Ye Domesday Booke isn’t going down without a fight, and it’s got the Center for Student Programs in its corner.

After struggling to find staff members up to the challenge of producing Georgetown’s annual yearbook, the publication was dropped by the Media Board two weeks ago. Luckily, CSP intervened: By funding the tome as an administrator group, Ye Domsday Booke will now have the access to benefits necessary to produce a 2011–2012 issue. However, CSP now finds itself in a unique position to not only fund the yearbook, but to revamp it to make it even more inclusive of the campus community.

Across the nation, printed works are an endangered species. The yearbook fell victim to the same declining demand that libraries and news organizations have faced for years. Electronic sources of information are simply faster, easier and more comprehensive. Social media allows students to stay in touch with classmates and relive old memories for free with just a click. Why then, should students pay more for less?

In years past, Ye Doomsday Booke has been a collection of all the memories Georgetown students and alumni want to hold near and dear to their hearts as time marches on. Unbeknownst to the majority of the campus community, the yearbook provides a swath of content about all the undergraduate colleges along with info on each varsity sport. Time-held traditions associated with Georgetown — like Homecoming Weekend and Georgetown Day — pepper its pages. Sections are dedicated to events specific to the academic year, even though no one really wanted to remember the infamous norovirus outbreak published in the 2009 edition.

Of course, this is a mountain of information and records to publish all together, but yearbook staff can do more to include other members of the campus community. While friendships are based on shared interests rather than on age or year in college, the Ye Domesday Booke only features personal photos of the senior class. The consequences of this are two-fold: Not only are some seniors deterred from paying the price of a book that doesn’t represent their entire demographic of their friendships, but it also alienates the rest of the student population.

But it’s not doomsday for our yearbook. True, Wesleyan and the University of Virginia have discontinued the publication of their yearbooks, but on a whole our peer institutions maintain their tomes of record for students. The yearbook is still a popular piece of work: In 2008, close to 1,000 students bought copies to hold on to their college memories. By convening the small group of students interested in keeping Ye Domesday Booke alive and providing the financial backing, CSP can ensure that one of the oldest publications on campus maintains its legacy