Excellence in indexing award goes to local professional

The Indexing Society of Canada presented its 2023 Ewart-Daveluy Indexing award to Enid L. Zafran of Rehoboth Beach.

The award recognizes Zafran’s index for “Accidental Conflict: America, China, and the Clash of False Narratives,” by Stephen Roach, published in 2022 by Yale University Press.

Zafran, who has been indexing for over 40 years, said she found this book a unique challenge.

The text examines the political and trade relations between two countries, each of which has adopted a false narrative concerning the other: America falsely blames its trade and technology threats on China yet overlooks its shaky domestic saving foundation. China falsely blames its growth challenges on America’s alleged containment of market-based socialism, ignoring its failure to achieve structural rebalancing.

“[The book] presented a lot of jigsaw pieces that I had to fit together, requiring a network of cross-referencing,” said Zafran.

Roach said “[The index] really brings the book to life as a tool for readers.”

Zafran started indexing in 1975, working for a legal publisher in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1990 she moved to Washington, DC, to become director of indexing services at the Bureau of National Affairs, where she oversaw a department of 40 indexers. Her business, Indexing Partners LLC, formed in 1989 and is now located in Rehoboth Beach.

She has written extensively about indexing and given many presentations on the subject to indexing groups, librarians, and the general public. A founding member of the Institute of Certified Indexers, Zafran offers an indexing boot camp to newer indexers to help them learn indexing styles and techniques.