Customized USB Flash Drives Used to Promote Library Resources and Services to First-Year Medical and Dental Students.

In line with its institution's commitment to keep new student orientation/welcome events 'green,' Columbia University's Health Sciences Library (HSL) applied for a National Network of Libraries of Medicine Middle Atlantic Region (NN/LM MAR) Small Projects Award1 in Spring/Summer 2009 to explore paperless modes of outreach. This article describes the project that resulted from this funding, whose purpose was to determine whether customized 1 GB USB flash drives are a good vehicle for distributing library promotional materials to incoming medical and dental students. This project gave HSL librarians the opportunity to connect with students in a way that had not been done before and to consider how these new students use/view the information the library produces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]