The Seattle PTRC is located in the Engineering Library at the University of Washington. The Engineering Library has been a PTDL/PTRC since 1977.
Our website moved to a new content management platform, so we took the opportunity to update the Patents and Trademarks section of the site. Most of the subject information has been put into a LibGuide (Springshare). The LibGuide is still a work in progress, but it will be easier to edit and update.
Here at the Engineering Library, we completed a large project to reclassify our Dewey materials into LC. Staff and students put a lot of time and effort into the project. Next: shift the book collection and integrate materials that have been held behind our circulation desk due to lack of space.
We are in the pre-planning stages of a “re-imagination” of the first floor of the Engineering Library. The first floor houses our reference collection as well as our PTRC Research Area and associated materials. The Circulation and Reference Desks and computer workstations are also located on the first floor. We still maintain a separate Reference Desk here at the Engineering Library, but we are looking at ways to combine our service desks. In addition, we will be reducing our reference collection, moving many of those books to our stacks and sending indexes/abstracts to storage. PTRC services will still be located on the first floor. We would be moving some of the materials to other floors (e.g. the microfilm and Official Gazettes). The goal is to spruce up the space, so we are requesting funding to reconfigure the floor to incorporate more user-friendly furniture and to create a more welcoming introduction to the library. We also hope to replace some seating on our upper floors as well. We envision several phases of improvements to the Engineering Library.
One set of upgrades is due to get underway shortly: more outlets. As you know, students, faculty, staff and other library patrons are always looking for outlets to plug in a myriad of electronic devices. The building lacks outlets or has outlets in inconvenient places, (the Engineering Library was designed and built in the late 1960s) such as underneath the radiators. We will be adding outlets on our upper floors, including outlets that are suspended from the ceiling on take-up reels.
We are looking forward to new things in 2012!