Talk:Book Indexes

Indexing
I've had this in mind for years now, really, but never got around to it, since many of the books we use most often (Jim Henson: The Works; Of Muppets and Men, if memory serves; The Wisdom of Big Bird'', etc.) lack indexes. So we're always saying "Wasn't there something somewhere in [book] about this?" So the idea is to make it easier for all editors to find what a book says about a specific character. I've put it in both sandbox and Muppet Wiki for now, but since it will be a long-term project, I figure we can rename once it's grown a bit more.

I'm using those books I own or have handy access too, but I encourage everyone to join in. I provided some guidelines, since obviously we can't index everything and not all of it is relevant. I'm starting with Caroll Spinney and Kevin Clash's memoirs, and given the nature of the books, I'm not sure how much of the stuff about their upbringing/families etc. is relevant, but I'm pinpointing the major pages anyway, right now at least, to make it easier (and specifying on subjects that seem especially significant beyond a general heading, like the birth of Kevin Clash's daughter or how Caroll Spinney), and some topics are pretty obvious (first time so and so met Jim Henson, mentions of their characters, with subheadings when applicable, etc.) The format can be played with to make it easier, but while I was thumbing through My Life to answer a question, I thought I might as well start there and now, to save some time later. I don't think it's worth bothering to copy existing indexes from books, this is just to make it easier for us when researching or sourcing something, to avoid just fumbling around (eventually, it might be worth doing something similar for the documentaries, but that's even more challenging). -- Andrew Leal (talk )