Blue book

This article is about the pricing book genre, for the magazine see Blue Book (magazine)

Blue book or bluebook is a term often referring to an almanac or other compilation of statistics and information. The term dates back to the 15th century, when large blue velvet-covered books were used for record-keeping by the Parliament of the United Kingdom.^[1]

The term has a variety of other meanings:

Academia and education

• The Yale College Programs of Study, referred to as the Blue Book
• Blue book exam, a type of test involving writing an essay, typically into a pamphlet – traditionally blue colored – called a "blue book"
• The Blue Book, A set of compiled notes taken during lecturers given by Ludwig Wittgenstein while at Cambridge

Construction

Chicago Construction Blue Book from 2003

• The Blue Book Building and Construction Network, a yellow pages-like source of company information in commercial construction since 1913, which contains information on architects, contractors, manufacturers, suppliers, vendors, and other companies relevant to the commercial bidding process^[2]

^[3]

Computing and technology

• Blue Book (CD standard), the name of one format from the Rainbow Book standards for compact discs, defining the Enhanced CD standard
• Blue Book (FCC), a set of telecommunications recommendations issued by the International Telecommunication Union Standardisation Sector in 1988
• A common name of the book Smalltalk-80: The Language and its Implementation, and any virtual machine implementation based on Smalltalk
• Blue Book protocol, the file transfer protocol of the Coloured Book protocols
• The Java Virtual Machine specification
• Blue Books, spacecraft data and telemetry recommendations made by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems
• Ingo Wegener's "Blue Book", an influential textbook in circuit complexity formally titled The Complexity of Boolean Functions (1987)^[4]

Engineering

• Blue Book Design Guide to BS 5950-1, a design book for structural steel element design

Government and finance

• In the Traineeship scheme of the European Commission, internship candidates who pass a preselection are added to a Blue Book, from which the final successful candidates are chosen
• The publications of the European Central Bank describing the main payment and securities settlement systems in the EU Member States.

Mexico

• State of Veracruz, Facts about Mexico, The Country of the Future, The Blue Book of Mexico / Estado de Veracruz, Verdades sobre México, El País del Porvenir, El Libro Azul de México, bilingual book originally published in 1923 when the bad times of the Mexican Revolution seemed to be over and the future looked promising; reprinted in the 1990s (Edición facsimilar de la Editora del Gobierno del Estado)

United Kingdom

• Blue Book (Office for National Statistics), published annually by the Office for National Statistics; contains the estimates of the domestic and national product, income and expenditure for the United Kingdom
• Any official report in the UK of Parliament or the Privy Council, which in the 19th and early 20th centuries were standardly issued in a dark blue paper cover^[5]
• "Treachery of the Blue Books", the name given in Wales to the 1847 parliamentary report on the state of education in the country
• Annual reports produced by the governments of each crown colony and protectorate of the British Empire
• A weekly digest of signals intelligence reports by the British intelligence agency GCHQ
• Guide to Learning the Knowledge of London, a comprehensive guide to the streets of London used by Taxicabs of the United Kingdom (black-cab drivers)
• "The Blue Book", genocide scholars' nickname for The treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1916^[6]

United States

• Blue Book (FCC), a nickname for a report on Public Service Responsibility for Broadcast Licensees issued on March 7, 1946 by the Federal Communications Commission of the United States
• Blue Book (United States Marine Corps), a bulletin listing the lineal precedence and seniority of Marine Corps officers
• Project Blue Book, a U.S. Air Force study on UFOs
• Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States, a Revolutionary War drill manual written by Baron von Steuben for the Continental Army, colloquially referred to as the Blue Book
• Various almanacs from U.S. state governments:
  • Iowa Official Register (the "Redbook")
  • Official Manual State of Missouri ("Missouri Blue Book")
  • Oregon Blue Book
  • Tennessee Blue Book
  • Wisconsin Blue Book
• The Blue Book of the John Birch Society, a transcript of the founding meeting of the John Birch Society
• Blue Book, a semi-annual print publication and real-time online directory published since 1901 by Blue Book Services, Inc., a credit and marketing information agency based in Carol Stream, IL that serves the wholesale produce industry and the wholesale lumber and forest products industry.^[7]

Jewellery

• Blue Book, the Tiffany & Co. catalog first published in 1845
• The CIBJO World Jewellery Confederation Blue Book, a three-part publication outlining terminology, classification and ethical guidelines for coloured gemstones, diamonds and pearls

Legal

• The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, a style guide that prescribes the most widely used legal citation system in the United States

Literature

• The included Blue Book notes in the 1958 first published book of Ludwig Wittgenstein's collective academic works Preliminary Studies for the "Philosophical Investigations"

Media

• Blue Book (magazine), published from 1905 to 1975
• Healthcare Blue Book, a website with U.S. healthcare prices
• Little Blue Books, a series of 20th century paperback pocket books by the Haldeman-Julius Publishing Company
• Power Media Bluebook With Talk Show Guest Directory and Power Media Bluebook, annual publications written by Mitchell P. Davis and published by Broadcast Interview Source^[8]

Science

• A publication of the United Nations Environment Programme listing endangered species
• Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry, a compilation of IUPAC recommendations

Sports

• Blue Book (racing), a publication of The Jockey Club

Transportation

• Aircraft Bluebook, a digest that covers the price and condition of used general aviation aircraft in the U.S; the Aircraft Bluebook Rating Scale (or "Bluebook scale") is used in the aviation industry to rate the condition of used aircraft.
• Automobile Blue Book
• Big Blue Book, also known as The Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair
• Kelley Blue Book, an automotive appraisal guide from the company of the same name; it is the United States' largest automotive vehicle valuation company
• The nickname of the annual publication of the UK's Motor Sports Association

Other publications

• The Blue Book, a tourist guide to the San Antonio Sporting District (the red-light district of San Antonio, Texas), published in 1911
• A common name of the Handbook of United States Coins by Richard S. Yeoman
• One of the Blue and Brown Books, sets of notes taken during lectures conducted by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein between 1933 and 1935
• Service Club Directory, also known as "The Blue Book", club guide published in Gainesville, Florida, by Brenda Merkley, published from 1985 to present day
• MacRae's Blue Book, an industrial directory published since 1893, is produced by Owen Media Partners^[9]
• Handbook of Permitted Conventions for the English Bridge Union

See also

• Grey literature
• Persuasive writing
• Blue booking, a term from role-playing games for events which happen away from the game itself
• Green Book (disambiguation)
• Redbook
• Redbooks (disambiguation)

References

External links

• State Blue Books. American Library Association's Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT)