The University of Nevada, Reno has been a USPTO depository library since 1983. In mid-2017, longtime PTRC and Business librarian, Pat Ragains retired after 21 years at UNR. He leaves big shoes to fill but I am grateful he remains a wonderful resource who is always willing to help. I, Tara Radniecki, have taken over the PTRC responsibilities and also serve as the Engineering Librarian. Since July, consultations and many physical resources have now moved into the DeLaMare Science & Engineering Library on campus and our online portal is located at: https://guides.library.unr.edu/patents. It has been a busy semester with the science and engineering communities quickly utilizing the newly relocated services.
In 2017, we delivered 4 workshops and 55 consultations on patent and trademark searching. In December, we hosted Neil Massong and Tiffany Mair from the USPTO’S PTRC Office for a very successful full day seminar open to the public and a second day of training for both the public and academic librarians in the region. We were also fortunate enough to have John Cabeca, Director of the Silicon Valley USPTO office, join us for the annual Reno Mini Maker Faire where his booth focused on the great inventors of history and encouraged innovation. He also gave two training workshops to library faculty and staff.
Since 2012, the DeLaMare Science & Engineering Library has had a makerspace containing 3D printers, 3D scanners, a laser cutter, hand tools, virtual reality and much more. This past year we formalized intellectual property guidelines to help educate our users as they consider reusing other’s intellectual property and for knowing their options as they create their own new intellectual property.
The library continues to work closely with various entrepreneurship-supporting organizations in the community, focusing on the intellectual property and maker services and resources we provide. We have worked with mentoring groups, startup schools, small business administrations, and more!