The American Society of Indexers' 25th anniversary conference programme, in 1993, included an unusual, appealing item. On a platform set with two easy chairs and cofiee table bearing microphone and tape recorder, Dorothy Thomas interviewed in turn nine prominent ASI members.
This was intended to fill out the more impersonal history of ASI that she had written for the 20th ASI meeting, and to discover 'a standard for indexers; to develop a profile of what makes a great indexer'. All nine interviews, with four more conducted during the conference, and an account of the history of ASI, are reproduced in this booklet.
The various interviews make fascinating reading, covering a wide range of experience. Dorothy Thomas's findings about the standard indexer? She
thought them all 'highly intelligent, well-mannered, goodnatured, with a delightful sense of humour', while there was 'an overwhelming interest in music among the people I spoke to', as well as their all growing up with books. She concluded,
'indexing, while it requires generosity of spirit, and empathy, is scientific in nature ... music is the closest thing to mathematics, in its precision, and in that sense, indexing is truly a science'.