Greetings from the Little Rock PTRC located within Information Services at the Arkansas State Library! Besides being Manager of Information Services I also serve as the agency’s representative to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The Little Rock PTRC has been a PTDL/PTRC since 18 January 1985. Unfortunately, I will not be attending this year’s PTRC Annual Training Seminar. However, I will be sending another very talented person to attend in my place. I will miss seeing you and send all the best from Arkansas!
There have been a couple of major changes that have taken place at the Little Rock PTRC since last year.
In mid-2018, Senior Librarian Kathleen Fowler retired. Kathleen served at the Arkansas State Library for five years and was able to attend a couple USPTO training seminars. Her customers appreciated her cheerful assistance with sometime difficult patent and trademark questions. She was always happy to help try to find answers. She will be missed but we wish her well in retirement.
In January of this year new Senior Librarian Natalie Marlin joined the Arkansas State Library. Natalie previously worked at the Central Arkansas Library System where she worked both as a branch manager and in government documents. She has been very eager to learn as much as possible about patents and trademarks, as quickly as possible. As a continuing part of her patent/trademark training, Natalie will be attending this year’s USPTO training session in Alexandria, VA. 
In July 2018, I participated in a program, in conjunction with the Small Business Development and Technology Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the Central Arkansas Regional Chamber of Commerce, a local attorney and the Little Rock Venture Center, promoting ways to protect intellectual property including patents and trademarks. Held at the new Venture Center in downtown Little Rock, the session was well received by 30 attendees.
We have also been updating and consolidating our Patent and Trademark collection.