Pittsburgh, PA

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has been a PTRC since 1902. I’m now entering my third year as CLP’s patent librarian, and I’ve begun to focus more on how to attract people to our PTRC resources. To that end, in January we hosted an attorney who specializes in intellectual property law for a short presentation and a question and answer session about patents, trademarks, and copyright. Also in January, I started offering a bi-monthly class in the library’s PC Center that goes over the basics of what we can help people with and introduces them to the USPTO’s “12-step” patent searching strategy. Both events drew modest numbers, but word of mouth seems to be spreading because I’ve been receiving more inquiries about programming that we’ll be doing in the future and also more patent questions in general. Something else I’m excited about is the formation of a new Pittsburgh inventor’s group (currently none exists). I was recently contacted by the person founding the group, and it sounds like it will be a great way to spread the word about our resources and possibly collaborate on programming. Finally, CLP has recently rolled out a “Book a Librarian” program, in which people can schedule appointments with us regarding a variety of topics that tend to take longer to answer, including help with patent searches.