Dates: March 2-27, 2015
Credits: 1.5 CEUs
Price: $175
Credits: 1.5 CEUs
Price: $175
The
corpus of patents constitutes one of the largest organized repositories of
technical information in the world. The value of searching for these documents
is not limited to inventors; information from patents is also used by
historians, genealogists, entrepreneurs, attorneys, and engineers. Whether
serving public or academic communities, patent searching is a skill to include
in any librarian’s repertoire. As a primer for librarians, students in this
course will learn the anatomy of a patent and how patents are organized. A
variety of search strategies will be discussed, and several freely available
databases will be consulted. Guidelines for avoiding "unauthorized
practice of law," a concern often inhibiting librarians from providing effective
services to their users, will also be provided.
