An annual affair s the tape deck blasted Olivia Newton-John's smash-hit Heart Attack, four weary staffers pondered over video display terminals. Struggling with type codes, shift returns, memory keys, super shifts, cursors, and search modes, the baffled journalists attempted to enter yearbook copy on the computer age typewriters. Hundreds of hours later, after dozens of lost stories and many temper tantrums, the Gem staff mastered the nerve-racking terminals. But the frustrations didn't stop. During the January color deadline, a malfunction with the VDT's memory disk erased 20 pages of captions and copy and sent the staff scrambling to re-enter the material in time to typeset and paste-up the pages. "On a typical weekend we logged over 35 hours from Friday afternoon to Monday morning," said Gary Lundgren, editor. During the summer, the yearbook plans were finalized at Ohio University's College Yearbook Workshop. After dozens of classes on the latest yearbook techniques and a planning session with yearbook expert Colonel Charles E. Savedge, the '83 Gem was starting to unfold. Before flying back to campus, Lundgren also visited Delmar Printing Com-
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pany in Charlotte, North Carolina, to tour the plant, learn the printer's procedures, and meet the production personnel. Back at home, the 1982 Gem was still making news. In late August, the book received the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's Medalist Award. In September, the Associated Collegiate Press awarded the Gem an AllAmerican rating and announced that the book was a contendor for the prestigious Pacemaker Award - scholastic journalism's highest national honor. In December, the 1982 book was featured in the Scholastic Editor's Trends in Publications, a national journalism magazine. "The positive reaction to last year's book, both on campus and across the country, motivated us to produce an even better book the second time around," Lundgren said. Finally, in April, Delmar's presses started to roll as two nervous editors impatiently stood by the machinery watching their layouts, graphics, captions, and photographs come to life. What once was a few scribbles on a single sheet of layout·paper was being transformed into the 8lst edition of Idaho's Gem of the Mountains. 0
Plate processing. After completing the 1982 G•m. Gary LundgTen and Clint Kendrick visited the printer's plant to gather ldeas for the 1983 edition and obse"e the printing process. Delores Langdon. the company tour guide, explains the technical aspects of pre> eeuing a printing plate from a page negative.
Terminal traumas. Mer the VDT's memory dl.sk erased over 20 pag• of captions and copy blocks, auiltant editor Julie Reagan struggles to r-nter the material in tlme to have lt typeset and pasted-up before the next morning' s deadline. (photo by M. LaOrange)
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Gem of the Mountains