BYU devotional addresses are a hot commodity. The speeches are given every Tuesday at 11 a.m. in the Marriott Center, and demand for reprints often begins before noon.
“My phone will start ringing any minute because there is a devotional going on right now,” said Karen Warner, an Alumni House receptionist, one recent Tuesday morning. “People will listen to the devotional on television or radio and call requesting a copy before it’s even over.”
Warner’s office is flooded daily with orders for individual speeches and for the books, which are compiled yearly. The Alumni House accepts walk-in requests as well as phone and mail orders.
But the primary resource for devotional addresses is the Speeches Web site at speeches.byu.edu. Combining resources from across campus, Speeches provides access to more than 50 years’ worth of speeches in print, audio, and video formats. Visitors to the Web site can search or browse past addresses by speaker, year, topic, or format. Recent devotionals (given since 1997) can be downloaded or read online for free. Annual University Conference addresses are also available on the Web site.
Speeches on the Web site are available for immediate download in html, PDF, and MP3 formats, or they can be ordered for mail delivery in print, audio, or video. Not all speeches are available in all formats.
BYU has also produced Classic Speeches, a collection of 22 addresses given between 1975 and 1993. Classic Speeches and the annual book compilations can be purchased through the Speeches Web site, the Alumni Association, the BYUBookstore, and many LDS bookstores. Books published earlier than 1994 have sold out and have not been reprinted.
In addition to devotional and forum addresses, the Alumni Association can help find talks from general conference, Education Week, graduation and commencement ceremonies, and the Sydney B. Sperry Symposium.
SPEECH SOURCES
THE Speeches Web site (speeches.byu.edu) offers individual speeches from 1951 to the present in various formats, including print, audio, and video. It also sells the annual book compilations (back to 1994) and the Classic Speeches book.
For those without Internet access, the Alumni Association provides individual speeches, book compilations, and the Classic Speeches book. Orders can be placed in person, by phone (1-800-437-4663 or 801-422-4663), or through the mail: BYU Speeches, 127 Alumni House, Provo, UT 84602.
