Yearbook


A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a type of a book published annually. One use is to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school. The term also refers to a book of statistics or facts published annually. A yearbook often has an overarching theme that is present throughout the entire book.
Many high schools, colleges, and elementary and middle schools publish yearbooks; however, many schools are dropping yearbooks or decreasing page counts given social media alternatives to a mass-produced physical photographically-oriented record. From 1995 to 2013, the number of U.S. college yearbooks dropped from roughly 2,400 to 1,000.

Yearbooks by country

Australia

Yearbooks published by Australian schools follow a consistent structure to their North American counterparts. Australian yearbooks function as an annual magazine for the school body, with a significant focus on objectively reporting the events that occurred during the schooling year. They cover various topics including academic, sporting, extra-curricular, student life and other activities. Yearbook staff predominantly consist of only one or two school teachers who serve as editors in chief. Australian school yearbooks are predominantly created on A4 paper size, featuring a softcover style front-and-back cover, typically 250 or 300 g/m² density. Hardcover style yearbooks are not as common, although exceptions occur.
In recent years, companies have been servicing Australian schools with online yearbook systems that allow schools to create their yearbooks collaboratively online. This is sold as allowing a higher level of student involvement whilst making the workflow simpler and easier for all involved. Additionally, some schools feature a separate yearbook for students in Year 12.

Publishing

Australian school yearbooks are primarily published with offset printing technology, with a mix of colour, spot colour, and black and white pages, depending on the school's budget. In the past, Year 12 yearbooks were simply printed using a photocopier, but Australian yearbook publishers have improved the quality of these publications by providing low cost digital printing solutions.

India

India does not have a long history of publishing school yearbooks. However, top Business schools and Engineering colleges publish custom yearbooks. This is typically created by the final year students of the batch. A yearbook or a memory book would consist of testimonials and common pages such as Directors address and events, festivals picture collages.
Most top schools do create schools magazines which are shared with each student. Some of the early adopters among school students are starting to create custom yearbooks in the same line as created by students from US or Europe. This trend is likely to pick up with the advent of technology platforms that make it easy for students to create them.

Nigeria

In Nigeria, it is very common to find yearbooks in schools as it is in countries such as the US and Canada, though there are a number of schools that allocate annual funding and publish yearbooks at the end of the school year. These yearbooks closely resemble those found in the US, with columns about certain themes, in-depth coverage of major events and large collections of photos, as well as drawings reflecting daily life at these schools. Some schools do produce yearbook every year.

South Africa

In South Africa it is not as common to find yearbooks in schools as it is in countries such as the US and Canada, though there are a number of schools that allocate annual funding and publish yearbooks at the end of the school year. These yearbooks closely resemble those found in the US, with columns about certain themes, in-depth coverage of major events and large collections of photos, as well as drawings reflecting daily life at these schools.
Major events covered include Matric Farewell Dances, annual sporting events, and grade group events organized specifically for a specific grade.

United States

and middle schools may have a designated staff member who is in charge of putting together that school's yearbook, with or without the help of the students. These books are usually considerably smaller than a high school or college yearbook.
High school yearbooks generally cover a wide variety of topics from academics, student life, sports, clubs and other major school events. Generally, each student is pictured with their class, while seniors might get a page-width picture or a slightly larger photo than the underclassmen to reflect their status in the school. Each school organization, such as a sports team or academic/social club, is usually pictured. A high school yearbook staff consists of students with one or more faculty advisors. The yearbook staff can be chosen in a variety of ways, including volunteer extracurricular organization, academic class, or assigned to the entire senior class.
High school yearbooks are considered a form of journalism by scholastic journalism such as the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association, the Journalism Education Association and state and regional scholastic press associations. Numerous awards are given for journalistic excellence annually.
Colleges that publish yearbooks follow a similar format to high schools. Some include detailed recaps of football and basketball games. College yearbooks are considered by the Associated Collegiate Press to be a form of journalism. ACP holds the annual Pacemaker competition for college yearbooks as well as other collegiate media outlets. Many colleges have phased out yearbooks due to high prices and low demand, while some, like Auburn University, opt to support annual publications with relatively small portions of student fees to continue this over 120 year old tradition. The Glomerata continues to be one of the most circulated yearbooks in the country, distributing 8,000 copies to Auburn University's student body in April 2018.

