The Oklahoma State University Library has been a Patent and Trademark Depository Library since 1956. We are housed in the main University Library and are part of the Government Documents Department, a regional depository for U.S. government documents. The website for the PTRCA in Stillwater includes most of our service information and links to information for inventors at USPTO: https://info.library.okstate.edu/patent-and-trademark-resource-center
I am working with independent inventors primarily by phone and email, having them locate several relevant patents in Google Patents and then searching the related CPC and U.S. classifications using the patent databases via the USPTO website.
We are planning a program with the USPTO Regional Office in Dallas in May of 2018 at the city library in Tuls. I am teaching a class each semester, Patents Online: Discover New Areas of Research, to encourage graduate students and faculty to consider and use patents as a tool for research, similar to journal articles. I provide a seminar on trademarks for the Food and Agricultural Products Center on campus. I team teach senior design classes in engineering with our engineering librarian.
Our PTRC continues to play a support role to other IP departments on campus and locally in addition to working with students, faculty, and independent inventors.