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THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA INDEX:
HOW IT IS COMPILED
C. H. W. KENT*
Although the subject of this talk is the compilation of the index of the
Encyclopedia Britannica, the phrase requires explanation. Since the 1930s the
Encyclopaedia Britannica has been subject to a process of continuous revision in
which several million words throughout the 23 text volumes are revised each year
in order to keep the subject matter up to date and to reflect the views of modern
scholarship. Thus there are now no separate editions of the Encyclopaedia Britan
nica, but, instead, annual or biennial printings. As a result, the index, although
it is revised to reflect the changes in each printing, is not compiled anew for each
printing.
In the Encyclopaedia Britannica the index is, perhaps more than in any other
kind of book, vital to the full and satisfactory use of the text, for a general
encyclopaedia in more than 20 volumes cannot be used to full advantage unless
the index is consulted first. For example, if the reader turns to the article GREAT
BRITAIN in volume 10 of the Encyclopaedia Britannica he will find a long article
on that country, but the article by no means represents all the information in
the encyclopaedia about Great Britain. To find all this material the reader must
go first to the text index, where under the entry Great Britain he will find not
only the reference to the main article but also some 4i columns of references to
information in many related articles throughout the 23 text volumes of the work.
The text index of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is the result of an accumula
tion of more than 500,000 cards, measuring 3 in. x 5 in. and giving the precise
quarter of a page in which a thing or a person or an idea is mentioned in the
42 thousand articles. Originally, these thousands of cards were then assembled
and alphabetized to make the text index. A staff of women graduates, with broad
educational interests, working under the supervision of the chief indexer, have the
task of keeping the index up to date insofar as it is affected by the annual revision
of subject matter in the body of the work.
To-day the indexers work not from cards but from the printed text of the last
printing of the index. This is stripped up and each column is pasted down in the
centre of a blank sheet of heavy bond typing paper, which gives space on each
side of the column to write in corrections. The strips are put in spring binders
which are inserted in a revolving table, known as " Lazy Susan ", so that all the
indexers have equal access to them.
1. Reading and Analysing for Indexing. The indexer begins by reading
completely through a type page proof of the new copy which is to be indexed,
underscoring lightly with red pencil those words that seem indexable. After
reading and digesting the content and import of the article, she then begins to
search the index for the best entries under which to add her references, looking
diligently for entries that may be under synonyms, pseudonyms, alternative names,
* Text of talk given to the Society in January, 1962.
17
names that have more than one acceptable spelling, etc. As she makes the entries
on the index cards she can then make the underscoring heavier. If this procedure
is followed, it is easier to avoid three of the most common and (to the reader)
most irritating indexing mistakes: splitting up references that should be together
under one heading; duplicating references for the same thing under alternative
names ; and placing wrong references under names that are alike but have different
meanings.
In almost all cases, a term is indexed only once in an article, reference being
made to the first place where there is adequate information for indexing. Usually
this is enough. If an article runs for four pages and the first reference to a topic
appears on the first page, with further information on the fourth, the reference
can be made with the abbreviation "fol." after the page number (7-156c fol.).
However, in long articles such as UNITED STATES, which may run to more than
a hundred pages, it is usual to index the same topic more than once, with specific
page references, if the information justifies it.
2. Underscoring. All terms which are indexed are indicated on the text
page either by underscoring the words in the text or by writing the indexed term
in the margin at the exact location where it is indexed. All underscoring is done
on the " file " copy of the page proof. The file copy of the final proof is kept in
the indexing department as a permanent record of all the indexing to that page
and is called, for convenience, the " master page ".
Red is always used for underscoring and the underscoring must be exact.
If the word in the text is " Holland " but the reference is indexed under " Nether
lands ", a red ring is drawn round " Holland ", a line drawn to the margin and
" Netherlands " written in. If a subject has a long entry in the index with bold
face subheads, the underscoring also indicates the boldface subhead. This saves
the indexer time in locating a reference if it is ever necessary to change it. In
underscoring compound terms such as " family budget", an upright is used to
show which word the entry is under in the index.
Example: family | budget
indicates that this reference is indexed under the inverted heading " Budget,
family ". If the reference is indexed under both " Budget, Family " and " Family
Budget", two uprights are used:
Example: | family | budget
If the index entry under " Family budget" is a cross-reference " Family budget:
see Budget, family ", then the underscoring would be:
c/r
| family | budget
This shows that there are two entries, one of which is a cross-reference. It
also indicates that the page references are all under " Budget, family " since an
arrow shows the c/r pointing to " Budget".
