The American Society for Indexing held its 2026 Virtual Conference, Indexing in Interesting Times: Strategies for Thriving Amid Chaos, on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, and Thursday, June 11, 2026. Maria Sullivan presented a session, Cautionary Considerations on So Many Levels: Vigilance, Mitigation, Prevention, and Recovery for Indexers, on Wednesday.
Maria reflected on her experience of coming back in 2012 to find her home on fire. She discussed what indexers need to be doing well in advance of disasters, both small and large. What she suggested would be prompt guidelines. Do you have a plan? Do you need a plan?
She stressed the importance of backup systems, which you have tested. She said backup systems could be local or online. Keep local copies of software installs on thumb drives and copies of license keys. She suggested using a password management system. Organize folders in your email. Keep different folders in your file management system. She suggested setting up a buddy system. She discussed equipment and utilities and having a laptop that is easily replaceable. She said to reboot your computer and close your files, not to keep the computer running. Restart it in the morning.
I will discuss the next session of the ASI 2026 Virtual Conference in the following blog posting. For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, please see the Stellar Searches LLC website, https://www.stellarsearches.com.