Tanya raises a good question about pharmacy books which are referred to as
the "Red Book" etc.  I don't know the answer to that, and let's not forget
the infamous "Green Book" for residencies.

It's sort of a joke among us librarians.  Patron comes in and asks for a
book.  Doesn't remember the title or author or thinks it might be (not
even close).  Does sort of vaguely remember the subject content.  But by
golly remembers the color!

With computerized cataloging and multitudinous searchable fields, maybe we
should think about including a field for color.  I don't mean going back
and retrospectively adding that in for every title we have, but a new
policy.  And perhaps adding it retrospectively for just those titles which
are frequently referred to by their color.

(Then we beat up any publisher who dares to change the color on us!)
(Just kidding.)

What do you think?

--Cathy


Catherine L. Wolfson                        Health Sciences Library
Information Services Librarian              University of Arizona
[log in to unmask]                   1501 N. Campbell Ave.
Tel:  520-626-2927                          P.O. Box 245079
Fax:  520-626-2922                          Tucson, AZ  85724-5079