In praise of indexes

For a long time I have loved indexes – back-of-book indexes, unpublished card indexes, indexes to old newspapers, indexes to little magazines and periodicals, indexes to photographs, name indexes, indexes to poetry, indexes to plays, indexes to imaginary characters, indexes to indexes (like my treasured Indexes in Australian libraries : a Towards Federation 2001 survey) – the list is endless.  I’ve often thought of indexers and their indexes, both published and unpublished, as the unsung heroes of the world of libraries and information.

Why?

An index is the result of a sustained and generous intellectual effort on behalf of the indexer, whose labour renders the hidden visible, the unknown known, and the information project achievable.

Judgement, discernment, the ability to join like concepts, to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant are the virtues of the human indexer. Automatic machine-based indexing, on the other hand, is good at plucking out keywords in text, but can’t always distinguish between relevant/irrelevant or refer to like concepts – and that’s only for text that is in digital form. What about all those sources that pre-date the internet, or which have not yet been digitised?

Anyone who has come across a book without an index, or a shelf of journals with no published index, or boxes of manuscript material or microfilm with no clues as to the contents, can appreciate the true value of an index.

State Library of Queensland holds many indexes to information about Queensland – both published and unpublished. You’ll find several unpublished indexes in the old timber card catalogues on level 4 of State Library (John Oxley Library).

These hand-written indexes provide references to Queensland information contained in books, journals, newspapers and manuscripts held by State Library. They were compiled over many years by State Library staff, volunteers, private researchers and historians. Here are some of my favourites.

John Oxley Library subject catalogue

This is an index to newspapers, journals, newsletters, almanacs, typescripts, biographical and placename cutting books, and some books, relating to Queensland and its history, all of which can be found in State Library’s collection. Coverage dates from the convict period to roughly the late 1980s, when State Library’s catalogue went online. As such, this index is a unique source for the study of Queensland history, as much of the journal content cannot be found any other way, although some of the references would be reproduced in Johnston and Zerner’s A guide to the history of Queensland : a bibliographic survey of selected resources in Queensland history (Open access, level 4, REFJ 016.9943 JOH).

Collinson index to North Queensland

Subject index to North Queensland, compiled by historian, James Collinson. Sources indexed include journals like The Steering Wheel, Cummins & Campbell’s Monthly Magazine, Queensland Parliamentary Papers, The Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, Queensland Figaro, Hansard, and newspapers like The Queenslander, The Cooktown Courier, The North Queensland Register and the Cairns Post, all available at State Library. He also referenced his own books and articles about Cairns and North Queensland, as well as news clippings, typescripts and some correspondence gathered in his six volumes of cutting books, titled ‘Historical Data’, covering the 1930s-1950s, contained in: James Warren Collinson Papers. OM91-100 (Boxes 9276 - 9277; 9274 O/S). There is also a separate index for ships. The first cards in the index provide a key to sources.  For more on this index, see our blog post, The Collinson Index.

Boomerang index 1887-1892

The Boomerang was a radical, weekly newspaper, published in Brisbane in the late nineteenth century. Founded by British journalist and firebrand trade unionist, William Lane (of the utopian ‘New Australia’ Paraguay fame), its publishing life was short - from 19 November 1887 to 9 April 1892. Noted contributors included Annie Lane (nee Macquire, wife of William Lane) writing under the pen name ‘Lucinda Sharpe’, orator Gilbert Casey, indigenous rights activist Carl Feilberg, poet and journalist Zora Cross, editor Gresley Lukin (who bought the paper from Lane) , writer and literary critic A. G. Stephens, and Henry Lawson (under pen name of ‘Joe Swallow’) who contributed the ‘Country Crumbs’ column. The Boomerang published stories, poetry, (lithographed) cartoons, social and sporting notes, reflecting a time of growing interest in radical ideas and politics. The newspaper is now digitised on Trove. It is also available on microfilm (MFS 0316, level 3).

Australasian insurance and banking record – Queensland fire index 1877- 1965

This monthly journal was published in Melbourne and published articles on insurance, banking and finance. At the back of each issue was a listing of ‘Fires in the Australasian States’. Our index covers the Queensland fires, 1877-1965. Arrangement is alphabetical by location. Data includes owner, locality, occupation e.g. chemical factory, dwelling, shop, hotel, garage etc., company insured with, and amount.

• The Australasian insurance and banking record and statistical register. Microfilm 1886–1921. Request then collect from level 3.
• Australasian insurance and banking record. Print 1877–1973. Request to access from level 4.

Check our information guide to John Oxley library card catalogue indexes for details of these and other unpublished card indexes held in the John Oxley Library on level 4 of State Library. ‘Unpublished’, in many cases, means that there is simply no other way to find the information in these indexes. They will lead you to nuggets of information in newspapers, journals and our manuscript collections that may not be online or digitised. As such, these humble hand-written cards represent a unique information source for researching Queensland and its history.

Can't make it onsite? Then submit a request through our Ask a librarian service and let us search the indexes for you. You never know what you might find.