Books with No Indexes

A CARDINAL GOAL of librarians of institutions of higher learning is to build up collections of permanent value. For a non-fiction work to serve this purpose, we would expect it to be read in whole or in part and to be referred to for such things as facts, opinions, ideas, or felicitous phrasing. College librarians have to buy books selectively, a task made more difficult by the rising cost of books.1 It becomes more important, therefore, to acquire books which can be used both for reading and for reference. The key to the latter use is the index—the original information retrieval device. Lorena Garloch states forthrightly that "books with no indexes at all are apparently written or published by egotists who feel that a book is only to be read through in its entirety. If it is ever to be referred to again, it must either be read through or the user must have such an uncanny memory that the needed passage can easily be found."2 Isn't this all the more true for the librarian whose professional time is wasted inordinately by such books? Paul M. Angle in his article, "What! No Index?,"3 describes graphically this waste of time. He spent hours making a comparative study of a subject because, of the two books about it, the 1957 imprint had no index, although the 1918 imprint did. "The continuing propensity of publishers to issue books (adult non-fiction) without indexes"4 was first noticed by