searching using indexes 8.3

 EXPLAIN ANALYZE SELECT * FROM itemsbyauthor;

                                                    QUERY PLAN                                                     

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 Seq Scan on itemsbyauthor  (cost=0.00..971.34 rows=53634 width=34) (actual time=0.029..25.831 rows=53634 loops=1)

 Total runtime: 34.851 ms

(2 rows)

I have an index for the table, but it is not being utilized.  Why is this?  How do I get the index to be used?