Kate Mertes, Associate Founder

Kate Mertes is sole proprietor of Mertes Editorial Services, providing indexing, information retrieval, and editorial expertise for complex, challenging projects in law and the humanities.

Kate took her B.A. in medieval studies, a Ph.D. in medieval history, and a post-doctoral degree in theology, and after teaching at university level for several years moved into publishing with a stint at Oxford English Dictionaries.

After nine years as a managing editor of indexing with Research Institute of America, a legal publishing company, Kate started her own business in 1998. She has lived in Alexandria, VA, since 1992.

Kate served on the Board of the American Society for Indexing (ASI) from 1998 to 2004, and was president of ASI in 2002–2003; she is currently serving her second presidential term. She was also president of the Mid and South Atlantic chapter of ASI, 2005–2006, and periodically teaches a course on indexing for the Library School of the Catholic University of America.

Kate’s indexing projects include three different indexes for editions of the Bible; the most recent American commentary on the Code of Canon Law; The “Red Book,” the General Administration Office’s guide to federal appropriations law, in both online and print formats; a 1,200-page edition of the works of James Wilson (a signatory of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of 1787) for Liberty Fund; and many scholarly works of history and political science for Cambridge, Cornell, and Stanford University Presses and the World Bank.

Kate is also the author of Good Governance and Politic Rule: The English Noble Household, 1250—1550, and chapters in many of ASI’s publications on the indexing of legal, historical, and theological materials. She is a co-author, with Fred Leise and Nan Badgett, of Indexing for Editors and Authors.