maroon book maroon book maroon book black book green book green book green book purple book purple book purple book purple book gray book medium blue book medium blue book medium blue book medium blue book red book red book white book brown book brown book brown book aqua book dark blue book dark blue book yellow book yellow book yellow book tan book tan book tan book tan book orange book pink book browngraybluepurpletanredblue, darkgreenyellowpinkblackaquaorangewhitemaroon
Color Index:shelf of books
This index was designed by Sarah Boling as a first approach to the famous problem of locating a book using visual rather than textual clues. Approximately 2000 titles have the color of the volume added as an index point. The index can be approached in 3 ways:
search any color by clicking on it
click on the nearest appropriate color swatch above or on one of the sample pages below:
Original page Searchable bookshelf sample Periodicals by color:
our binder's color swatches

b) Search the online catalog in an ordinary way (e.g. keyword, subject, title), then click on 'limit this search' (see below left), choose 'limit by color', and select the nearest color from the browse list offered (see below right)

c) Text search by color: key in color terms directly to the index. Terms must match exactly the ones listed on the screen, right down to capitalization!

More notes

Partial bibliography on color indexing:

Boling, Sarah J. "Visual indexing in a multimedia world" (LLNE news, vol. 21, no. 2)

Requirements study for future catalogs, progress report #2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968.