Past meeting: April 8, 2000
Non-Book Indexing and Time Management

The Web and managing time. Two concepts that can cause a lot of trouble. Our speakers handled them with insight and humor. Sherry Smith, Chapter President, began the meeting by recognizing volunteers and bring us up to speed on the chapter. Then, we dove into the sea of information.

As information threatens to overwhelm us, knowledge management is becoming critical not only to our profession but to our sanity. Robin Hilp, who works as a knowledge manager at a large firm, described knowledge management as "getting the right documents in the right format to the right people at the right time." Robin explained how search engines, including thesaurus-based, complex-query engines, can only do so much with full-text searching because the don't always get at the concepts. Further, these searches can't handle graphics or tables. The indexes built as part of knowledge management often never appear in back-of-the-book form. Instead, they are virtual indexes, built dynamically from keywords and indexes embedded in the documents, spreadsheets, and figures. These virtual indexes provide the concepts and context that users need to get the information they need when they need it.

David Brown, a "librarian's kid," technical writer, and computer scientist, talked about online indexing. He noted the rise and difficulty of search engines, comparing the majority of them to a "mystery thesaurus, where you aren't even allowed to see the search terms you are confined to." David went on to talk about formatting and technical problems in developing indexes for Web sites. "David Brown knows the stuff! He was eloquent; I could have listened to him all day," said Colleen Dunham. Probably David's most controversial statement was that we may be witnessing the death of indexing as an art as more people become used to dealing with poor search tools.

Our last speaker on non-book indexing was Colleen Dunham, who along with audience participation from other Microsoft workers, talked about indexing for Microsoft's Encarta. Martha Osgood, Chapter Secretary/Treasurer summed it up best, "The morning panel gave me insights into the process that I had only been able to guess at before."

The roundtable discussions at lunch were great. People talked about indexing, volunteering, and live over wonderful food.

Constance Maytum, who filled in for a weary John Hedkte, spoke about time management. She said that time management is a misnomer because "we only manage ourselves in relation to time." The four steps of managing yourself are determine your long-terms goals, prioritize them, determine your personal energy levels, and plan your day accordingly. Goals are specific, measurable, large, and have a deadline. Priorities aren't goals; they are simply a way to rate your goals.

In her opinion, step 3 is the hardest as it requires keeping a daily log of your activities. This lets you chart your energy levels and your energy wasters. For example, if you are sluggish after lunch, stretch or take a walk to restore your energy. Also, don't plan to do large, difficult tasks after lunch, do them when you are at your most energetic.

Another time management trap is the Imposter's Syndrome. This is the feeling that you've just sold someone a bill of goods you can't deliver and they'll discover that you don't know what you're doing. When this happens, think back on the projects you've done, you've probably done this type of project before and done it well. So, use that knowledge to settle back and get the job done. Phyllis Linn noted, "as a result of the hour or so focus on 'time management,' I ... am reinventing my life! Marketing my indexing business is one area that has been seeing a lot of progress. All I needed was a little inspiration and a few ... concepts." For those who want to know more about time management, she suggested The Time Trap by Alex MacKenzie.

The final part of the meeting was peer reviews. Most folks seemed a bit nervous at the start, but soon everyone was talking about different approaches and philosophies to creating entries. Having a chance to talk with folks who have done this for years was invaluable.

See also PNW/ASI Board meeting minutes from 4/9/00