Bill: It is true that the color blind may have trouble seeing the actual colors, but they would still see a change in the gradient as a visual cue. Color blind are not necessarily all full color blind either, so they would still see a “change” in the color. The important part is that there is a visual cue that lets people easily pick out where one subject starts and one ends. I agree with you on the APA and MLA style citations. If ever they change, it can be a real big pain, but that is already a problem we face with outdated citation help handouts and web sites. I don’t see why this can’t be modified to provide the building pieces for a citation (i.e. author, title, publisher, etc.)

Dana: I like the idea of embedding the citation information in a RFID chip embedded in the book or wrap. Ideally, I would like this color coordination incorporated into the library binding. Even if we started color coding the white stickers that have the LC numbers would be nice. The book wrap hiding the title information can easily be remedied if the title is also included with the call number on the wrap (again adding another layer of complication to actual implementation).

When I read the explanation of the project, I appreciated the artist’s In my ideal world, the 21 subject categories would have a standards color coordination, so that all libraries would still have the same color coordination, and easily go to any library and pick up on the LCCN organization. Who knew the old library joke about a patron asking for a “blue” book might make sense some day in the future!

Probably not feasible (technically or monetarily), but how about embedding this kind of info into a bar code or RFID chip in each book and then users with computers or readers offered at the circ desk could just view/download that to RefWorks, etc easily?