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pilarw2000

@pilarw2000.bsky.social

150 followers 130 following 38 posts

Chief indexer & Consultant, Wyman Indexing. Great indexes for great books -- in all media. Professional services since 1990. wymanindexing.com

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pilarw2000 @pilarw2000.bsky.social · Oct 18

The Indexing Task Force, an independent nonpartisan group of professional indexers, has developed an index to help people see what Project 2025 contains: indexersguidetoproject2025.com indexersguidetoProject2025 -- thank you, indexers!

Indexers' Guide to Project 2025 – A finding aid for those wishing to gain a better understanding of the goals of Project 2025.

indexersguidetoproject2025.com

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pilarw2000 @pilarw2000.bsky.social · 5d

Statement on AI and Book #Indexing from ASI: "AI is not currently capable of producing even adequate indexes. High-quality indexes that meet reader needs and expectations still require the fine-grained human judgment of a professional indexer." asindexing.org/ai-news/stat... #IndexSky #bookindexes

Statement on AI and Book Indexing | American Society for Indexing

asindexing.org

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Reposted by pilarw2000

IEEE Spectrum @spectrum.ieee.org · Aug 25

#AI lies to us. That’s why Jaime Fernández Fisac created a “bullshit index” to track how and why AI is misleading its users. spectrum.ieee.org/ai-misinform...

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pilarw2000 @pilarw2000.bsky.social · Aug 28

"At this time, AI cannot replace professional book indexers and we are doubtful that it will be able to do so soon, or even at all." #IndexSky
asindexing.org/ai-news/whit....

ASI releases white paper “LLM-Generated Book Indexes: Can They Replace Professionally Created Indexes?” | American Society for Indexing

We are developing a Statement on AI based on the white paper, which will include guidance for authors, publishers, and indexers; the statement will be released soon.

asindexing.org

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Free DC @freedcproject.bsky.social · Aug 22

DC will always rise.

A nighttime scene of 14th and U Street. Street lamps and car headlines illuminate the darkened street, with people walking by and scooters driving through the intersection. A light projection of the words "Free DC for all" with the DC flag illuminate the side of a building on the far side of the intersection.

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Ian Livingston @ianlivingston.bsky.social · Aug 21

#freedc

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pilarw2000 @pilarw2000.bsky.social · Aug 22

#indexing daily entry for #IndexSky: "Gut Feel Index (GFI), 279"

pilarw2000 @pilarw2000.bsky.social · Jul 19

Interesting how the title I see is, "What to Look for in a Celebrity Memoir"

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pilarw2000 @pilarw2000.bsky.social · Jul 19

Thank you for the support, Ben Widdicombe and Steve Rubell, “First thing I did,” he said, “was look for the index.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/o...

Opinion | What to Look for in a Celebrity Memoir

www.nytimes.com

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · Jun 19

I suspect that fact that the vast majority of LLM users don’t seem to have received this (really very simple!) message is because the AI companies have a vested interest in us not understanding it. “ChatGPT is smart, it just makes mistakes sometimes” is much more marketable than the truth.

Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · Jun 19

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

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pilarw2000 @pilarw2000.bsky.social · Jun 1

#IndexSky #indexers on the loose

pilarw2000 @pilarw2000.bsky.social · May 31

Nicely done!! 👏👏

pilarw2000 @pilarw2000.bsky.social · May 31

Generative AI, aka "spicy autocomplete," does NOT make satisfying indexes make, not by a long shot. #IndexSky

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Paula Clarke Bain @baindex.org · May 31

Great @indexerscanada.bsky.social session by Elizabeth Bartmess on AI and LLM attempts to index full-length books (with HT @tanyaizzard.bsky.social). Plus how to respond as societies and individual indexers (the ‘context artists’). ‘LLMs are not indexing a book. They are autocompleting an index.’

Elizabeth Bartmess presenting on AI at Indexing Society of Canada ISC/SCI 2025 conference with a slide with following text.

