Books
One of my most recent projects at work has been to help develop the index for the first volume of the Joseph Smith Papers. And I have to admit, I dig indexes now, however uncool that is. When an index is well done, it can organize a book in ways that bring out aspects that may not be noticed otherwise. For example, in the first volume of the Papers, Joseph Smith's journals from 1832 to 1839, JS says things like "Oh Lord bless thy servant Joseph Amen" all over the place. Since not many people are going to sit down and read the volume cover to cover, it's only by way of an index entry "Joseph Smith, prayers of" that a researcher would be able to fully realize the weight JS puts on prayer, and study the cultural implications of writing prayers into a personal journal. Kind of cool.
(By the way, good professional indexers make six figures a year. Looking for a career change? Also by the way, the first volume of the Papers is available for preorder on the distributor's site here.)
Anyway, since I'm researching indexes, my office has become the new dumping ground for all the other papers projects volumes my coworkers have checked out from university libraries. Right now I've got somewhere close to 50 volumes in there, from Alexander Hamilton to MLK to John Wesley to the Adams family (the presidential kind, not the 60s sitcom kind), all threatening to topple over and crush me at any moment. Besides learning great things about indexes, I've also learned that Thomas Jefferson grew hemp and was in favor of both taxing people for every dog they owned and exterminating all dogs in the U.S. - though he may have been kidding about that last part.
One particularly interesting volume found its way into my office - the second volume of The Works of Jonathan Edwards:
Published in 1830, leather binding, gilt lettering, and in pretty good shape. So where did it come from? Special collections? Some collector? Nope. That book is sitting on the shelf of the BYU library, and you can just go check it out any day of the week.
(By the way, good professional indexers make six figures a year. Looking for a career change? Also by the way, the first volume of the Papers is available for preorder on the distributor's site here.)
Anyway, since I'm researching indexes, my office has become the new dumping ground for all the other papers projects volumes my coworkers have checked out from university libraries. Right now I've got somewhere close to 50 volumes in there, from Alexander Hamilton to MLK to John Wesley to the Adams family (the presidential kind, not the 60s sitcom kind), all threatening to topple over and crush me at any moment. Besides learning great things about indexes, I've also learned that Thomas Jefferson grew hemp and was in favor of both taxing people for every dog they owned and exterminating all dogs in the U.S. - though he may have been kidding about that last part.
One particularly interesting volume found its way into my office - the second volume of The Works of Jonathan Edwards:
Published in 1830, leather binding, gilt lettering, and in pretty good shape. So where did it come from? Special collections? Some collector? Nope. That book is sitting on the shelf of the BYU library, and you can just go check it out any day of the week.
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