The Back-of-the-book Index in Iran from the Perspective of Publishers and Readers

To explore the situation of back-of-the-book indexes in Iran from three aspects: the existence of an index in published books, the familiarity of readers with indexes, and the publisher's view.Methodology/Approach: This is a survey using a self-designed questionnaire and checklist and is done in three parts: 1) investigating the existence of index in 382 books, 2) short interview with 150 members of National Library of Iran, and 3) surveying publishers’ viewpoints on index. Only 12% of published books have indexes. The amount of reader's familiarity with index was 40%. 57% of publishers make index for their books. Half of publishers have expert indexers and 55% have a manual for book indexing. Most of publishers believe that all books do not need index. Some reasons for not having an index are mentioned cost, shortcoming of experts and unfamiliarity of readers with the index. The back-of-the-book index in Iranian publications is not satisfactory, same as other countries. There are some suggestions to promote book indexing in Iran such as holding workshops for publishers, preparing manuals and enforcing publishers to provide indexes for their books.