LLMs’ nature
• LLMs are predictive text generators
• ‘Spicy autocomplete’
• They are not Indexing a book, they are autocompleting an index
– they are predicting
– based on statistical frequency of words in their corpus,
– what a response to your prompt would likely look like
– they are not going through the book and gathering all the bits of indexable material
• They generate text, then generate more text, linearly
• They cannot edit previously produced text
• It's not surprising they don't produce good indexes. It’s not what they’re designed forl

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pilarw2000 @pilarw2000.bsky.social · May 28

on my way, as well. here's another meme just for the #indexers 😎😜😎

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pilarw2000 @pilarw2000.bsky.social · May 28

Super excited here, too! So excited I made a meme. #IndexSky 😎😜😎 #indexers, nervous excited looking forward to it. #bookindexer

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pilarw2000 @pilarw2000.bsky.social · May 13

Free online training for embedded indexing with Index-Manager Wednesday 14 May, 2025!
Basic: 11am EDT or 6pm Australian EDT, Advanced: 12pm EDT.
Basic sessions: short tour of important functions, focus on 1st steps. Advanced: focuses on editing. Register: lnkd.in/eBEpiSYt. Join us! Happy #indexing!

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

lnkd.in

pilarw2000 @pilarw2000.bsky.social · May 8

#indexers #IndexSky #bookindexers

... and yes, just a leetle nervous and intimidated about the whole thing 😱😎

indexerscanada.bsky.social @indexerscanada.bsky.social · May 8

Join Jolanta Komornicka, Pilar Wyman, Michele Combs, Devon Thomas & Gina Guilinger in the round-table session “X-Men United, Indexers Divided?: Differing Approaches to Indexing the Same Text”, where they discuss different approaches to indexing the same book. Register at www.conference.indexers.ca

conference.Indexers.ca – Annual conference of Canada's professional society of indexers

www.conference.indexers.ca

Reposted by pilarw2000

Society of Indexers @indexers.bsky.social · Apr 25

Free access to these Indexer articles for a couple more days: the hidden world of indexing, dealing with unconventional texts, medieval names, indexing comic fiction, and the implications of generative AI. Thanks to @livunipress.bsky.social for making these available for #IndexDay.

Celebrating National Indexing Day 2025

National Indexing Day The Society of Indexers is celebrating National Indexing Day for the seventh successive year on Thursday 27th March 2025. This year we will be celebrating with a half-day in-p…

buff.ly

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pilarw2000 @pilarw2000.bsky.social · Apr 1

Go, Cory, Go!!!!!

Sen. Cory Booker @booker.senate.gov · Mar 31

I’ve taken the Senate floor and will speak for as long as I’m physically able to lift the voices of Americans who are being harmed and not being heard in this moment of crisis. Watch here:

Live: Speaking on Trump, Musk, and America’s Moral Moment on the Senate Floor | Senator Cory Booker

YouTube video by Senator Cory Booker

youtube.com

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pilarw2000 @pilarw2000.bsky.social · Mar 28

#indexes in the wild!

Carlos Garcia-Jane @carlosindex.bsky.social · Mar 27

Happy National Indexing Day to all indexers, readers, publishers, and everyone! A selection of indexers available from the library collection of The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama #IndexDay @indexers.bsky.social

Reposted by pilarw2000

Shawn "Smith" Peirce @silversmith1.bsky.social · Mar 28

Hillary Clinton: SignalGate Is Just Dumb [Gift Link]
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/o...

Opinion | Hillary Clinton: This Is Just Dumb (Gift Article)

The Signal group chat is only the latest in a string of self-inflicted wounds by the new administration.

www.nytimes.com

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🎃 Fiona "Fi" Webster 🎃 @fiona-webster22.bsky.social · Mar 19

There will be no accountability without a free press.
Ann Telnaes @anntelnaes.bsky.social
Support Ann at anntelnaes.substack.com

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Society of Indexers @indexers.bsky.social · Mar 6

It's World Book Day today! One of the ways you can #ReadYourWay is by using the index to find the parts of a book that you're really interested in. All non-fiction books deserve a great index so that readers can find the information they really want. Learn more about indexing at buff.ly/WeSkr2y

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Ann Telnaes @anntelnaes.bsky.social · Feb 24

anntelnaes.substack.com/p/trump-resp...

Trump responds to Musk email

Time to fire this guy

anntelnaes.substack.com

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pilarw2000 @pilarw2000.bsky.social · Feb 18

#indexing #dailyentry: "black hole sign, 702" #IndexSky