A recent tweet shows students gathered in the periodical section of the Harold B. Lee Library without masks despite BYU’s campus-wide mask policy.
Library communications manager Roger Layton said the library is still following BYU’s policies and has created thousands of posters and fliers to remind students to social distance and wear a mask. Library staff and administrators also walk to the floors to remind students of the policies.
“By the time a person sits down in the periodicals room they will have passed a dozen reminders,” Layton said. “That said, ultimately it is up to each individual student to decide if they will respect the policy and their fellow patrons in the building.”
This semester the library has closed certain sections where the mask policies weren’t followed. “The library is looking at closing areas like the periodicals/reading room if mask compliance continues to be an issue,” Layton said.
While closing the periodicals section is a possibility, Layton said they hope to avoid that because it could be “disruptive to students during their last few days of class and during finals.”
As Winter Semester approaches, library staff members are continuing to think of new ways to encourage mask wearing. The library is currently giving mask-wearing students “Places to wear a mask” stickers and has plans to do other positive campaigns like giving mints to compliant students.
