I maintain collections of journals and periodicals on mountaineering and conservation history which stretch back about 70 years. Needless to say, finding a specific article in the collection is a frustrating exercise. I’ve taken to compiling tables of contents, atricle abstracts, and a limited index for the whole set. The publishers do not produce indices for these journals. Nowhere do I store the articles themselves, just a pointer and short description. I’ve looked through various copyright websites but I can’t find information that directly pertains to my issue. Is my personal compilation a legal derivative of the original source material? If I were to publish my compilation on the internet, is that a violation of the copyright of the original material? I’m not a professional scholar, but it could be considered a scholarly work since it’s used for research purposes couldn’t it?
No idea, but I’ll bump this from Page 2 for ya. 
I don’t think so. I volunteer to index many different journals for an organization. The index is even sold to people.
You aren’t copying the creative output, you’re just organizing it for people.
The publisher would probably be glad to know that there is an index of some kind for the work.