Since 1989, Indexing Partners has been meeting the information needs of publishers, authors, and organizations. In 2023, we met over 200 deadlines for sixty different authors, packagers, and publishers. Indexing Partners has an excellent reputation for meeting deadlines as well as maintaining high quality standards. We have maintained long relationships with publishers and packagers as well as have authors who return to us each time they have a new book. For the subject areas in which we specialize see both the Portfolio section and Specialties section of this website.
Indexing Partners LLC is operated by Enid L. Zafran. Enid graduated from Mount Holyoke College, and has a J.D. from Cleveland Marshall College of Law, a Masters of Library Science from the University of Kentucky, and a LL.M. in Labor Law from Georgetown Law Center. She worked in legal publishing for over twenty-five years, starting at Banks-Baldwin Law Publishing Co. in Cleveland, Ohio, where she held the positions of Vice President/Editorial and Vice President/New Product Development. Subsequently, she worked at Prentice Hall Information Service as Editorial Director of Non-Tax Services, and from January 1990-January 2002, she was the Director of Indexing Services at The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (BNA), Washington, DC.
To hear a series of interviews with Enid that follow her career from starting in indexing in Cleveland, Ohio through the formation of her business Indexing Partners and her contributions to the profession of indexing, link here to Michelle Guiliano’s website Line By Line Indexing: https://www.indexerpodcast.com/guests/enid-zafran/. Just as the world of publishing changed dramatically from 1980 to the present time due to technology and outsourcing, so Enid’s career mirrors how an indexer needed to master new skills and navigate a business strategy.
Awards
In 2024, Enid received the American Society for Indexing's Award for Scholarly Indexing for her index to Looking for Other Worlds: Black Feminism and Haitian Fiction, published by the University of Virginia Press. Ellen Satrom, the managing editor of the UVa Press, said, "Enid has long been one of our go-to indexers—her indexes are always carefully thought out, structured, and balanced, and they're reliably error free. Well-constructed indexes are key tools for our readers, both in helping them find the information they're seeking and in helping highlight particular concepts or themes readers might not otherwise have considered.”
In 2023, Enid received the Indexing Society of Canada’s Award for Excellence in Indexing for her index to Accidental Conflict: America, China, and the Clash of False Narratives by Stephen Roach, published by Yale University Press. The judges said “The text is easy to read but not easy to index, with a high density of terms per page. Zafran’s “overall consistency of approach and decisions is stellar,” and congratulated her for “outstanding work that required concentration, thoroughness, and distinguishing closely related notions.”
In 2010, Enid’s contribution to the indexing profession was recognized as she received the Hines Award from the American Society for Indexing (ASI). She is a past president of ASI and served on its national board for over 6 years. She directed its publications program and was responsible for recruiting authors and editors for all of the books published in conjunction with ITI, ASI’s official publisher at that time.
Writing and Presentations on Indexing
Enid has given presentations to many librarian, publishing, and information groups in the U.S. and Canada. In 2009, she was co-editor of the popular book, Starting an Indexing Business, and a list of her publications on indexing appears below.
Enid also offers various workshops, including an Indexing Boot Camp which consists of three intensive days of one-on-one training aimed at newer indexers and tailored to their needs. She also offers customized training for more advanced indexers. (See the separate page on this website about the Indexing Boot Camp.)
List of Publications and Presentations by Enid L. Zafran
Indexing Specialties: Law, ed. Peter Kendrick and Enid L. Zafran (ITI 2001), also including two articles by Enid L. Zafran
"Legal Textbook Indexing: An Evergreen Business" (Key Words Jan./Mar. 2004) Indexing Specialties: Scholarly Books, ed. Margie Towery and Enid L. Zafran (ITI 2005) "Outsourcing the Outsourcing," in Running an Indexing Business, ed. Janet Perlman (ITI 2001) Starting an Indexing Business, ed. Enid L. Zafran & Joan Shapiro (ITI 2009)
“Names in Art Books” and “Names in Fiction” in Indexing Names, ed. Noeline Bridge (ITI 2014) Index It Right! Advice from the Experts, Volume I, ed. Enid L. Zafran (ITI 2005)
Index It Right! Advice from the Experts, Volume 2, ed. Janet Perlman & Enid L. Zafran (ITI 2010)
Index It Right! Advice from the Experts, Volume 3, ed. Enid L. Zafran (ITI 2014) "From A to Zafran" column on indexing style issues in Key Words (2004-2014)
"An Indexer's Day from A to Z" in A Day in the Life: Career Options in Library & Information Science. (Libraries Unlimited, 2007)
Indexing Workshops on Double Posting, Editing the Index for Quality, Cross-References, and Indexing in the topics of: Law, Artbooks, Biography, and Narrative.
Presentations on the business of indexing as well as on embedded indexing (2024) and handling multi-authored works (2024).