Letters

How to tell an index from a concordance

Recently, as I worked to catch up on my SLJ reading, I came upon the August 2004 Carrie on Copyright column, where she responded to a query about copyright for indexes. In particular, Kathryn Carrier asked her, “If a teacher wishes to create an index for a book that doesn't have one, is it necessary to obtain permission from the author? And what about publishing the index or including it on a Web site?”

I was shocked by part of Carrie's response: She said, “The teacher is identifying words and noting the location of those words in the text.”

I am a professional freelance book indexer. If I were to simply identify words and list them alongside their location in the text, I would be creating a concordance, not an index. The creation of an index for a work entails much more than the “selection of words from the original work.”

I am shocked that a professional librarian would not appreciate the difference between a concordance, a simple listing of keywords, and an index, a listing of subjects. A good index, as many reference librarians and other readers know, provides not only an alphabetical topic list that brings together into one place all substantive discussions of a topic, but also synonyms, phrase permutations, and cross-referencing.

I agree wholeheartedly that it is not necessary to request permission to create an index because an index is itself a work for hire. In fact, for every index I write I own the copyright until the publisher pays me for it. The author of the work whose text I have written the index to supplement may own the copyright for the index I write only if they buy those rights from me.

As Carrie also said, “[F]acts that have been organized in unoriginal ways—in this case, in alphabetical order—­are not protected by copyright law.” Indexes, last but not least, are not mere listings of facts, however.

To Kathryn Carrier, who asked the original question about copyright for indexes, I would say this, You can certainly publish the index you write for a book that doesn't have one. (In fact, there are some excellent stand-alone indexes out there for famous unindexed books.) I would also encourage you to contact the publisher of the book that doesn't have the index, and give them the opportunity to buy your index and publish it with the next printing of the book!
--L. Pilar Wyman, Wyman Indexing Annapolis, MD

Thank you for your recent article about the disastrous cuts to our school libraries, “Des Moines Parents Sub for Librarians,” in the May 2005 issue. Our middle school library position was cut last year, and volunteers stepped up and tried to provide a semblance of services for the past nine months.

We found that, while excellent and committed people stepped up and served all year long, we need a professional to provide the services our children need. Now, we are being asked to staff the library again, even though we have compelling information that demonstrates that our efforts kept the lights on and the doors open, but did not provide much needed services.

Further, our district has no volunteer policy to clarify such essential issues as background checks, the issue of volunteers and students being alone in an unsupervised setting, volunteers being asked to supervise students who are receiving grades for service hours, and volunteers who have access to confidential student information.

Our library volunteer leader collected all sorts of information about library use this year district-wide and has shared this with the school board, city-wide PTA, and the print media.

Our PTA just decided to create a library consultant fund, so that the first $12,000 we raise is spent on professional services. This has proved to be a controversial issue, but it may help us keep librarians in the news.

Our children have already lost a whole year of services, and now they will not even meet a professional librarian until high school, where the ratio of professional librarian to student is 1:1,200 or more.

The April 2005 (p. 20) news article, “Philly Express Libraries,” misstated the number of elementary school libraries in the Philadelphia School district without professional staff.

The correct number is 37 out of 177 or two percent of elementary schools without professional library staff.