Marketing Library Poster Services via a USB Flash Drive Catherine Soehner, Associate Dean for Research and Learning Services, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah ABSTRACT RESULTS Introduction: Because the Library recently purchased a large format printer, which would be useful for students in courses that required poster creation, 500 USB Flash drives were purchased and distributed to students and faculty. The inside of each flash drive was preloaded with four useful files, had 2GB storage space, and cost $6.15 each plus $25 shipping ($3,100 total). Method: A print survey was created and placed at the service desk where users would request poster printing and they received 10% off their poster printing after filling out the survey. Results: Of the 194 surveys received, 52 of those had a Library flash drive. Of of those 52, nine were graduate students and 43 were undergraduate students. Conclusion: Results indicate that once a flash drive was in hand, people found the contents to be useful. Additional studies should focus on the overall use of the large format printer and flash drive distribution should be improved to specifically target programs and courses that require poster creation. OBJECTIVES Determine how Library flash drives are used. Determine whether the contents are useful. Determine if the flash drives were a successful marketing tool for the large format printer. METHODS Librarians and staff distributed the flash drives when they taught Library research classes and met with faculty and students. A survey was created by the Principle Investigator (PI) with the assistance of six other librarians and staff. The PI applied for and received an Institutional Review Board (IRB) exemption for this research. This paper-only survey was presented to people at the large format printer service desk at the Marriott Library. If they completed the survey, they received 10% off the price of printing. The survey was conducted between January 7 and May 2, CONCLUSIONS Of the 194 responses, 52 indicated receiving a Library flash drive. RESULTS What Figure 1 is unable to show is that 15 responses indicated the flash drive was used for storage only without using any other features of the flash drive. However, a majority of those 15 still found the flash drive made it easier to do their work, answering “Agree” or “Strongly Agree” to that question. Beyond basic storage, two features of the flash drive were used consistently: the poster templates and the Create a Poster guide. When asked what we should remove from the flash drive, there were a few interesting responses: “Nothing.” “I appreciate the info being easy to access.” “Nothing. Everything there could be useful to someone.” “Poster template larger than what you can print.” This last comment prompted the immediate purchase of wider paper to allow for printing at a larger size. Results were too small to clearly indicate a cost effective use of this marketing tool. A more thorough survey that kept track of distribution sites along with any peaks in use of the large format printer should be pursued to determine cost effectiveness. Considering the use of the poster template and the Create a Poster guide, the flash drive proved to have value beyond typical marketing pieces such as pencils, pens, or sticky note pads. Of the 43 undergraduate surveys with flash drives, 28 indicated theit poster was intended to meet requirements for the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). The distribution method can be improved by targeting UROP and other research programs that require poster printing. The size of the flash drive should be increased due to the reliance on storage as one of the most useful features. We could include even more information about Library tools and services on the flash drive since surveys indicated some use of this information and no indication that any of it should be removed. Figure 1: Use of the Library flash drive. Figure 2: Impact of the flash drive. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: My deep appreciation to all my Marriott Library colleagues who assisted me with this project, especially Devin Donaldson, TJ Ferrill, Parker Dougherty, and Jeff Davis. Of the 43 undergraduate surveys with flash drives, 28, or 65%, were participants in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.