Andrea Booher owns a phone book, but she never uses it.
"It's a waste of paper," Booher said.
The 20-year-old aerospace engineering student said she usually uses the Internet when she needs to look something up.
While some students say they do not use their phone books, a new edition of The Talking Phone Book hits the streets of Gainesville this month with a 15-page guide to UF as well as local maps, coupons and restaurant guides with menus.
Sharon Blansett, assistant director of housing at UF, said the university doesn't distribute a lot of phone books for on-campus housing because students don't use them.
She said UF used to receive thousands of phone books to distribute on campus. There would be enough for each room, suite and apartment, plus extras.
"We would have all these stacks of phone books in the lobby areas," Blansett said.
Only about 10 to 20 students would use the phone books distributed, she said. Students began to complain about the books sitting in the lobbies collecting dust.
"They would say 'What a waste - we have piles and piles of phone books,'" Blansett said.
Eventually, housing officials recycled the phone books at the end of the spring semesters and told the phone companies to significantly cut their distribution.
Blansett said she thinks most students use the Internet to replace their need for a phone book.
Greg Garrick, vice president of marketing for The Talking Phone Book, said the name for the phone book being distributed this month comes from a feature the company used to offer.
People could call a number listed in their phone book that would direct them to recordings of their daily horoscopes, sports updates and scores, he said.
Now, the company only provides information through its phonebook distribution and its Web site.
