Topic: Indexing glass periodicals

[Lustrousstone]

No Frank, Apple Brown Betty uses breadcrumbs, sugar and butter, not flour, sugar and butter as does crumble. Oops, cafe time; I'll have mine with ice cream please.

[Frank]

Maybe in another state 

[SAS]

Dear Readers,
Thank you very much for your comments and advice. I am especially appreciative of the comments made by Frank, Christine, and Kristi. Part of my trouble with getting the index "right" is that I got my masters degree in library science in 1972.........a LOT has changed since then!!! I have done abstracting for the US Dept. of Education ERIC database. It has a huge thesaurus of terms that certainly facilitates things. I also know that there is a specific thesaurus for cookbook indexing. Haven't seen it, but know that it exists...somewhere.
My mine objective in doing the index is to make the information available. I seem to be getting bogged down in presenting it the "right" way. I shall yield to common practice and not capitalize headings. But, for the sake of easier reading, I will put them in bold. Since I am 70 years old, reading has become a problem for me and I just assume that others might have that problem also. And, when all is said and done, if the index is user-friendly and exhaustive, that is really all that matters.
I really don't know what to do about glass terms which seem to have several synonyms. All I can do is to look at several books on glass (I have about 300) and pick the one that most authors seem to prefer and then cross-reference it. About the closest thing to a thesaurus that I can find is Shotwell's Glass A to Z. Ivo's Glass fact file a-z is also very helpful but I have to resort to a magnifying glass to read it. Both refer to both "slag" and "marbled" glass with Shotwell seeming to differentiate the two so that they are not synonymous. From his definition, I assume that true slag glass is not made any more.
Thank you again for your suggestions. If you have any more thoughts on how this index would be helpful to you, please don't hesitate to post. I can also be reached at smithsa@verizon.net.
Shirley in Charleston, WV

[Lustrousstone]

I'm not sure there is anyone on here who doesn't need a magnifying glass for Ivo's book!

[Frank]

Me, I got a copy on A4 sheets pre publication 

Bold is a good idea. If you are intending to print a 11 or 12pt face would be good. But on the web it doesn't matter as browsers can easily bump the size up.

Re slag glass see http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,17722.0.html

[krsilber]

I was just reading about slag in Shotwell after seeing the thread Frank mentioned.  I see my "end of day" addition is one of those common mistakes people make, not a true synonym.  That's another question - how to handle those mistakes that are so commonplace that they become part of glass terminology?  Where does one draw the line? 

According to Shotwell, "marble" was what Ruth Webb Lee called slag glass, and two of the American companies who made it, Northwood and Challinor, called it Mosaic.

[KevinH]

For "thesaurus type" references
In addition to Shotwell's Glass A to Z (which I have not seen) and Ivo's Glass fact file a-z (which I regularly read without a magnifying glass - just for the exercise ), you might also consider Harold Newman's An Illustrated Dictionary of Glass

Kristi suggested (and has now revised, while I was typing) "...or end of day glass?" as an alternative to "slag glass, marble glass or mosaic glass". I don't think "end of day" should be tied in with any of the others as they are / were, in their proper context, specific types of glass, whereas "end of day" was / is a generic term (often used incorrectly) for all sorts of things supposedly made with "left over" glass. There are some fairly strong views about this somewhere in the board!

I think using bold for headings is a wonderful thing. It makes it so much easier to locate entries. This is particulalry relevant where a small indent is used for sub-sets and there are many sub-set entries.

As for which form of company name is correct, such as for L. G. Wright, Henry Greener etc., I would ignore views of "correctness" and go for the standard of:
Greener, Henry
Wright, L. G.
etc.

[Lustrousstone]

I agree with Kev on the last point, forgot to say that before

[SAS]

Dear Readers,
I would like to know if it is possible for me to attach my preliminary authority (subject) file for the indexing that I am doing for Glass Collectors Digest? It is a Word (.doc) document that is 47KB.
I think that it would be interesting to see if you all might have comments as to what I have left out, how I have used cross references, etc.
I would also like comments as to whether to capitalize the names of specific patterns, the names of periods or eras such as Brilliant Period for cut glass, and the names of specific types of glass such as Amberina, Peachblow, etc.
Also, I find that some items, like rose bowls, need their own entry because there is a lot of information on them. Other items, like butter dish, I have cross-referenced to covered dish because there isn't a lot of information on it. This is entirely subjective. If I were doing indexing of a book or periodical that had a lot of discussion or articles on butter dishes, I would probably give them their own entry.
Believe me, I have looked at a lot of indexes in the glass books that I have and they all seem to "do their own thing." All capitalize all headings...and mostly everything else!
Another thing that I have done to facilitate my indexing is to assign a number from 1 to 84 for each issue rather than write out the citations a million times. I have a key to the complete citation for each numbered issue. Should I be lazy and include the key at the beginning of the index? Or should I use the Word Find and Replace function to put the complete citation for each entry. This will, of course, about double the size of the index.
Right now, my entries look like this:
masonic flasks (9) 50-56  This means that the article on this topic is on pages 50-56 in issue #9. One would have to refer to the key for the issue citation.
Would you prefer that the entry read: masonic flasks Vol.II, no.3 Oct/Nov 1988: 50-56 ?
If you all do not want to bother with this, it is fine, but I just thought that I would ask. I really do appreciate your taking the time to comment and offer suggestions.
Shirley in Charleston, WV

[krsilber]

I don't know whether it's possible to attach Word documents, but I'm thinking that if you want open discussion about your work it might be less confusing if it were viewed a bit at a time.  That would focus discussion more, rather than trying to sort everything out at once.

I would also like comments as to whether to capitalize the names of specific patterns, the names of periods or eras such as Brilliant Period for cut glass, and the names of specific types of glass such as Amberina, Peachblow, etc.

I don't know if it's the best, but the easiest way to solve these sort of quandaries would be to choose a reference you like and trust and follow their precedent except where there are compelling arguments not to.  Assuming they've done their job well, you don't have to work through the reasoning yourself, and can also hope that there's pretty good consistency.

Another thing that I have done to facilitate my indexing is to assign a number from 1 to 84 for each issue rather than write out the citations a million times. I have a key to the complete citation for each numbered issue. Should I be lazy and include the key at the beginning of the index? Or should I use the Word Find and Replace function to put the complete citation for each entry. This will, of course, about double the size of the index.just shrink the font! ;~)
Right now, my entries look like this:
masonic flasks (9) 50-56  This means that the article on this topic is on pages 50-56 in issue #9. One would have to refer to the key for the issue citation.

Are the entries all underlined?

I don't know, my tendency would be to go with the traditional, where the info is given right there.  Otherwise you'd have an index for an index!  See what the others say...