Fan Index

Synonyms:	Concordance, index, Bibliography
See also:	Episode Guide, Masterpost, Archives, Hubsite
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A Fan Index is a compilation of information - both canon-sourced and fanwork-sourced - into a list for the benefit of others. The concept comes from two places: magazine publishing, where regular issues were published, collating the locations of articles printed in previous issues and sorted by subject; and old-fashioned library catalogues, which used index cards, each containing a subject, a brief description and the book and author it could be found in.

Pre-Internet

Before the internet, indexes were both more invaluable and more difficult to create. An indexer had to go through each issue of whatever they were indexing - comics, television shows, zines, circuit stories - manually and note down each example of the topic of their index and the exact location of it, before putting all the examples together in a list. Index cards were often utilised in the production of these indexes, being handy for note-taking and then organizing. In all, it was a lot of work:

(Trexindex) was challenging when I was writing it. When I was doing it, it just meant that I was reading a lot of fanzines. And I did the whole thing on index cards, and it was all very low tech. And then I had to sit and type all the index cards, which was one of the things that got me fired from a job, because I was doing it while I was supposed to be working, and I shouldn't have been. And it was a lot of, it was work, it was physical labor.

The first two issues were done by Devra Langsam on a mimeo, and then I actually had to pay for getting them done at my local print shop. And eventually it just got to the point where I couldn't keep up, and I got another person to do it. But he only did one issue and that wasn't enough, because by that time it was the mid-90s, and the whole thing had just exploded. I simply couldn't keep up too much.

I couldn't keep up. And once again, it was simply physically not feasible. When I moved ... I threw out tons, tons of fanzines. I threw out all my back issues of TrexIndex. They were useless. Nobody wanted them. They were just wasted paper.

They were useful for when they were. But as soon as people started indexing, and as soon as people got online, they were just obsolete. The same way that, I don't even know that Reader's Guide is published anymore, or if it is, I think it's done online. There's just too damn much information out there.

Some omitted the list part and disseminated the index cards:

The Hatstand Index is a series of 3x5 index cards, one for each Professionals story currently in circulation, containing: title, author (if available), length, a short synopsis, the first line of the story, type of story (first time, fantasy, historical, / or non-/, etc.), and known sequels and prequels. This system allows you to keep your listing in alphabetical order for fast reference, and allows easy updating.

Currently, the number of stories in circulation is about three hundred (give or take a few dozen). The projected price for a set of cards is $7.00 which includes postage. I hope to be printing the cards around the first of the year. Please S.A.S.E. me by the first of December for the final cost and information.

I am also asking for help in compiling the most complete index possible. Authors and collectors who are willing to share their lists with me will earn my undying gratitude (for what that's worth).