All indexing on new copy is indicated on the file copy in the above manner.
At the same time, the final page proof of the previous printing (known as the
old master page) is always checked to determine whether the indexing on the
18
old page is to be retained in the same position, retained but moved to a different
position, or dropped entirely. If a term that was indexed and underscored on
the old master page is indexed and underscored on the new copy in the same
position, a red tick is put through the underscored word on the old master page. If
a term indexed and underscored on the old master page is indexed and underscored in
a different position on the new copy, a red " X " is put through the underscored
word on the old master. By this method it is easy to ascertain which of the old
terms have not been used again. Those which have neither a tick nor an "X"
are then deleted from the index. As they are deleted, a red " N " is drawn through
the underscored word on the old master. After indexing is completed, the master
page can then be checked to see whether any of the old terms were overlooked,
for all underscored words on it should be marked with a tick, an " X " or an " N ".
/ = same position
X = changed position
N = killed or deleted from the index
3. "Must" Indexing, (a) Article Titles: All article titles appear as bold
face entries in the index, as they do in the text. Some boldface entries in the text,
however, are not articles but cross-references, as:
Elasticity of Demand: see Demand ; Price ; Supply and Demand.
These do not appear as boldface entries in the index. They may or may not
appear in the index depending on whether they lend themselves to good indexing
practices. Other boldface entries in the text are really extended cross-references,
which define the title and then refer to other articles which treat the subject at
length, as: Jesuits the name commonly given to the members of the Society of
Jesus. (See Jesus, Society of.)
In such cases it is usual to put a cross-reference in the index (Jesuits: see
Jesus, Society of) rather than to make " Jesuits " a boldface index entry.
(b) Botanical and Zoological Terms: Botanical and zoological references to
plants and animals giving the specific Latin scientific term with the specific English
name are automatically indexed the first time they appear in an article.
(c) Open Dates: Text references to living persons where birth dates are
given are automatically indexed. This is done to facilitate the task of finding such
dates when the person dies and the death date must be added.
4. Forms for Entries. An entry in the index consists of a subject heading,
all general references, subheads and sub-subheads with their references, and cross-
references contained in the listing under that heading. Each of the following five
examples is a complete entry. No. 3 is an example of a cross-reference entry.
1. AFGHANISTAN, Asia
General l-283a ; 2-514b
archae. 3-19a
Bank for Reconstruction and
Development 3-37a
coal 5-882b
coinage 16-63 lb
flag PI. VIII 9-FLAG
.19
Kabul 13-235a
Pathan 17-378b
Turks 21.623b
univ. 22-878b
History l-284c
Abdur Rahman 1-3 lb
Baluchistan 3-10c
India 12-168c following
Pakistan 16-54 Id
Persia 17-573d
World War I 12-173d; 23-447b
see also Afghan War
2. Bank of the United States 3-46c ;
22-800b; 22-79d
Jackson, Andrew 7-186a
3. Northern cornel (shrub): see
Dwarf honeysuckle
4. TWAIN, MARK (Clemens, Samuel
Langhorne) 22-634Ab;
l-789d ; 16-578d ; 5-477d
boyhood home il. 15-612
5. CAMASSIA (Camass, Quamasia)
(bot.) 4-637a
In form there are two kinds of entry headings in the index, boldface all caps
and lightface upper and lower case. Boldface headings indicate that there is an
article in the text under that heading. Titles of articles must appear in the index
just as they do in the text, but, as we have seen, text cross-references are never
treated as articles and extended text cross-references are not always treated as
articles in the index. Lightface headings indicate subject headings on which there
are no articles in the text. They may have direct page references or they may be
cross-reference entries (all index cross-reference entries are in lightface).
Hanaman, Franz 14-103c
Church music
Ambrosian chant l-743c
Bach 2-869c fol.
beginning 16-5d
Byzantine 4-402c fol.
chorale 5-620c
drama 7-587b
Mass 15-22b
motet 15-849b
Negro, Am. 16-200d.
plainsong 17-997b
Hangbird ; see Baltimore oriole
Subheads and Sub-subheads: When it is desirable to show what phase of
20
a subject is discussed in a text reference, an identifying subhead precedes the ref
erence. All subheads are indented one em space, this being indicated for the
printer by drawing a square in front of the subhead.
