Indexes to the Journals of the American Jewish Historical Society: Significance, Coverage, and Format

Abstract

The indexes to the journals of the American Jewish Historical Society are reviewed from the perspective of recent indexing standards. The significance of the journals is great, and they clearly merited indexing, but there are many flaws in the execution of the project. Inconsistency of coverage, poor vocabulary control, a lack of continuation headings, and imprecise filing are among the problems noted. The detailed indexing is praiseworthy, and these tools should be useful to librarians and researchers. References to recent indexing manuals and standards are provided.