Neverending Scrapbooks

Each Wednesday, I usually write a post from my dissertation.

An individual scrapbook album rarely has a beginning or a conclusion unless it is of a very specific topic, which has a natural beginning and ending (like a vacation, for example). Some scrapbooks may be planned to have a beginning and an ending. Many scrapbooks are ongoing and the end comes when the scrapbooker runs out of photos or no more pages fit in the album, whichever comes first, at which point the scrapbooker begins a new album. Though many scrapbooks are really multi-volume ongoing collections, few respondents label their scrapbooks in any way to indicate that the volume continues into another album.

Scrapbookers rarely complete an album from beginning to end but instead work in a more random order and then organize their pages in an order they see fit (most often, chronological). If a scrapbooker does complete a title page, this is typically done once the album is otherwise finished. Some of my respondents have so recently began the hobby that they have not completed a whole album so they have not even considered how it might begin or end. One respondent always makes sure to include a beginning and an ending but believes she does because of her career. She is a published author so is used to writing with an introduction and conclusion and tries to do the same in her scrapbooks.

How do your scrapbooks begin and end?