Why Should You Go Digital with Your School’s Memory Book?

Remember the feeling when flipping through the old and yellowish yearbooks for schools library? People were carefully required to turn the pages to find the parents of other people, to look at the old championship team years ago, or to see nearly legendary things? Those moments are full of magic. In all honesty, though, the books are showing their ages: the spine is cracking, the leaves are turning brown, and the most disappointing truth of all is that the yearbooks are glued to one location. What if the past were safe-kept and let out for everyone, everywhere?

Welcome to the future of school memories, where your institution’s legacy goes digital.

The Problem with Traditional Memory Books

Traditional school yearbooks have performed well through the generations, but some associated constraints make a considered observation. They consume plenty of storage, degrade over time, and are in one place at a time. Unfortunately for alumni eager to revisit the days of their school days, it sometimes becomes apparent that they are searching for a certain yearbook, while it is missing, falling apart, or checked out by somebody else.

In addition to storage issues, keeping information current presents yet another stumbling block or deviation from perfection. Once a high school yearbook is in print, that’s it—no updates, no corrections, no adding that one amazing story about a graduate who went on to do something exciting. Your school’s story is constantly moving forward, while traditional memory books are rooted in time.

The Digital Advantage: More Than Just Convenience

A venture into digital seems to be about lending volume to the traditional, with touring families walking through your campus and pulling up the history of the school on their smartphones for decades. Put alumni who are now scattered across time zones delving into team photographs from the comfort of their living rooms’ couches. That’s it­—that’s digital transformation for you.

Digital memory books make space constraints a thing of the past. No more decisions between a tribute to this year’s championship team or last decade’s hall of fame inductees—both can be featured at the same time! Be it achievements, milestones, or faces that are added to the form of their school community, now that something is available in just a few taps.

Building Connections That Matter

Digital legacy platforms have a unique feature of not only saving memories but also connections. Changing your once lifeless plaques and trophy cases into live, searchable experiences gives your community the opportunity to ask a myriad of questions on the history of your school.

The alumni can search worldwide for themselves, their friends, or their famous teachers. Current students can explore the previous generation, sparking their insight into how it feels to be a part of something greater than individual identity. Donors can see firsthand exactly how their contributions have helped shape the institution over time. Parents of potential students can glimpse the genuine culture and values of your school through decades of real moments.

This kind of engagement simply does not work when the memories are tucked away in storage closets or limited to only a few display cases in the main hallway.

Professional Image, Modern Expectations

As schools need to encourage innovation and ingenuity and display achievements in a host of ways, the involvement of the surrounding community and welcoming props is most important. This is evident when the institution is presented as having high-tech ways to impress visitors.

The development and addition of digital expertise to your organization serves to replace scattered, unsightly wall displays around the school with professional and elegant showcases that truly reflect the stature of your campus. Preserving one’s past means demonstrating readiness for the future.

The Update Advantage

The most mundane way in which the transformation to the digital presents instantaneous updates. No more waiting for another year’s print edition to come out or trying to figure out where to place yet another memento on a wall that’s about to collapse under its own weight!

Human information stored in a digital form is a dynamic substance due to the numerous changes and developments in the constantly changing academic community. Unlike mere documentation, a memory book is a way of commemorating everything the institution stands for.

Making the Leap

From traditional to digital, there seems to be a transition that is extremely daunting. Most of them are designed to be operated by everybody. Cloud systems give you the freedom to manage content from even the most remote locale or warm bed with an intuitive interface for every person of average intelligence. You are not locked into hardware that quickly becomes obsolete with software or software that becomes unstable within a few years.

A legacy that never goes to rest is the best metaphor to describe it; that will continue to serve the school family not just for years, but for generations. Every student deserves meaningful honor and recognition for his genuine accomplishments, with easy access to those awards. It is also about the right of every alumnus to engage with the shared memories of school at any given moment. And yet, visitors should be granted the whole wealth of an entire institutional narrative.

Ready to Transform Your School’s Story?

Allowing students to interact and engage with the school’s memory book is a good option, really; the advantages of beneficial ideas are those that don’t necessarily live in the past. My digital student memory book suggests a quick and ambitious disturbance in the way it came to be used for schools.

The question will be less of whether or not to go digital but more of when you can start. What stories from your school’s past deserve to be brought to life?