Although a well-known proverb states that “You can't judge a book by its cover,” you should be able to judge a book's contents by looking at its index. Physicians, nurses, and other health professionals are not going to read a textbook or manual cover to cover, but will instead rely on the index to guide them to the information they seek. A good index is not a mere alphabetical listing of words linked to pages in the text. It is the creation of an indexer, who deals not only in words but in concepts, often incorporating knowledge that may only be implicit in the text. A carefully constructed index improves a resource's usability and is often the key to efficient information retrieval.

This handy book is the second in the series of Indexing Specialties publications that the American Society of Indexers (ASI) is producing to provide more in-depth information on those major areas in which indexers work. Medical indexing is not only one of the most popular areas, but also one of the most difficult, because it requires a detailed understanding of topics such as anatomy and physiology, and the indexer needs to master complex medical terminology, if the index is to be truly useful. Relevant workshops and courses are rare, so this book is designed to help fill an educational void by offering information and advice from more than a dozen noted medical indexers.

The book features twelve chapters and is divided into four sections that reflect the major areas of concern to medical indexers. The first section, “Medical Indexers,” includes an interview with two experienced book indexers, providing the novice with an excellent overview of what is involved in choosing indexing as a career. This overview is coupled with practical information about how various indexing projects are actually accomplished. The second section, “Medical Indexes,” addresses the issue of what makes a good index. Wyman discusses what constitutes an award-winning medical index and provides an informative selection of medical index reviews chosen for their constructive criticism. Section three, “Medical Indexing,” contains the substance of the book, with detailed discussions of indexing medical specialties. Contributions include chapters on food and nutrition materials, nursing, and an outstanding chapter on general medicine by Tullar. Other chapters are devoted to various aspects of database indexing, primarily involving MEDLINE and the MeSH thesaurus, including a discussion of the National Library of Medicine's MedIndEx Project, a knowledge-based system designed to investigate ways to automate the indexing of medical literature. The fourth section, “Resources,” contains useful lists of print and online reference sources used by professional indexers.

This book provides helpful information for experienced indexers about the business aspects of indexing, as well as guidance with how to improve the utility of an index. The novice indexer will similarly find much intelligent advice, with many insightful comments about the professional and practical aspects of indexing that cannot be readily found elsewhere. There are also many gems of information for readers who simply want to find out more about how an index is generated. MEDLINE searchers, in particular, will benefit from reading the chapters on database indexing, because one of the keys to efficient information retrieval from a bibliographic database is an understanding of how journal articles are indexed.

The editor has done an effective job of compiling a series of articles that will serve as a valuable reference tool for those wanting to know more about the indexing of medical information. The majority of contributions are well written, are easy to read, and, where appropriate, provide valuable bibliographies for further reading. This reviewer is disappointed not to find a chapter discussing the issue of Web indexing. Understanding how indexing skills may be used to facilitate access to medical information published on the Internet would be useful. Despite this omission, the book remains a welcome and valuable addition to the indexing literature.