COEUR d'ALENE - Before Facebook was Facebook, North Idaho College Library Director George McAlister said, college students relied on yearbooks as a way to review their experiences.

This week, staff at the library completed efforts to digitize the majority of those yearbooks to preserve the unique history of the college. McAlister said the college produced the books under two titles, "LEWA" and "Driftwood," from 1933 to 1974.

"A lot of students, staff and faculty who either worked here at the college or went through the programs here have fond memories of it," McAlister said. "This is a way to look back in a really easily accessible way and find those memories."

Digitizing the yearbooks is the first phase in the college's "Walden History Project," McAlister added, and used the 25 yearbooks the library keeps in a special collection. The process involved using two computers, a high-resolution scanner and an oversized document scanner to upload each book page-by-page.

To McAlister the results of the project were fascinating. He said he was particularly interested in the photos of nursing students wearing a cap and gown at graduation, which isn't done anymore at the college, and what appears to be a thriving watch making program.

"If you look at it, there's a large group of people that were taking those courses," McAlister said.

That program, he added, is a good example of how North Idaho College has changed over the years.

"Whereas before people would come here and learn how to become a watch maker or something like that," McAlister said, "now we're hoping that community colleges are a way to get people to continue their education by pursuing a bachelor's or master's degree because they've enjoyed their experiences here."

The library is missing the following editions of the college's yearbooks: 1933, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1941 through 1946, 1952, and 1960 through 1963. McAlister asked that anyone with those yearbooks, who is interested in allowing the library to digitize them, contact Ann Johnston at (208)769-3240.

With the digitization of yearbooks completed, McAlister said library staff will now move to scanning and uploading every issue of the college's newspaper, which since 1941 has had seven different names ranging from "Cardinal Peep-Squeak" to "The Sentinel."

"The college has had a tremendous impact on the community over the years," McAlister said. "It's good to get that information up there and it will be fun to see the new stuff we add every week."

To view the library's collection of yearbooks, visit www.nic.edu/library.