Salt Lake PTRC Report, 2016
The Salt Lake City PTRC has been located within the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah since designation as a Patent Depository Library (PDL) in 1984 (trademarks were not yet a part of the Patent Depository program!). In subsequent years we became a Patent and Trademark Depository Library (PTDL), and now a Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC). The Marriott Library has also been a Government Publishing Office (GPO) depository since 1893; a U.S. Department of Energy depository; United Nations, European Union, World Trade Organization and UNESCO depository; and Utah State documents depository.
I am a member of the Research and User Services (RUS) group in the Knowledge Commons of the Marriott Library, providing reference and research information services to patrons. I also provide more specialized patent, trademark and government information research service to our patrons in person, by phone, email, and web service.
I have been one of the Marriott Library’s federal documents librarians and our Library’s USPTO representative since 1987, and a member of PTRCA and earlier associations since my first PDL conference in spring 1987. I have served the PTRCA as Treasurer; Chair of the Finance Committee; and as Chair in 1999/2000. I was the Thirteenth Patent Fellowship Librarian to the PTDL Program Office (as it was called then) from 1996 to 1998, living and working at the former USPTO location in Crystal City, VA.
As the PTRC Representative and a member of our University Libraries Innovation Committee I help provide research assistance to students involved in our annual Bench2Bedside Competition and other innovative and entrepreneurial programs on campus. I teach patent searching to students and faculty in a number of campus programs: freshman and upper division bioengineering design students; ‘Bench2Bedside’ participants; Innovation Scholars; annual workshops offered by our Entrepreneurial Faculty Scholars; the Center for Medical Innovation (CMI), and presentations on patent searching and intellectual property for our Research Administration Training Series (RATS).
Alex Carr, our University of Utah business and entrepreneurial student who received a patent (http://www.google.com/patents/US8973946 ) and started a company ( www.charpoles.com ) with his new product, was featured in a short film sponsored by the Marriott Library and the University of Utah School Of Business. This film was presented to the public during an annual banquet and fundraiser for the Utah Ski Archives (http://www.lib.utah.edu/collections/ski-archives/ ) in November 2015.
My other major responsibility is to be the current team leader for our DOCMAP College and Interdisciplinary Team (CIT), which replaced the physical Government Documents and Maps Departments in the Marriott Library. The DOCMAP team continues developing our electronic, print and microfilm collections of government information, and presents training in how to use these resources to patrons across campus and state communities.
Our major weeding and consolidation project two years ago with all federal and international documents collections was viewed as a significant contribution to the Library, and we are now examining our GPO item selection profile for other materials to receive in non-tangible formats in the future.
Thanks once again to the J. Willard Marriott Library Administration for continuing to support our participation in the PTRC Program!