If you're looking for a formal education in indexing, there are a few live courses in the Pacific Northwest for you to look into. Those we know about are listed below by state in alphabetical order.

If you know of other indexing courses in the Pacific Northwest, please contact the PNW/ASI Webmaster. Remember, the national ASI web site lists other courses (including video and correspondence).

Emporia State University (Portland, OR)

The School of Library Information Management program on its Portland campus occasionally offers this class (LI 842XO: Indexing and Abstracting), taught by indexers with degrees in Library and Information Science, including Ernest Perez and Kari Kells. For more information contact Perri Parise at parisepe@esumail.emporia.edu or 800-236-7302.

Sherry L. Smith Indexing Services (Bend and Eugene, OR)

Sherry L Smith, a professional indexer, offers indexing classes and workshops, as well as self-paced individual tutorials. In the classes, you will learn about the basics of back-of-the-book indexing with an emphasis on text analysis. The workshops are designed for advanced and intermediate indexers who want to improve their skills and learn from other indexers. The one-to-one tutorials are designed for the person who wants to learn about back-of-the-book indexing and prefers individual instruction.

WASHINGTON

Bellevue Community College (BCC) (Bellevue, WA)

BCC's Continuing Education Department offers two indexing courses: a one-day seminar ("Creating Superior Indexes") and a five-week class ("Becoming a Professional Indexer"). Visit their web site for more information.

Index West (Olympia, WA)

Index West, the freelance indexing business of Kari Kells, offers classes in the Olympia- or Seattle-area, as well as self-paced individual tutorials. For more information, stop by the Index West web site at http://www.indexw.com/.

Lake Washington Technical College (Kirkland, WA)

The Library Technology certificate program, offers a class that includes learning a bit about indexing is offered ("Indexing and Bibliographies"), which is taught by a faculty member. For more information contact LWTC at or (425) 739-8100.

University of Washington, Graduate School of Library Science (ISchool) (Seattle, WA)

Two indexing-related classes are offered here: "Indexing and Abstracting" (LIS 536) and "Construction of Index Languages" (LIS 537). Instructors are ISchool faculty. For more information contact them at (206) 543-1794.

University of Washington, Department of Technical Communication (through UW Extension) (Seattle, WA)

In the past, this class (TC N100) was taught by Kari Kells, a professional indexer. Because of low enrollment, this class hasn't been offered since 2000. If you're interested in taking a technical indexing class, please contact someone at one of the above UW departments and let them know that you'd like them to bring back TC N100.

Wasser Inc. (Seattle, WA)

Wasser sometimes offers a one-day workshop on indexing. Past classes have been taught by editors or writers. Contact them at (206) 441-0707 if you'd like to receive information on their workshop offerings.

There are distance learning courses available as well - see the ASI page for those.

Please contact us if you have questions about PNW/ASI, or if you have any suggestions for additions to the web site. To receive meeting announcements and other information relevant to Pacific Northwest indexers, subscribe to INDEXING-PNW, the e-mail discussion list for indexers in the Pacific Northwest.