Indexing in eBooks and eContent Adding Value Jan Wright Wright Information Indexing Services American Society for Indexing

Current eBook indexing Missing, or Static, or Linked, but not to precise paragraph Index as chapter at end, not integrated navigation tool Hard to get to Hard to return and search again Hard to browse, especially in 2-column format

Using eBook indexes now

Amazon’s X-Ray

Precision vs. recall 13 screens of results 51 total hits In chronological order Ferris Wheel, 208, 305, 373 in construction, , 218, 228, 236, 239, 240, 255, 280 final days of, operation of, , 284, , 299, 300, 302, 327 romance on, test runs of, ,

Reader’s mental patterns and search behaviors Readers come to texts at differing times: Never read the book, and need to know if it contains their search concept Read the book, and knows the concept is in there, but where? Asking a question, and when reading information, rephrases or narrows or changes the question Search has stages, and we need to serve all the stages – it is as if we are conversing at each stage, not just feeding more Google results

Cognitive mapping Reading styles for learning or pleasure, fiction or non-fiction differ For learning, readers use physical cues such as location on page or position in book to go back and find sections of text eReaders disrupt that mapping Skimming is another behavior that is disrupted Physically marking up text in textbooks helps memory – difficult but becoming easier on eReaders Navigation: new-to-the-book, new-to-the-ereader, experts, or those who have read a book completely Univ. of Washington Study:

Screen-based indexes As important as “Search” Navigation in nonfiction – critical! Adds browsability and helps readers expand their ideas and phrasing Pre-analysis (pre-coordination vs. post-coordination) Conversation with the reader Needs to be included in eventual interfaces for eReaders Re-use - Source of metadata and aboutness at a paragraph level Sales tool - Look Inside This Book - should be included in all free downloads!

History of on-screen indexes Mimicking a paper interface – doesn’t work well onscreen

Redundancy “Redundancy is the antidote to confusion” – James Gleick

Implementation Accessible from every page “Find” should be reflecting the best hits, as identified by index Show results as snippets of text in context Searched word should show entries below, subheads, closely-related words Cross references to help refine search phrasing Remembers you have been there before and saves your place Mode 1: full index browseability as chapter Mode 2: combined in a search window with a type-in field Mode 3: semantic underpinnings – map of topics

Demo

What can be done now? Get ready for eventual use of scripts and Fragment IDs in ePub 3.0 Develop an unique ID scheme for paragraphs, and add unique IDs in content, ready for scripting Tag at the paragraph level with index entries, or develop a way to link your index to anchors in the paragraphs Include linked indexes now as back-of-the-file chapters Get radical and put indexes in front: they will get searched first! Assess usability of interactive index interfaces to decide what’s best for your readers Plan for re-use of index metadata: wikis, handhelds, print, web pages

What else do we need to get active indexes Software tools Programming resources Outreach efforts Quality assurance/testing procedures for scripted indexes and interfaces Buy-in from eBook and eReader industry Membership on standards committees Workflow ideas: publishers and indexer need to work out a process for including the metadata

Resources Quick and Dirty Look at iBooks Author Index/Glossary: “The Devil is in the Details: Indexes vs. Amazon’s X-Ray,” The Indexer, 1012 (forthcoming) American Society for Indexing’s Digital Trends Task Force (DTTF): (Many links from this page) IDPF ePub Indexes Proposal: ePub 3.0 Indexes Working Group: UC Libraries Academic e-Book Usage Survey: Univ. Washington Kindle academic study: Stephen Fry’s MyFry:

Contact us! Jan Wright – Indexing-Services American Society for Indexing