U.S. military

Warships of the United States Navy often produce a yearbook style publication upon completion of a long deployment. These books, referred to by sailors as "cruise books" are produced on board by the ship's Morale, Welfare and Recreation department and Public Affairs staff, and then printed ashore by the same printing companies that publish high school and college yearbooks. The cruise book of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier typically reaches over 600 pages in length, as it includes portraits of the more than 5,000 sailors and Marines assigned to the ship's company and embarked carrier air wing.
The Navy's Recruit Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois also produces yearbook style publications for each graduating division of recruits. These publications are much smaller, as each recruit division totals roughly 80 sailors. The book is called "The Keel" after the part of a ship that is constructed first, as RTC or boot camp sets the foundation for the sailor's career. These books contain a color section common to all books published that year, with a specific black and white section added for each recruit division and their "brother" or "sister" division.

Production and distribution

Compilation

Yearbooks are generally compiled by a student club or a yearbook class, usually advised by a faculty member. The yearbook staff usually has one or more editors who are responsible for collecting and compiling all of the information to be contained within the book, also deciding the layout and allocation of space for each contributor.

Sections

Most yearbooks have a similar format, which includes individual photographs of students, information on activities, sports and other activities.
People (seniors, underclassmen, faculty)
In the U.S., where a yearbook often covers the whole school and not just the senior class, these sections are usually arranged in chronological order by class, in either ascending or descending order. Normally students will have individual portraits accompanied by their names. Senior photographs are usually larger than those of underclassmen and are sometimes accompanied by text about their accomplishments throughout high school and their future plans. Frequently, seniors are polled to nominate their classmates for "superlatives" or "class celebrities", are often published in the senior section. Some private schools and smaller high schools set aside an entire page for each senior. These pages are sometimes designed by the seniors themselves, with each senior submitting a digital or physical version of the page he or she would like featured in the book.
"Picture Day" is the school day in the United States and Canada when students have their photographs taken by a professional photographer. Parents can purchase packages of these portraits to distribute, often accompanied by other items featuring the portrait. The pictures are not inexpensive for the amount of time and effort involved – which can be less than one minute per student – partly because the photography company usually pays the school part of the price for each photo sold in a "rebate" or unadvertised "fundraising" scheme. These portraits often go into the school yearbook, which are usually distributed at the end of the school year. The pictures may also be used on student ID cards. There will also generally be a second day to take pictures if the student is absent.
In the UK and other countries, where yearbooks often only cover the final year group and not the entire school, each student may have more space for answers to various questions as well as their photo. In Year 11 members are usually grouped by form/class; whilst Year 13 tend not to be grouped in such a way, but instead just appear alphabetically throughout the book. Its common in these markets for each person to have between a quarter and a whole page each, depending on the budget available for the yearbook. The editorial team chooses questions for members to answer and these answers appear alongside member photos. These photos and answers are sometimes also collected online.
Student life
Several pages are often used for pages chronicling activities undertaken by students, such as trips abroad, activity trips, sporting and other special events. This part of the book often covers students' lives both inside and outside of the campus.
Sometimes members of a yearbook write editorial and journalistic content about life as a student, current events, and other matters of interest to the peer group.
Academics/education
This section covers the classes, projects and more educational aspects of the school year.
Organizations
This section describes student organizations and what they did during the year. These descriptions are often accompanied by a photo or photos of the organizations' members. This section sometimes includes a list of the members of each organization.
Sports
Often listed by season or club, these pages chronicle the accomplishments of the school's teams. Along with a short article listing the season's highlights, these pages include team photographs and action pictures.
Advertising pages
Many yearbooks gain revenue by including a section of ads from local businesses.
Some schools sell advertisements for seniors. Parents, other family members, and friends use these ads to congratulate a senior — or group of seniors — for their accomplishments.
Index
Bigger yearbooks tend to include an alphabetical listing of everyone included in the yearbook, along with a listing of the pages they may be found on.
Colophon
Usually near the end of the book, the colophon lists staff members and acknowledgements. The colophon includes technical information pertaining to the yearbook such as publisher, total number of pages, paper weight and copyright.
Signature or autograph page
Some yearbooks contain a few pages which will be left blank for people to write messages about the preceding year and summer. This tradition was inherited from commonplace books.

