Indexing Society of Canada
The Indexing Society of Canada/Société canadienne d'indexation was established in 1977 as Canada's national association of indexers.
Originally known as the Indexing and Abstracting Society of Canada/Société canadienne pour l'analyse de documents, its name was changed in 2006 to reflect the fact that indexing is the major specialty of its members; however, members maintain a variety of skill sets.
History
Although Canada’s national indexing society was formally established in 1977, its origins go back to the early seventies. When the Index Committee of the Bibliographical Society of Canada held its first executive meeting on March 20, 1971, in Toronto, it was resolved that
the Committee should concern itself primarily with the promotion of indexing and the training of indexers, rather than undertake major indexing projects itself. Guidelines for future activities were agreed upon, including the compilation of a Union List of Indexes and a Directory of Indexers.
An "index training workshop pilot project" was later set up in co-operation with the School of Library Science at the University of Toronto.
In March 1977, the Committee on Bibliographical Services for Canada hosted an indexing and abstracting workshop in the National Library of Canada. Attendees "noted the absence of a specific forum for abstracters and indexers in Canada, and recommended that such an association be formed." The CBSC then sponsored an Open Forum for Indexers and Abstracters on June 12, 1977, at the Canadian Library Association conference in Montreal. This meeting led to the establishment of IASC/SCAD.
Affiliation with the Society of Indexers
The first International Conference of the British Society of Indexers in 1978 was attended by IASC/SCAD representatives, who discussed with their British counterparts affiliation of the Canadian organization with the SI. As noted by the SI:
It was Canada's bilingualism, reinforced by the influence of a strong contingent of delegates from France, that stimulated consideration – for the first time – of the possibility of moving out of the English-speaking limitations within which we have hitherto operated. Even before the formalities of affiliation are completed, the youngest member of the family is already making its influence felt.
Formal affiliation of IASC/SCAD with the SI took place on January 1, 1979, and terms of affiliation were published in The Indexer in April 1979. At that time, IASC/SCAD had 115 individual and institutional members.