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Facts About Yearbooks

A yearbook is a book that is published annually and is used to highlight, record and commemorate the past year in a school. This book also reflects the lives and events of people involved with a school within a certain particular year.

Yearbooks have now become more than picture books and will often include literary works as well as art. The books have become more journalistic and include coverage which showcases everything including reporting of events to profiles of people.

The yearbook is therefore a memory book, a record book, a history book as well as a reference book. It is also believed to be a public relations tool for the school because through it, people are able to identify the school and it’s activities.

The following are tips you can use in order to make a good yearbook:

1.) The year book must have a theme

The theme of the yearbook should define the school year. You need to know what is going to be popular and interesting among the student population for that year and then use it as a theme.

2.) Stick to the theme throughout

The best way to make sure that your yearbook is professional and cohesive, it is important to make sure that the same theme is carried throughout the yearbook. Each article, section and layout must relate and uphold the theme of the yearbook.

3.) Plan ahead

Working on a yearbook can be a huge and tedious process. Make sure therefore that you know when every school event is so that the yearbook staff are there to take pictures and also experience what is going on.

4.) Have a schedule

Cataloging a full year of events for many students is a big job. You can tackle this by making goals for each week, month and if possible each day so that you remain on top of the whole process. Make sure that you meet all the goals as you have set them.

5.) Have as much material as you can

Gather as much information as possible because the more information you have, the more options you will have concerning each school function.

6.) Take as many pictures as possible

By taking as many pictures as possible, you are assured of having a handful of great pictures. Since pictures are the major part of the yearbook, it is necessary to have the best pictures that you can get. Remember also that the quality of pictures reflects on the school.

7.) Interview many students

Interviewing many students enables you to get quotes, polls as well as comments and this gives you a wide range of opinions. This is also good for the yearbook because it is supposed to be a representation of the whole student body.

8.) Recheck the yearbook

Recheck the yearbook for grammar, spelling as well as layout mistakes so that the book looks professionally done and this will eventually reflect well on the school.

Yearbook printers are always pushing the importance of proofing to the folks in charge of authoring the yearbook that they print. We push proofing too, to avoid the heartbreaking possibility of students being accidentally left out of their yearbook.

That’s exactly what happened to students and parents of Maize South High School in Wichita, KS. This article outlines the disappointment they faced when the last page of their seniors class not included in their yearbook slipped past the proofing team. (Don’t worry, these folks didn’t use our program!)

So, how can you prevent this type of thing from happening to you? We have a few best practices that we like to share with our yearbook partners:

1.) Nobody knows a class quite as well as their teacher. We strongly recommend that when you get to the proofing stage, send a copy of each teacher’s class directly to them, and ask them to verify that all of their students are represented, and that their names are spelled correctly. It’s much simpler for a teacher to verify a group of students that they see every day, than it is for a yearbook coordinator to verify an entire school.

2.) Utilize software that has some sort of built in proofing ability. One benefit to using software specifically designed to build a yearbook is that it will likely have some sort of built in check to ensure that everybody who was imported into the program is actually placed on a page. Make sure that your program has this feature, and that you know how to use it.

3.) Always double check on a printed copy before you sign off. Most printing companies will provide a physically printed proof copy of the book before they mass print the hundreds of copies of your yearbook for distribution. A lot of folks don’t understand that this final proof is the absolute last chance you’ll have to notice an error in the book. Once you sign off on this final proof, it’s too late, so don’t hesitate to employ our next suggestion:

4.) Two heads are better than one! After you have personally approved of the proof, get a second or third set of eyes to do the same thing. After editing your schools yearbook for the whole year, it’ll be easier and easier for the pages to blur together and for you to miss something. Ask someone who hasn’t been involved in the project to have a look through as well. Worried about grammatical errors? Utilize a couple of English students, or if your able, utilize a whole English class for an afternoon, and let the students compete to find potential issues.

By following these tips, your school can avoid the embarrassing situation that so many others have encountered.