Blue book

Blue book or bluebook is a term often referring to an almanac, buyer's guide or other compilation of statistics and information. The popular notion is that this 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] However, the term seems to have had an Indian origin. Known as Nilapita (Sanskrit: Blue Deposit), the official annals and state papers record the good and the bad events of the year. Hieun-Tsang says that each province of India maintained its own Nilapita. ^[2] The term has a variety of other meanings:

Academia and education

• The Yale College Programs of Study, referred to as the Blue Book^[3]
• 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 lectures given by Ludwig Wittgenstein while at Cambridge

Construction

Chicago Construction Blue Book from 2003

• The Blue Book of Building and Construction,^[4] was a yellow pages-like buyers guide of company information targeted towards commercial construction, first published in 1913. The guide contains information on architects, contractors, manufacturers, suppliers, vendors, and other companies relevant to the commercial bidding and build process. The hardbound book was retired in 2016 and subsequently replaced by a bi-annual regional magazine called the Who's Who in Building and Construction. The prior content of the hard bound book is now completely online and called The Blue Book Network. The company which publishes the information is Jefferson Valley, New York-based Contractor's Register.

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)^[5]

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.

United Kingdom

• Beginning in 1822 each colonial governor in the British Empire was required to enter details on a wide range of matters for that year in Colonial Blue Books.^[6]
• 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^[7]
• "Treachery of the Blue Books", the name given in Wales to the 1847 parliamentary report on the state of education in the country
• A weekly digest of signals intelligence reports by the British intelligence agency GCHQ^[8]
• "The Blue Book", genocide scholars' nickname for The treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1916^[9]

• The Blue Book, Political Truth or Historical Fact, a 2009 documentary film about this report

United States

• Blue Book (FCC), a nickname for a report on Public Service Responsibility of 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:
  • 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

Jewelry

• Blue Book, the Tiffany & Co. catalog first published in 1845
• The CIBJO World Jewelry 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 and Big Blue Books, a series of 20th century paperback 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^[10]

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
• The Yearbook of the Motor Sports Association, contains rules for motor sports run under the MSA.^[11]

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
• Kelley Blue Book, an automotive appraisal guide from the company of the same name; it is the United States' largest automotive vehicle valuation company

Other publications

• One of the Blue and Brown Books, sets of notes taken during lectures conducted by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein between 1933 and 1935

See also

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

References

External links

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