Who Needs Patent Info at Your Library? They’re Not Just for Engineers!

Who Needs Patent Info at Your Library? They’re Not Just for Engineers!

Enhance your public, academic, and school library reference services with the wealth of information found in patent records for:

  • Genealogy and local history
  • Antiquing
  • Business planning & policy
  • Investing
  • Primary source historiography
  • STEM education
  • Inventors, entrepreneurs, & manufacturers
  • Visual designers
  • Professional growers
  • Community & institutional reputation

This training session will focus on open-access online resources for U.S. patent research. We will cover tips and tricks for getting more relevant, useful, and interesting search results. We will also identify selected international patent resources available in English. 

The workshop will be divided into three parts; participants are welcome to attend one or more part.

  1. Teaching & learning with patents. Kid-ventors, patenting process, invention in national & local history and culture (1:00 – 1:50)
  2. Finding specific patents for local and family history; tracking “mystery” inventions; identifying power inventors and company patent portfolios; supporting inventors and entrepreneurs in your community or university (2:00 – 2:50)
  3. Finding “prior art”; using patent classification systems to get focused results (a natural for librarians!); connecting with the inventor community; non-patent IP strategies (3:00 – 3:50)

At the conclusion of the training, you will be able to:

  • Locate, parse, and download any U.S. Patent on record from 1790 to this week
  • Use field-searching tools to narrow results
  • Support the inventors and innovators your library serves
  • Offer high-quality free, open-access patent resources to your users
  • Market library services to your community, institution, and supporters

[This is an in person, hands on session taking place in the computer lab at the Middletown Library Service Center, 786 South Main Street, Middletown, CT]


Barbara Hampton, an academic reference & research librarian, served as patent librarian and U.S.P.T.O. Patent & Trademark Center Representative at Sacred Heart University. She continues to be an active member of the Patent and Trademark Resource Center Association and the Patent Information Users Group, which presented her with the Brian Stockdale Award. She served as library director at Talcott Mountain Academy, a private K-8 school.  She has authored book chapters and journal articles on patents and trained public and academic librarians on patent information.

Date:
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Time:
1:00pm - 4:00pm
Location:
Middletown Library Service Center, 786 South Main St., Middletown
Categories:
DLD Workshop
Registration has closed.

Event Accessibility for Guests with Disabilities

We want to provide what you need to participate!

If you require access services to participate fully, please use the Accommodation Request Form at least 7 days prior to the event.

If you have any questions about accessibility, please contact Gail Hurley at gail.hurley@ct.gov or (860) 704-2223.

You can also see our Library and Accessibility LibGuide for more information.

Registration Eligibility

To register for a DLD workshop or webinar, you must be one of the following:

  • current library staff member
  • undergraduate or graduate library student
  • Friend or Board Member/Trustee*
  • retired or unemployed library staff

Please contact Gail Hurley at gail.hurley@ct.gov or (860) 704-2223 with registration questions.

*Unless otherwise specified that a Friend or Board Member/Trustee is not eligible for a training or workshop.

Note: paid consultants are not eligible to attend DLD workshops or webinars.

Cancellation Policy

If you cannot attend a workshop you have registered for, please remember to cancel at least 3 days in advance so we can give your spot to someone else. You can cancel via the link in your confirmation email, or by contacting Gail Hurley gail.hurley@ct.gov | (860) 704-2222.

Those who miss (without cancelling) 3 events within a 6-month period will be placed on the waiting list when registering for future events. Be sure to sign in when you arrive for any workshop.

Inclement Weather Policy

For all in-person workshops offered by the CT State Library, Division of Library Development:

If the public schools in the town where the workshop is to be held close due to weather, the workshop will be canceled. If the schools have a delay, the workshop will go on as scheduled.

For the most up-to-date information, call us at 860-704-2200.

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Continuing Education workshops and the professional development collection are funded in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the Connecticut State Library.