Colleen Dunham Indexing (CDI) facilitates information access by creating simple information maps for both traditional publishers and Internet content providers. By focusing on the reader/user/audience, CDI recasts old index and catalog models to solve today’s information overload. CDI is the direction-finder for readers who are adrift in information.
Back of the book indexes. “Every serious book of nonfiction should have an index if it is to achieve its maximum usefulness,” states the Chicago Manual of Style. CDI provides the expertise you need to bring that maximum usefulness to your nonfiction titles. CDI has specialists in a wide range of fields who will deliver both breadth and depth to your projects. With more than 50 years of collective experience, CDI works faster and smarter to bring indexes in on time and within budget.
Consulting services. Not sure what kind of map your book or website requires? Not sure how to schedule it or budget it? Take advantage of CDI’s many years of user research and project management expertise. CDI can help you plot it all out.
Software feature mapping. As software becomes more complex, exciting key features can become buried under layers of menus. And when users cannot find features, they often assume they do not exist, leaving some of the best parts of your software unused. CDI can map features to actual user queries within your software, enabling people to enjoy your product more and resulting in higher customer satisfaction and fewer customer support calls.
E-commerce information mapping. Websites provide product information and tools to online readers and buyers. But when people get to your site, do they know how much content there is? CDI can create the tools to help your customers understand everything your site has to offer and keep them coming back again and again. More activity on your site can translate into more prestige, more advertising, and more revenue.
Collection indexes. What common thread runs through your titles? Time? Place? Passion? For publishers of both fiction and nonfiction who are looking for new, intriguing ways to market your publications, CDI offers collection indexing to help readers see the common themes, characters, and places that traverse a body of work. Helping readers understand those threads provides a refreshing perspective on your existing collections.
Consider how an index to an author’s full collection can breathe fresh life into that work and provide a new means for readers to access themes and characters that are intriguing to track. New and exciting patterns emerge from this innovative mapping concept.
Nonprofit information collections. CDI helps your organization provide broad access to a variety of archived information. The records of your school bulletins, church weeklies, community newspapers, etc., never fail to tell a much bigger story of community and participation. CDI’s expert team can memorialize that participation for your community.
Scholarly research. CDI offers indexing services to Ph.D. candidates, law school students, and other scholarly writers who need to provide in-depth access to their research. A CDI index is a vital way for your audience to appreciate your research and gain access to your ideas. CDI offers affordable student rates to qualified candidates.
Quick indexes. Little book? Little budget? Tight deadline? CDI can create quick indexes, “mini-maps” that contain the five essentials you must have to point your readers to your writing.