The PTG presentation at the Brighton conference was a joint presentation by some of the group members. Bill Johncocks opened by reminding delegates of the main achievements of the PTG in the last year. The PTG website was launched (http://www.ptg-indexers.org.uk/) and is a terrific resource for indexers, full of useful information including an extensive glossary. It should always be the first port of call for indexers who have questions about modern publishing technologies. The PTG has also been working with the American Society for Indexing (ASI) Digital Trends Task Force (DTTF) (http://www.asindexing.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3647).
Jan Ross conducted a ‘digital round-up’ of the latest news on new publishing technologies. (She will be putting the slides from her presentation on the PTG website in due course) Firstly, she gave some statistics to show how the eBook market is growing: in the UK eBooks account for 6% of market share; sales of eBooks rose by 366% in 2011; and publishers in the STM (science, technology and medicine) sector estimate that more than 15% of their revenue is now earned from eBook titles.
As a result of this growth in the eBook market publisher priorities are changing. For example, OUP “content must be born digital” i.e. digital should be the primary format. The search function may be becoming more sophisticated. For example the search and index might be combined, or the locators might be listed in order of importance. This turned out to have been a common theme throughout the conference – the index can enhance the digital offering.
Jan showed us a demo of Luxid® (http://www.temis.com/index.php?id=201&selt=1), produced by Temis, which is a semantically enriched search. It is already being supplied to several major publishers. She also demonstrated a dynamic visualisation of information – an ontology, or online index.
Finally, Bill opened the session to the floor and asked for questions, and suggestions from delegates concerning what members want from the PTG. One enquiry was about access to the PTG website which is ‘members only’ at the moment. The group would like to make it available publicly but would have to split the content as some sections should remain restricted. Another delegate asked that the PTG liaise with publishers to stress the need for the publishers’ technological teams (whether in-house or outsourced) to talk to their indexers as much more could be achieved by working together to produce the digital offering.
The PTG can be contacted via their group email address info@ptg-indexers.org.uk.
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