UMass Amherst PTRC continues to thrive and grow. I continue to maintain an active PTRC collection of materials for self-service and outreach, as well as regular low tech bulletin board displays to educate the community. The ever popular May Day plant patent celebration is now a regular fixture in the patent education cycle. The big news is that I strategically pivoted all my liaison department assignments with one goal in mind – plant patents! I am now the liaison to all the agriculture and agriculture related departments and have been reaching out to places on campus such as the herbarium, turf farm, and greenhouses. I even started a seed library – Mass Aggie Seed Library. My hope is that although the Mass Aggie Seed Library community and plant patent folks are very different, that interest will grow to help make that collection shine. And lastly, those quirky patent coloring books are a great outreach vehicle and have taught me so much about the challenges of historical patent searching. On a sadder note, we continue to advertise the Pro Se Patent Virtual Assistance Program but have yet to have a single patron take advantage of the service. Hopefully that will change.
