. by Lawrence Butler, The Antiquaries’ Journal, 86, 2006.

There is also a useful glossary, a select bibliography and a reliable index. There is no dedicated bibliography to each individual church, which would be a massive undertaking. Since there is no list of illustrations, it is necessary to comb through the index to locate those photographs (for example, Howden chapter house) used in the introductory chapters.
Haworth Information Press: Real-life marketing and promotion strategies in college libraries: connecting with campus and community, ed. by Barbara W Petruzzelli (2005, 193 pp, US$22.95) (also published as College and Undergraduate Libraries 12, 1/2). Rev. by Helen Dunford, Australian Library Journal, 56 (1), February 2007.

With its hands-on approach, this book is a good resource for tertiary institution librarians and library directors. It is compre hensively indexed, and appropriate illustrations and tables are added to clarify the text.
Jessica Kingsley: Good practice in brain injury case management, ed. by Jackie Parker (2006, 224 pp, £19.99). Rev. by Christine Eberhardie, British Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, December 2006, 2 (10).

This book is well presented and well referenced. It has useful contact details for other agencies and a good index.
Kluwer Academic Publishers: Descartes’ mathematical thought, by Chikara Sasaki (2003, 496 pp, $158). Rev. by Matthew L. Jones, Renaissance Quarterly 58(3), Fall 2005.

A rich set of indices [sic] aid navigation through the author’s arguments, evidence, and erudition.
Library of America: Complete poems and selected letters, by Hart Crane, ed. by Langdon Hammer (2006, 849 pp, $40). Rev. by George David Clark, Virginia Quarterly Review 83(2), Spring 2007.

Perhaps the most compelling additions to this collection are Langdon Hammer’s own contributions: a helpful chronology, biographical data and relevant information on Crane’s companions (as well as referenced writers and critics), and a singularly valuable index to the letters themselves.
Mulini Press: Ozbib: A linguistic bibliography of Aboriginal Australia and the Torres Strait Islands: supplement 1999-2006, compiled by Geraldine Triffitt (2006, 104 pp, Aus $30). Rev. by Roxanne Missingham, Australian Library Journal, 56(1), February 2007.

This new supplementary volume contains over 1100 items, with over 300 language names and a detailed subject index. It is a triumph of detective work, celebrating the value that indexers and librarians can bring to a research field, ferreting out and accurately describing Australian research which would otherwise take endless hours for any individual researcher to seek, and possibly only to find a small proportion of the listed resources.
Norton: Nerve endings: the discovery of the synapse, by Richard Rapport (240 pp, £15.99). Rev. by M. D. O’Brien, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 99, June 2006.

There is a glossary of scientific and medical terms, a bibliography and an excellent index.
Open Court: Bullshit and philosophy, ed. by Gary L. Hardcastle and George A. Reisch (2006, 288 pp, £10.99). Rev. by J. C., Times Literary Supplement, 15 December 2006.

The index - not to be faulted even by letter-writers to the TLS contains four columns of entries under bullshit: ‘and poetry . . . and politeness . . . and genuine enquiry’.
Oxbow Books with English Heritage: Alban’s buried towns: an assessment of St Albans’ archaeology up to AD 1600, by Rosalind Niblett and Isobel Thompson (2005, xv + 413 pp, £40). Rev. by Derek Renn, The Antiquaries’ Journal, 86, 2006.

The tables provide some links, but the careful reader needs both the extensive index and the bibliography.
Oxford University Press: The Oxford guide to the book of common prayer: a worldwide survey, ed. by Charles Hefling and Cynthia Shattuck (2006, 614 pp, £26.99). Rev. by John Whale, Times Literary Supplement, 2 February 2007.

In a big book, room has been found for thirty black-and-white illustrations, a chronology, a glossary, a bibliography, a good index, and a world map in the endpapers.
Oxford University Press: Oxford handbook of respiratory medicine, by Stephen Chapman et al. (2005, 757 pp, £24.95). Rev. by Claire Vandervelde, British Journal of Hospital Medicine, May 2006, 67 (5).

Well indexed, clear and concise, this is one of the most useful books I have come across and any aspiring respiratory physician will enjoy it. Oxford University Press: Self: ancient and modern insights about individuality, life, and death, by Richard Sorabji (2006, 320 pp, £25). Rev. by Anthony A. Long, Times Literary Supplement, 22 June 2007.

You can use Self as a reference book (it is excellently equipped with indexes and other aids), or as an anthology of salient texts, or as a research monograph.
Pied Piper Publishing: Winning books: an evaluation and history of major awards for children’s books in the English-speaking world (new edn), by Ruth Allen (2005, 464pp, £20). Rev. by Kay Neville, Australian Library Journal, 56(1), February 2007.

The awards index with cross-references of sponsors (commercial and independent), organisations and award names is extremely helpful. The complete title and author index is also very useful and can be used to determine if a particular title or author has received any major awards.
Routledge: Selling rights, by Lynette Owen (5th edn, 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.
Saunders: Pocket essentials of obstetrics and gynaecology, by Barry O’Reilly et al (2005, 480 pp, £19.99). Rev. by Sandhya Rao, British Journal of Hospital Medicine, May 2006, 67(5).

This book is easy to carry around and the index is useful and allows you to easily find the information you need in the book. [Always an advantage in an index.]
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.
Timber Press: Alpine plants of Europe: a gardener’s guide, by Jim Jermyn (2005, 320 pp, £25). Rev. in Hortus, 79, Autumn 2006.

And should you decide - wrongly in my view - to treat this book solely as a work of reference, there is a superb and all-inclusive Index to direct you to a favourite plant.
University of Chicago Press: Rembrandt’s Jews, by Steven Nadler (2003, 250 pp, $15). Rev. by James R. Tanis, Renaissance Quarterly 58(3), Fall 2005.

The descriptive bibliography and extensive index also add to the usefulness of this most engaging volume.
Vermilion (Ebury Press): Coping with multiple sclerosis, by Cynthia Benz and Richard Reynolds (2005, 310 pp, £8.99). Rev. by Fiona Matheson, British Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, October/ November 2005, I(4).

It is well indexed and information is easily accessed through clear headings.
Windgather Press: Chatsworth: a landscape history, by John Barnatt and Tom Williamson (2005, xii + 244 pp, £19.99). Rev. by Pauline Beswick, The Antiquaries’ Journal, 86, 2007.

There is a good index, and comprehensive references for each chapter are placed at the end of the book.
Yale University Press: Medieval schools: from Roman Britain to Renaissance England, by Nicholas Orme (2006, 432 pp, £25). Rev. by Richard Cross, Church Times, 15 December 2006.

An excellent index makes for easy discovery of details about particular schools and towns.
Yale University Press: Messiaen, by Peter Hill and Nigel Simeone (2005, 450 pp, £29.95). Rev. by Helen Burrows, Church Times, 29 December 2006.

It is a fascinating read, and the excellent index makes it an indispensable reference book.