Here is an inexpensive New Year’s present: a do-it-yourself scrapbook project for pre-teens to amuse their future selves in 10 or 20 years. The scrapbook features 10 blank pages to fill in and 10 matching mini-essays on media, commerce, sports, transportation, communication, computers, science, the Internet, fashion, and music. Sidebars suggest items to contribute in each category, including web sites, personal data (chat room nicknames), and ephemera such as fast food receipts or sports cards, so you can remember what you were doing as a kid at the turn of the millennium.

The mini-essays are snapshots of contemporary trends. There isn’t much room, so history bites about Eniac computers, in-line skates, Imax technology, and Alexander Fleming are mixed in with a few commercial references to Nike, Toyota, Sega, and Sony. There’s no Microsoft, perhaps in prescient anticipation of the antitrust suit. There are interesting instructions for those who wish to bury the resulting project in true time capsule fashion. If you can’t get a stainless steel container with a welded lid, use margarine containers sealed with hot wax. Other tips: photocopy newspaper items on acid-free paper, use pH-neutral PVA glue, avoid PVC food wrap because ink from print migrates to the plastic, and eschew rubber cement and plywood because of acidic fumes. Although the authors advise against including computer disks that may be unreadable without an old-fashioned PC, who can tell? Happy collecting. And happy celebrating in 2020 or whenever you open the capsule.