I think I will consider this year a transition year. I continue to do many of the same activities, but there are some new projects and programs that will come to fruition next year. So stay tuned. Here are some highlights from April 2016 – March 2017:
In April we celebrated World Intellectual Property Day with a program highlighting library services surrounding “Digital Creativity.”
In July I attended the “Science Boot Camp Southeast” conference, and gave a lightning talk on adding Clemson Patents to our Institutional Repository. This was a great meeting, and I met some colleagues that I will be collaborating with on some upcoming projects.
In August we created a new position for a STEM Librarian, and hired Nashieli Marcano. This is the by far the best thing that happened this year! Nashieli has proved to be a fabulous colleague, and she has made a number of contributions starting on Day 1! She will be attending the training seminar this year, so please be sure to introduce yourself. I know you will respect and admire her as much as I do.
Also in August, I taught LIB 3010 – a one credit hour class on patent searching. This was a particularly lively group, and included a set of identical twins, as well as 3 graduate students who are active inventors.
In September I hosted Paulina Borrego (PTRC Rep from University of Massachusetts Amherst.) We had a terrific visit, and Paulina was able to attend the class session where students presented their research on using several free patent-searching databases. The students definitely benefitted from her insight, and she brought them purple pens as a memento.
Also in September I met with 18 groups of Bioengineering students working on their senior design projects. They are required to meet with me, but I made sure that they realize the many ways I can help them.
In January I taught the spring session of LIB 3010. This was the first time I taught outside the library, and we had a wonderful classroom in a brand new building. No more library basement! Woo Hoo! Another first – a community patron who actually paid to audit the class. I look forward to sharing his story when his patent issues.
In March we participated in the Duke Energy Invention Convention. In fact, the Clemson Libraries sponsored the third place award for winners (4th through 8th grade.) This was the first time we were involved for several years, and Nashieli and I had a great time judging some of the inventions and chatting with the students. One of the inventions that I judged won the Grand Prize! She invented a smaller/less expensive epipen. See the attached photo of us with our colleague Lili Klar, who manned our table while we were with the students.