An interesting conversation developed today around the the topic of High School yearbooks being delivered today as the current school year winds down. Traditional school annuals have been and today still are printed volumes issued in hardcover bindings. They are filled with student photos--the traditional studio pose and those related to the student's various out-of-class activities: sports, glee club, photography club, gamers unlimited and so on. The conversation turned to possible future delivery systems for class yearbooks given the rapid shifts in the ways other forms of entertainment have evolved in the last twenty years. We've seen music go from vinyl, to 8-tracks, to cassettes, to CDs and currently digital downloads. Movies have gone from theaters, to video cassettes, to DVDs, to Blue-Ray, and now digital downloads. Photography has seen the same major shifts from tangible film to digital. With the change in each format, there has been a concomitant change in the necessary delivery system to accommodate the new medium. You couldn't play an 8-track tape on a cassette player or a record player or watch your Video version of Gone with the Wind on your DVD-player. With each shift in delivery mode you needed to change your delivery system; if you wanted to keep images or data on a previous format you had to have it transferred to the newer technology to save it.
So what does the future hold for school yearbooks? Will they go digital and made available as a DVD? What if in twenty years, DVD players are as antiquated (and unavailable) as 8-track players are today? How will you be able to go back and view your 2012 school yearbook? You will have to hold onto your current player, box it up and keep it in the garage for potential future use. Or you will have to have the content transferred from DVD format to, let's say, the new Interactive Holographic format so you can revisit your high school chums. But will the two mediums be compatible i.e. transferable in the future? Will any of the "new" techies, who are not even born today, even know what a DVD is or was?
All of this brings me back to the yearbook's original format i.e. a bound book. A book is a self-contained content and delivery system. No matter what changes come in the future, the book will still be effective in delivering the content in a usable format that does not have to be updated or reformated in order to use it. You will not need a new piece of technology to view it; you will not need a techie to transfer it for you into the latest delivery system that will change again in ten years. The bottom line is: THE BOUND BOOK STILL RULES. Yes it is antiquated and old school, but it is self-contained and needs no other technology to use it. In an era of shifting technologies, it is comforting to know that some technologies that don't change are often the most enduring technologies.
David Gregor
This blog is the joint effort of Gregor Rare Books and my Book Seminar lectures. Here I can devote more space to quality content regarding my areas of specialty that include Literary First Editions, Paris in the 1920s, poetry, Charles Bukowski, Signed Astronaut material, Northwest History,and fine books in other fields. I will also provide discussions on the art of book collecting and the business of bookselling.
About Me
- David Gregor
- David Gregor operates Gregor Rare Books and Book Seminars Intl. For eight years he reviewed books for the Seattle Times and was co-producer of the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair from 1997 to 2010. He is the author of two fictional memoirs and a collection of poetry. He has also written numerous articles on collectible authors and subjects.
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