About Emily
Emily LeGrand, BA, MLIS
Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Environmental Studies from Carleton College, Northfield, MN, USA 2009
Master of Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada 2013 with courses in environmental management
SelfDesign Graduate Institute Masters Course in Child and Adult Development 2016
Certificate of Completion University of California at Berkeley Indexing: Theory and Application 2019
Indexing Society of Canada Member and Outreach Committee Volunteer
American Society for Indexing Special Interest Group in Gardening/Environmental Studies Member
Always a curious, voracious learner and reader, I was an avid index user by age 7 or 8. I first learned about indexing as a career during my masters program in Library and Information Studies. It sounded amazing. I thought it might be a great fit someday, but it’s not a mental process for everyone. After six years of doing projects and contracts in the realm of environmental education and social change, I was ready to find out if my brain is an indexing brain. And it turns out, it is! I love the sustained, complex, ever-changing work of indexing. It’s a great fit for my naturally analytical thought process and my knack for precise, insightful word combinations.
I enjoy working in trade books, academic books, textbooks, children’s books, and organization and government documents and reports. For the most part though, I end up indexing mostly academic books, which I really enjoy. My subject area knowledge comes from formal study, self-directed learning and reading, and through passion-driven work in the subject area. I have worked in the realms of environmental non-profits doing naturalized coastal erosion and stormwater management, water quality, youth engagement, and nature play facilitation and advocacy for children. I’ve also worked on small organic farms, as a trail builder and as a biological lab and field technician. I fed my passion for lifelong learning and education by working to found a self-directed learning centre for teenagers.
As an avid index user, I frequently see the value of having the right person to create an index, someone who understands and cares about the themes of the subject area of the book. Someone without a clear view of the subject may produce an index where the concepts and words being lifted from each page are not actually the most important thing, or phrased in a way that gets to the heart of the matter. If that continues for a whole book, the the result is an index with some functionality, but not in keeping with the key insights and qualities of the book. So don’t let that happen to your book! It’s a good idea to take the time to find an indexer with a high comfort level and passion for the material. I’ll be the first to let you know if I am not the right person for your book.
I am also passionate about knowledge translation - that is, the process of making sure knowledge and information that has a “therefore”, or put another way, implications for how things could be done differently gets all the way to the people positioned to actually do it differently. Through the work of indexing, I read many usually scholarly books that have a therefore, and I am making a New Years commitment to turning what I’ve learned from indexing your book into advocacy. I will write a letter or email to a key decision-maker or stakeholder of the issue raised in your work. In this way, I will help make the knowledge you’ve created through your research or book matter.
Areas of knowledge expertise include:
biology
environmental studies
ecology
nature
environmental economics
sustainability studies
philosophy
psychology
neuroscience
education
child and human development
field guides
hiking guides
health and mental health
medicine
