Access Insights

The American Society for Indexing may be a little known group to most reading a blog dedicated to taxonomy work. Yet we share a focus on making content accessible, albeit through different strategies. The American Society of Indexers (ASI) was established in 1968 to promote the work of back-of-book indexers and facilitate their interaction. In 2008 it was renamed to the American Society for Indexing with the stated purpose “to promote excellence in indexing, and to serve indexers and others concerned with indexing.” The name change reflected a broadening of scope, including taxonomy work and coinciding with the establishment of the Taxonomy SIG (special interest group). ASI’s training course even includes a taxonomy construction module. The expansion is a response to the mushrooming of electronic content and increasing need for simplifying access to online materials. Yet, for the society focused on “indexing,” taxonomic indexing is called tagging and has seemed an afterthought at best. Indeed, few database indexers attend conferences, and there is little mention of their activity.