You talked and we listened! Due to popular demand, we will be rearranging all of the books at both the Main and the Fairmount Branch Libraries to make it easier for you, the customer, to find exactly the book you’re looking for! Starting today, all of our books will be arranged by color! Looking for that great book about something-or-other, that you read last year or maybe a few years ago? Can’t remember the title or the author or the subject, but it’s burned into your brain that the book had a blue cover? Fear no more! Simply go to the “Blue Sector” of the library (2nd floor at Main, near the windows at Fairmount) and scan the shades of blue (darkest navy to lightest sky blue) for that longed for tome!
If you need a book by a particular author, or on a specific subject but do not know what color the book is, you will need to guess. Looking for a book on training your dog? Try brown or black. Something on planning your finances? Hmmm, maybe green? The latest mystery from Evanovich? No idea. You’re on your own there.
Be sure to stop by any Customer Service or Reference/Information desk and ask for a copy of the Official Davenport Public Library RGB Color Wheel Chart And Library Hours brochure which will show you how the colors are arranged in each library. Just another example of the fine customer service you’ve grown to expect from your library!
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OK, in case you’ve haven’t caught on yet, and before any of our librarians keel over with a heart attack – APRIL FOOL’S! I can assure you that the Davenport Library will not be abandoning the Dewey Decimal System anytime soon and you will still be able to find books with that handy dandy “call number”. Makes you appreciate that seemingly random system a bit more now doesn’t it?
Actually, arranging books by color isn’t completely far fetched. In 2004, Adobe Books in San Francisco let artist Chris Cobb rearrange their entire inventory of books in color order (seen here at right) The project was called “There is Nothing Wrong in this Whole Wide World” and was based on the simple idea that, even though there is so much wrong in the world, we should still create things that are beautiful and amazing. Originally set to be in place for one week, it was so popular that it ran from November 12, 2004 to January 20, 2005 and was often described as “magical” and “dreamlike”. (Please note, Adobe Books has about 20,000 books; the Main library alone has more than 200,000 books so stop thinking about suggesting we try this!) I haven’t been able to find any information on how store employees found specific titles for customers though – the librarian in me shudders at the thought.
You’ll find more information about Chris Cobb and his installation here, as well as fun trivia such as, blue books sold the best, brown books tended to be stolen the most and there are very few yellow books published, or listen to his interview with NPR.
And, I’ve got to admit, it’s awful pretty, isn’t it?
Have you ever read a book that was so good, you were sure you’d have no trouble remembering the title or author? Weeks later you want another book by that author; it turns out that the jumble of words you’re able to recollect don’t add up to anything that’ll retrieve the book.