Design

Students may design yearbook pages themselves or use company-provided templates in most cases.
In general, most yearbook pages are designed as double-page spreads and include several items:
In the past, most yearbooks were laid out by hand, with photographs physically cropped and placed on layout boards. The work was tedious, and required multiple deadlines and contact with a yearbook publisher. Today, virtually all yearbooks are published using computers, which allows for shorter deadlines and easier editing. Students typically design pages using a desktop publishing program, usually Adobe InDesign. Some schools use a proprietary web-based design program belonging to the company that prints the book.

Publication

U.S. printing companies

Yearbook printing companies usually have representatives who work with the adviser and staff at each school to assist in the creation of the yearbook.
Yearbook companies that use off-set printing require that groups of pages be sent periodically, rather than all at once, to the plant. This is done to stagger the work required to complete yearbooks for all the schools they cover. After the editors review each page and make changes, the pages are sent to the yearbook plant, usually via the Internet. Yearbook companies that use digital printing methods may only require one submission since the entire book is printed at once.
If the proofing process is not performed on-line, the adviser and editors receive proofs about a week or so after the submission of pages. This gives the school a final opportunity to make adjustments or changes. After all the proofs have been returned to the printing company the requested corrections are made, the books are printed, bound, and then sent to the school for distribution.
A number of educational institutions and yearbook printing companies operate camps and summer sessions at which student yearbook personnel can learn or polish the skills they need in their work.

Distribution

Often, yearbooks are distributed at the end of a school year to allow students, teachers, and other members of the school to obtain the books and signatures/personal messages from classmates. In the U.S., those that distribute at this time may publish a supplemental insert with photographs from spring sports and milestone events and other important events. Many schools at which yearbooks are distributed at or before the end of a school year have a tradition of having students sign and leave notes on each other's yearbooks.
Some schools distribute yearbooks after the end of the school year—such as in July, at homecoming in October or another designated time in order to include year-end activities. In some cases, yearbooks are mailed to the parents' homes of graduated seniors.

Digital yearbooks

A digital yearbook or eYearbook is a yearbook holding memories of a given time with a given group of people—most commonly, a school year at a particular school—that exists in digital form.
A digital yearbook may contain text, images, audio, and video. While a traditional paper yearbook may contain 300+ pages, a digital yearbook can contain unlimited pages. The end product of a digital yearbook can be a CD-ROM, a DVD or is captured in an eBook format. The first CD-ROM yearbook was created by students at South Eugene High School in 1990.
In 2014 Forever Connected created the first widely-adopted interactive, mobile yearbook, based on the print edition. Students can sign, sticker and send video to classmates right from their mobile devices. It is the most widely used digital yearbook and is sold by traditional yearbook printers and as add-on to a print purchase. In 2019 Forever Connected rebranded as and began offering their platform directly to schools. Following the same trends towards personalized experiences, created three years later the possibility of adding digital handwritten messages from several students into any yearbook. This well-established practice is now fully digital, and has the possibility of incorporating animated strokes, doodles and even voice messages.
A digital yearbook page, also known as a dyp, makes an existing yearbook interactive using Portrait Recognition Technology. A mobile application and smartphone or tablet is used to scan a student's portrait. Scanning the portrait will take the student to the Digital Yearbook Page. DYPs contain multimedia content archived throughout the school year. The DYP can also contain links with contact information.