The Exaggerator: BYU Tosses Book Ban

PROVO—BYU made the popular idea-sharing medium known as books available across campus on Friday after a thorough review of their impact on students and education.

BYU had been reviewing the idea of allowing books on campus for some time but only recently came to a decision.

“Given the educational information and materials available in books, the university determined to make them available on campus,” said BYU spokeswoman Terri Smith.

Many students were pleased to see the ban lifted. One student, Jennifer Paulsen, said she uses books often. “I use them to catch up on politics and things like that, but I also use them for news,” Halsey said. “I’ve used them a couple times to learn about the Church.”

She also said they would be useful for illustrating concepts in her major, and that some classes have already been using them, as faculty could override the book block with a password.

“They do use them a lot in classes for examples — not for assignments, but for presentations and things like that,” she said.

John Cessman, Professor of English Literature, is excited about the opportunities this presents for literature students in particular. “Not only will I be able to use material in the classroom more easily, but students will be able to read on their own,” Cessman said. “We want students to begin reading from the time they apply to the major right through to the time they graduate.”

Books gives students an opportunity to engage new ideas and make it easier to share them with other students. Allowing books on campus will potentially help other departments on campus as well. “There is a movement to put lecture material in books so that classroom time can be used for discussion,” Cessman said. “It really opens a lot of doors for us.”

In conjunction with lifting the book ban, BYU’s information technology department launched a new Web site for book safety — Yread.byu.edu. The site is mainly geared toward students but its information can apply to all book users.*