It’s not sex, but the human urge to make lists is basic. One of the first uses to which writing was put, 4,000 years ago in Assyria, was the compilation of cuneiform clay-tablet lists of goods and possessions.

Several millennia later, the urge remains as urgent as ever. If anything, technology has allowed us to indulge our listomania to the full.

Biographical Index to Artists in Canada is a good example of what that can mean. Compiled by retired Vancouver public librarian Evelyn de R. McMann, it includes entries on 9,052 artists of all descriptions. An indexer extraordinaire, McMann covers the field going back to the 17th century.

Her “quick reference guide” provides time and place of birth and death, nationality, media, and biographical sources. In other words, the Index is a starting point, the very first place a researcher would look in the absence of any other material.

Not exactly a necessity for the average art lover, but helpful in the context of a library or institution.

McMann has clearly gone to extraordinary lengths in the preparation of this book. Hers is the kind of meticulous work that typically goes unacknowledged and unappreciated. But anyone who finds the clue they’re looking for in this document will be glad for her efforts.