What is a yearbook?

Yearbook is an informative reference book with the main content of comprehensively, systematically and accurately describing the movement and development of things in the previous year. Collect important current events, documents and statistical data within one year, and publish reference books continuously every year. It absorbs the wisdom of all others and integrates dictionaries, handbooks, chronologies, catalogues, bibliographies, indexes, abstracts, tables, statistics, guides and sketches. It has the characteristics of authoritative information, timely response, continuous release and complete functions. It is an information-intensive reference book with the characteristics of large amount of information, timely reflection and continuous publication. The main function is to provide people with comprehensive, true and systematic factual information within one year, so as to understand the present situation and research and development trend of things. The materials it collected mainly came from the government gazette of that year, reports from important national newspapers and data from statistical departments. Therefore, the yearbook has great summary, statistical significance and systematic continuous reference function. Through the yearbook, we can find the international and domestic current affairs, the progress of various departments and industries, and the research trends of various disciplines and professions in recent years; You can find important laws and regulations promulgated by the government and comparable statistical data year by year; You can also find "Organization Profile", "Enterprise Directory", biographies of famous people and some practical guidance materials.

Yearbooks are mainly written by several authors organized by the compilation unit according to the topic selection plan, and a small amount of content comes from the government gazette of that year, other important documents and data provided by the statistical department. In the selection of materials, a comprehensive, objective and correct system is needed, as well as concentration and refinement. In compiling structure, reasonable layout and stable foundation frame are required. Its permanent columns include: documents (including documents and regulations), general situation, selected works and abstracts, memorabilia, debate sets, statistical data, charts, institutional introductions, appendices, etc.

Yearbook is the earliest publication that records the systematic knowledge obtained by human beings in labor practice, especially the astronomical knowledge obtained by observing the movement of celestial bodies year after year from the perspective of the earth. The compilation of yearbook began in Europe. The British philosopher Bacon has used the information about celestial movement in foreign yearbooks in his Great Works published in 1267, which shows that there were publications similar to yearbooks in Europe at least in the middle of13rd century. At that time, an influential European almanac was compiled and published in 1436 ~ 1476 by the German mathematician and astronomer, which mainly recorded the seasonal solar terms, astronomical meteorology and so on. Since then, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, the United States and other countries have published thousands of yearbooks, such as World Yearbook, Consulting Yearbook, Whitaker Yearbook and Politician Yearbook. Among all kinds of yearbooks in western languages, there are many yearbooks, which generally have both written descriptions and statistical data, such as the Yearbook of the United Nations. The word Almanac originated from Arabic in the Middle Ages and was given the meaning of calendar and almanac in English. Yearbooks are good at statistical data, such as Reader's Digest Yearbook. Generally speaking, the year is mainly described in words, such as the Yearbook of Surgery. Although the compilation methods of various yearbooks have their own emphases, sometimes the titles are mixed and the distinction is not strict. By the18th century, its contents had become a knowledgeable reference book. The poor Richard's yearbook edited by American writer B. Franklin in 1732 is quite famous.