By Daniel Buono

Watch out Facebook and Myspace, social networking is keeping it old school.

The Cauldron, Northeastern’s yearbook, has held steady sales during the past few years despite the rise of online social networking websites, said Stephen Asay, editor of the yearbook .

“Yearbook sales have fluctuated up and down,” Asay said. “There’s no given trend in the pattern of the sales.” Asay said he was not sure how many yearbooks had sold for the 2008 book because they were still receiving orders for them.

One of the reasons the yearbook, which costs $40, continues to sell is that many consider it a historic document, said Chris McGill, director of student activities, leadership and scholarship and the temporary adviser of the Student Media Board, which oversees student publications like The Cauldron.

“It adds value to the university and really expresses student life here,” McGill said.

It is a part of the university and there is a component that tells our history in each edition, McGill said.

The number of graduating students who are included in the yearbook is going up steadily every year, Asay said.

Though the popularity of Facebook and MySpace may have lessened the impact yearbooks have on students, there are no particular plans to increase promotion for the yearbook, Asay said. He added that the major focus right now is senior portraits.

While the focus of older yearbooks tried to include as many student groups as possible, as well as major events that happened on campus, the newer yearbooks devote an entire section to news and major events during the past five years, he said. Within the past 10 years, yearbooks have tried to give a taste of the world’s climate while the students were in college, Asay said.

“The focus [of the yearbook] has changed a little bit,” Asay said. “We try to make it a time capsule for the whole college experience.”

However, some students said they remained reluctant to buy a yearbook.

Katrina Langer, a middler English major, said having a yearbook was not important to her.

“I wouldn’t buy one, it’s too expensive,” Langer said.

Other students seemed interested in the yearbook.

Lauren Savary, a sophomore international business major, said it’s good to have something to look back on.

“I feel it is interesting to see what other people are doing,” Savany said. “It shows Northeastern’s personality.”

McGill said The Cauldron is a concrete element to student life that they will have years to reminisce on.

“[The Cauldron] is a tangible item, and who knows 50 years from now what Facebook will be, or if it’s even going to be in existence,” McGill said.