The TECHNIQUE OF INDEXING BOOKS

Abstract

It is impossible to give an exposition of the techniques of indexing in a twenty‐minute talk, so I shall only try to draw attention to a few basic principles, with special reference to the indexing of medical books.

Land use/land cover on the South Downs, England in the 1870s: A case study mapping and applying landscape metrics to the Ordnance Survey Parish Books of Reference

“…The British Library's partner, Google Books, in a digitisation project of documents out of copyright, has scanned the Parish BofRef covering the English and Welsh counties and made them freely available from this source (Google Books, n.d.). Previous work examining the BofRef have identified some apparent errors (Bishop, 2017;Coppock, 1968;Harley, 1979) and four further instances have been revealed here (see below). Nevertheless, by the time the BofRef were discontinued, 'land-use information had been published for several thousand parishes in Great Britain' (Harley, 1979, p. 1).…”

“…Harley (1979) reviewed the BofRef as a data source over 40 years ago, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. More recently the BofRef have been revisited for a single parish in Scotland (Bishop, 2017). The physical area (acres) and LU/LC for land parcels were recorded during the mapping of British counties and parishes at a scale of 1:2500 and published in the Parish BofRef as part of the topographic mapping undertaken by the Ordnance Survey from the mid-1800s.…”

“…Each parish BofRef tabulated the sequentially numbered land parcels over a minimum size (not specified) and their area as calculated by the OS surveyors; additionally, the parcel number was also shown on the printed maps, although area was only included on some of the later print runs of First Edition maps. Correspondence between parcel number (and area) where present on the maps and in the BofRef is generally accepted as accurate (Bishop, 2017;Harley, 1979). The third column, headed 'Remarks' in English and Welsh parish books ('Description' in Scottish ones), details the field examiner's recording of the parcels' LU/LC.…”