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Apologies if this is in the wrong place - but we are a newbie today !

This is not a criticism - just a query.

We have just added our 49 books, but then noted that 20 of them were not indexed.  Even allowing for a couple of older books, circa 40% not indexed seemed to be quite a high proprtion for a broadly general library.

We have ticked the index request, but wondered whether they then go into what could be a very long queue, or does a book need # number of requests before it gets done ?

Yes, I appreciate that we could offer to index them, but that could be several thousand recipes !

Welcome, McMac!

There was a time -- maybe as recently as a year or a year and a half ago -- when virtually all books on the shelves of 50 or more EYB members were indexed.  But since then, there has been a surge in EYB membership, and now  the "magic number" is closer to 70 (for books not newly published).  Specifically, close to 90% of books that are on 70 or more shelves are indexed; while for those on 50-69 shelves, only half are indexed.

The odds of any of your currently unindexed holdings being indexed by EYB are very low, since they're all on 37 shelves or fewer.  What would increase the chances at least of the most popular three or four of those books is for other members who own them to request indexing -- but until there's the ability to directly message other members, it's not easy to help that happen. Likewise, it's hard to make a targeted appeal for other members to index books you share -- but you could make a general appeal in the forum on behalf of your most wanted one or two.

I'm afraid your collection isn't quite as broadly general as you may have thought, at least at the bottom end: half of your un-indexed cookbooks are in the single digits of member bookshelves. The bright spot is that one of your 40% is currently being indexed by one of the other 16 members who owns it. The possible downside is that he or she may never complete the indexing.

If you get interested in indexing one of your own books, I recommend starting with a smaller one, say 150 recipes or fewer, because it's an exacting process at first (though rewarding!).  The easiest way to dip your toe into indexing is by adding "clipped" online recipes, which become available to the whole membership once reviewed and released by EYB staff.

Meanwhile, have fun cooking from the 60% of your books that are indexed! Look at the Notes on recipes to see what some of the thousands of members who share your Jamie Oliver books have had to say about them, and share your experiences on ones you've cooked.

Looking at the bookshelves of other members may also inspire a desire to acquire...  and adding already-indexed books to your shelf is another way to up the percentage <g>.

Thanks ellabee for your very informative response - we couldn't have done better!  I would also add to McMac that the indexing process is a huge ongoing task, one which will never be completed (unless members step up to index all the less popular books).  We have more than 143,000 books listed in the Library and several thousand are added every year, both newly published and older books that new members add to the Library when they join.  If we indexed every book in the Library it would cost us $19m - we need a lot more paying members to do that!  So for now, we are indexing new books, new magazines, keeping indexed blogs up to date and indexing older books owned by larger numbers of members.

ellabee and Jane, thanks for the update on the stats and the numbers likely necessary to see an older title indexed. It's helpful for me to know in as much as which titles I may be more interested in indexing myself if not likely to be tackled "officially" (I just submitted what I think was my 6th indexing for review today, and was looking at what book I wanted to tackle next.)

I'm one of those with a high unindexed percentage in my library, because I tend to collect a lot of vintage/older titles, plus ones I pick up in travels outside of the US. It did frustrate me a lot at first, and even now less than 40% of my collection is indexed, but I still find the site extremely useful when I'm stuck for ideas on what to cook and don't want to just randomly pull titles off my shelves. I also like being able to quickly search through online recipes, too.

These days I also find it helps me decide which titles to buy when I'm shopping, even in used book stores. :) I can pull up EYB on my phone and check if a title is indexed or not, and that can be a selling point for sure.

And indexing a book is definitely something I enjoy, I only wish I had more time to do it as it really helps me learn the recipes in my books so much better. I definitely recommend giving it a try, and along with the suggestions made by ellabee about starting small I'd also suggest starting with titles in narrowly defined topic areas. That makes it a lot easier to learn "the rules" and how to do the basics without having to overly worry about every single topic at once. That is, I suggest starting with, say, a particular cuisine-foced book (Italian, French, etc), or type of dish (grilling, casseroles, desserts) that you like, then slowly building from there. I started with a seafood grilling book, then an Italian grilling book, then pasta sauces, etc. For instance, I'm not much of a baker or dessert person so learning the rules for sweet dishes has been tough for me...so I stick more to books focused on savory topics as it's not only more interesting and easy for me but more likely titles I'm going to use a lot in my kitchen.

Sydney has one tough job!

There are a lot of variables that affect the time to release of member-indexed books.  Aside from the obvious one of how many members have recently submitted indexing for review, another is how new an indexer is to the process: Sydney makes a priority of first-time indexers (the vast majority), in order to give them the satisfaction of seeing the results of their work as soon as possible, in hopes of making them more likely to take on another book.  That means that often we "hardened" indexers have to wait a bit longer to see our books enter the ranks, on the assumption that we're not as likely to bail on the process. 

The time between submission and release has varied from about two weeks to a month for me.  If you've submitted close to a month ago, I don't think she'd mind a gentle inquiry.

Nicole makes an excellent point about about how much indexing helps one engage with the recipes in a given book. I've now found it can go both ways.  I'm currently poking along on a book on my second-tier, less-used-cookbooks shelf, and realizing that one of the things that's making it such slow going is that I'm just not that excited by many of the recipes.  In my previous efforts, I've always found quite a few dishes that intrigued, or learned new techniques, that I wouldn't have without the attention that indexing brings.  But in this case, so far no joy. Lesson learned for future indexing: pick a book I'm more interested in to begin with.

Look at that proportion of member indexed books to pro indexed books that Cati found. You lovely member indexers are making a BIG difference!

I don't want to discourage any potential member indexers with talk of flunking! Having been on the other side, too, I know it can feel like getting exam results, especially when you complete your first book. But my role is more that of a guide through the EYB indexing process. I love my job and find it very rewarding to see new indexers come back for more.  Any member who voluntarily takes on indexing wants the same thing I do, which is to make EYB as useful as possible. My purpose is to ensure that usefulness by maintaining our standards of accuracy, completeness and consistency. 

As ellabee said in her always informative response, it can take a couple of weeks to get feedback and when member indexers have been particularly busy, as you have been in the last month, that can stretch even further. She is also right that I prioritise getting feedback to first-time and new indexers. Many of the books I review are by first-time indexers, and they do take more time with my fine-toothed comb.

Indexing does give you an entirely different persepctive on your cookbooks, so if you get into it and decide that the activity is not for you, let us know so that we can release the book for someone else to work on. The same goes if you find, as ellabee has, that the particular book you are working on is not inspiring you to go on.  Either Deborah ([email protected]) or I ([email protected]) will be happy to unassign books you don't want to finish.  Perhaps another member will be inspired to finish that book.

cheers,

Sydney