[Genealib] Reprinted books without indexes

[Laura W. Carter]

I too think indexes can be copyrighted and I have purchased reprints with indexes, even when I had the original materials in the collection just to get an index.  As a reference librarian and ex-cataloger (like Beth) I would like to draw and quarter anyone who publishes non-fiction without an index.  When I am ordering for our general circulating collection, I have the areas of European history through Oceania, etc. (940s - 999s) and I rarely request a book that has no index.  Of course I also order all the genealogical materials and that is also one of my criteria used when making those choices. 

Often people are only looking for what they need for a report, etc. and without a good index and a good table of contents, they get frustrated.  Most people are lacking in good research methodology and trying to get them to use materials that do not make it easy frustrates them.  This situation is only going to get worse since we are raising generations of people who want to be able to enter their specific topic in a "white box" and have everything come up these days.   Even explaining indexes to many folks can be a challenge.

Laura

Laura W. Carter 
Heritage Room Librarian 
Athens-Clarke County Library 
2025 Baxter Street 
Athens, GA 30606

Phone:706 613-3650  Ext. 352 
FAX: 706 613-3660

-- 
Open WebMail Project (http://openwebmail.org)

---------- Original Message -----------
From: "Susan Scouras" <Susan.Scouras at wvculture.org> 
To: "Librarians Serving Genealogists" <genealib at mailman.acomp.usf.edu> 
Sent: Mon, 27 Nov 2006 15:05:00 -0500 
Subject: RE: [Genealib] Reprinted books without indexes

> I think indexes can be copyrighted.  Publishers who would do the work of 
> adding an index to a book in the public domain would have copyright 
> protection on the index, at least.   
> 
> We have some older titles, mostly county histories, that members of our 
> staff have indexed as a matter of self-protection at the Reference Desk, 
> I think.  The indexes are cataloged with the same number as the full 
> book, with "INDEX" added to the last line of the call number, then a 
> label stating "Index in separate volume" is added to the full book. 
> 
> We also have some local/county histories and county census 
> transcriptions that were not indexed originally, but were indexed later 
> by local societies who did well selling the indexes for a few years. We 
> also cataloged these as described above. 
> 
> I also strongly agree that all non-fiction books should have indexes, 
> and the indexes should include geographic names and major event 
> references as well as individual names included.  We have a lot of 
> books, both new and old, that only have name references in the indexes, 
> when a lot of times the patron is searching for a specific town or 
> county, not just a family. 
> 
> Susan Scouras 
> Librarian 
> WV Archives and History Library 
> The Cultural Center 
> 1900 Kanawha Blvd. East 
> Charleston, WV  25305-0300 
> (304) 558-0230, Ext. 742 
> 
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: genealib-bounces at mailman.acomp.usf.edu 
> [mailto:genealib-bounces at mailman.acomp.usf.edu] On Behalf Of 
> Seslee2 at cs.com 
> Sent: Monday, November 27, 2006 1:58 PM 
> To: genealib at mailman.acomp.usf.edu 
> Subject: [Genealib] Reprinted books without indexes 
> Importance: Low 
> 
> Why do publishers reprint some books without adding indexes?  Also, why 
> do genealogical publishers print new works without indexes?  I would be 
> happy to pay more to make the information in these books easily 
> accessible. 
> 
> Sharen Lee 
> Live Oak Public Libraries 
> Savannah, GA 
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