When it is desirable to particularize the information further, subheads and
sub-subheads are used, the subheads being indented one em and the sub-subheads
two em spaces (indicated for the printer by drawing two squares). In very long
entries such as those for some articles on large countries, the subheads are set
in boldface caps and lower case.
In long entries for countries, states, wars, etc., where big breakdowns may be
indicated by boldface subheads, it is usually necessary to have one category
labelled " General ". This is for those references which do not fit into any particu
lar category. Sub-subheads are normally used, in such cases, to identify the type
of information contained in the references. In shorter entries, general references
are those which are not preceded by a subhead or a sub-subhead.
WRECK 23-801c; 2-795a
References: All direct text references are cited by volume and page number
and page location. The volume number and the hyphen which follows it are
in boldface, the page number and letter location are in lightface, and the whole
reference is closed up without space.
Example: 5-713a
When the reference is to textual information, the exact quarter of a page is
indicated by lower case letters a, b, c and d, indicating, respectively, the upper
and lower left quarters, and the upper and lower right quarters of the page.
References to illustrations, charts and maps are usually given without the
small letter identifying the exact quarter of the page, although if there is more
than one picture, chart or map on a page the locating letter is used to avoid
confusion.
INDIAN, NORTH AMERICAN (people)
12-200Hc
dwellings 7-786b ; il. 11-809 ; 2-92b.
PERGAMUM (Pergamus, Pergamon)
(mod. Bergama), Turk. 17-507c;
maps 17-544 (A2); 19-501 (H4);
PI. Ill 10-GREECE
VIENNA, Aus. (Ger. 23-140d; 2-744c
fol.; 2.275a fol.; Pis. I, III, IV
2-AUSTRIA ; map 119-500 (C2)
5. Alphabetization. The rules for alphabetizing entries in the index and in
the text are the same. All entries, whether consisting of a single word or of two
or more words, are treated for the purpose of alphabetization as if they were one
word, and are alphabetized letter by letter down to the first punctuation mark.
The position of names which are the same is then determined by the order (1)
persons ; (2) places ; (3) things. The order is next determined by the alphabetiza
tion of the word following the punctuation mark, except that titles are not con
sidered. Individuals of the same name but with different titles are arranged in the
21
order of importance of their titles; e.g., saints, popes, emperors, kings (arranged
among themselves by name of realm and then by numeral), dukes, marquesses,
earls, etc. A classifying word or phrase following the entry in parentheses is not
treated as part of the heading for alphabetical purposes except in a series of
identical entries.
Boxing
Boycott
Boyer, Sir Alfred
Boyer, Charles
Boyer, John
Boy Scouts
Brahms, Johannes
Bush, Vannevar
Bush, Miss.
Bush (bot.)
6. Alternative Names and Cross-references. When persons, places, things
or events are well-known by more than one name, they are in most cases indexed
under all the various terms. When the text gives alternative names or alternative
spellings for a term, either in the heading or in the body of the material, the
index always includes entries for all these alternatives. Even if the text does not
give all the possible alternatives, index entries are made for them unless they
are extremely obscure and numerous.
If there is only one page reference for a term with one or more alternatives,
all of the index entries give the volume and page. An entry in which volume and
page are given is called a direct reference entry. In such entries, the alternatives
are carried in parentheses in each entry. This is done so that the reader can
identify the information on the text page no matter which term is used. It is
also done so that the indexer will know that there are alternative entries:
IICH GATE (Lych gate) 14-35a
Lych gate (Lich gate) 14-35a
If there are two or more page references for a term which has alternatives, all the
page references are put in one entry with all the alternatives in parentheses in the
heading. Then a cross-reference entry is made for each of the alternatives, refer
ring to the main entry. A main entry is one which has all the page references
for a term and its alternatives listed under it. A cross-reference entry is one which
has no page references under it but which refers to another entry which does
carry the references.
LEPROSY (Hansen's disease)
13-957b ; 2-894a fol.; 11-
270a; 21-61b
blindness 3-729c
Main entry Mycrobacterium Leprae Plate
IV fig. 16 2-BACTERI-
OLOGY
Cross-reference Hansen's disease: see Leprosy
entry
22
When there is more than one reference for a term with several alternatives,
it is necessary to decide which one of them will be the main entry. If one term is
an article heading, that term is automatically made the main entry because article
headings must appear in the index with the volume and page on which the article
begins.
