Mount yearbook goes digital

Mount Saint Vincent University has changed the format of its yearbook to be cheaper and greener.

Mary Jane Leslie hopes the new DVD yearbook will prevent leftover yearbooks from piling up. Photo: Mary Jane Leslie

Mount Saint Vincent University Graduates will receive memories, photos and videos on DVD this year instead of a book.

Mary Jane Leslie, publications editor for the Mount student council, says the move to a digital format will eliminate many of the problems that go along with a real book.

"We're not a very big school and a lot of our students are either distance students or mature students so there's not a really big demand. We were ordering thousands and nine were being picked up. Everyone goes away and we can't mail it out. It costs us twice as much to send it out as it did to make it."

With a DVD format, everyone gets a copy because they can be sent out in the mail and DVDs are cheaper to produce than hard-cover books.

Paper vs. digital

Cathy Harrison is a third-year student at Mount Saint Vincent. Normally, she wouldn't even consider getting a yearbook and has mixed feelings about putting it on DVD.

"What if you don't have a DVD player? Everyone can open a yearbook -- you don't need any special equipment for that. On the other hand it would save on a lot of paper, which is great and it would probably be cheaper. I think it's nice that the graduating students get them for free since most graduates don't have much extra money lying around," she says.

She isn't surprised that a lot of yearbooks end up unclaimed. She says part of it has to do with a lack of school spirit. However, she says she would rather have a yearbook that doesn't need to be plugged in if she was going to get one at all.

Leslie says she is working on putting the book online too and giving grads a pass code. The online version will be like a book, she says, where you can click on the corner of the screen to flip the page like a book. The online version will also be ideal for when DVDs go out of date or for people who don't have DVD players.

"I used to look through my parents' yearbooks"

Sarah Almon, a graduate student in International Relations at Carleton University, completed her undergraduate degree at Saint Francis Xavier University. She always makes a point of getting a yearbook, even when it's not free. She sees the economy in a digital yearbook but would rather have a paper one.

"I like the feel of flipping through it. Just like I used to look through my parents' yearbooks, I like to think of my kids looking through mine."

Her sister Jennifer, an engineering student at Dalhousie, agrees. She wants something she can pick up rather than queue up and find the right part of the DVD. Leslie says most students at the Mount aren't aware of the new format yet, but students who have heard about it through the grapevine like the idea.

 “Everyone who’s heard from word of mouth and that sort of thing has had a great reaction, especially in the environmentally friendly spot. Any paper that we’re actually putting out [with the folder] is 100 per cent recycled with vegetable ink.”

She thinks that the low cost and green benefits will inspire other universities to adopt the idea but right now she’s waiting for feedback from the graduating class at the Mount.

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