IE none of the alternatives is an article title and all the entries are lightface,
then the best-known term usually becomes the main entry. In the following
example, " Abbai " and " Bahr el-Azrak " are less well-known to English-speaking
people than " Blue Nile."
Blue Nile (Abbai, Bahr-el-Azrak), riv.,
Sud. 16-448c fol.; l-74n ; 21-506a
crops 12-689b
Fazughli 9-126d
Nubia 16-584d
Sudan campaigns 8-106b
Abbai, riv., Aby.: see Blue Nile
Bahr el-Azrak (Abbai), riv., Af.: see Blue
Nile
There are many thousand cross-references in the index, and a card for each
one is kept in a special file in the indexing department. Each time an indexer
makes a cross-reference in the index, she also makes out a card for the file.
7. Listing Sheets and Record of Pages Indexed. When pages are sent to
the printer, they are grouped in batches and placed in an envelope, and each
envelope is given a number to facilitate keeping track of the pages throughout
the printing process. As envelopes are sent out, the copy recorder makes a list,
in triplicate, of all the pages in each envelope, and one copy of this list is kept in
the indexing department. After an envelope has been completely indexed, and
the cross-reference file and the living persons file have been brought up to date,
the pages in the envelope are checked off on these listing sheets.
Each page is listed, together with article title. To the right of the listing are
blank spaces for the indexer's initials and the date in three different sets, " type ",
" plate " and " revised plate.' When an envelope has been indexed in type proof,
the indexer places her initials and the date at the top of the listing in the section
labelled " type ", and then draws a line downward past every page indexed. The
same procedure is followed for envelopes checked in plate and revised plate. This
gives a complete record of what has been indexed, and towards the end of a
printing the listing sheets are checked for those things that for some reason may
not have come to the indexing department. Any missing pages must, of course,
be found and indexed.
8. The Britannica Book of the Year. The index to the London edition of
the Britannica Book of the Year is in a sense a microcosm of the index of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica itself, except that, for articles, it is cumulative over a
23
period of 10 years. Thus each entry for an article in the index gives the editions
of the Year Book in which that article has appeared for the 10 years preceding the
date of the current edition. Because the Britannica Book of the Year is edited and
passed to press over a comparatively short period, the selection of index material
is made in the first instance from galley proofs, the indexable words being under
lined in the usual manner. Page numbers are inserted on the index cards compiled
from the galley proof indexing when the page proofs are available.
9. The Children's Britannica. The object of the Children's Britannica is to
provide a reference work which will be useful and fully intelligible to children of
7-13. The index, in Volume 12 of the work, reflects this policy. Each entry
in the index referring to an article in the body of the set opens with a brief defini
tion of the title of the article, followed by an indication (rather than an explicit
statement) of the contents of the article and ends with subsidiary references to
the subject made elsewhere than in the article itself. In addition, an attempt has
been made to provide a rough and ready guide to the pronunciation of difficult
words which the children are likely to encounter in everyday life. When consider
ing what form this guide to pronunciation should take, we decided that it would
be fruitless to employ an exact phonetic alphabet because most children would be
unable to understand it. Instead, rough phonetic equivalents were given with
accents showing where the stress should fall in pronouncing a multi-syllable word.
Thus the entry HAGGADAH reads as follows:
HAGGADAH (hagarda) Jewish religious
service. What the word means; what
happens in the service and when it is
held 5-21 lb; Moses 6-507b; Passover
7-284a
As with the Encyclopaedia Britannica itself, it is most important that the
children should consult the index before attempting to find information on the
subject in which they are interested. To impress this fact upon them, a number
of decorative " Index Reminders", in the form of small drawings directing the
child to the index, have been scattered throughout the 11 text volumes of
Children's Britannica.
AN INDEXER APPEALS TO AUTHORS
Authors often refer to people by their surnames only. This is all very well
when, let us say, the passage in question deals with the war of 1939-45, and the
name is Churchill. But when the name is Brown, Jones or Robinson, the indexer
is faced with the alternatives of putting Brown, —, in the index (which is felt
to be a confession of failure), or of spending much time with works of reference,
trying to identify Brown, and ascertain his names or initials. The author probably
has these at hand, if not on the tip of his pen; let him have pity on his indexer,
and include them at least once in his text.
M. D. Anderson.