Library Faculty/Staff Scholarship and Research

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/11

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Bringing New “Life” to a PTDL: Easing the Burden
(2009-04-02) Miller, Jim; Kackley, Bob; Austin, Damon; Cech, Maureen; Tchangalova, Nedelina
Having attended over a dozen PTDLA annual conferences as a member since the mid-90s, I am always astounded by the knowledge along with the loyalty and camaraderie evidenced by the PTDLA Librarians at these yearly sessions. In fact, there is an incredible core of several dozen members who bring real authentication to the benefits experienced by our patent & trademark users from all over the country. I’m proud to say that one of these is my co-worker, Jim Miller who has many more years of experience than myself at this along with his participation in a USPTO fellowship in 2001-02.
But, our numbers are dwindling due to various or expected reasons. Despite a very capable and bright set of potential “upstarts” already coming into the Program as replacements, there is a concern that they will not be nearly enough to fill the expected gap - sooner than we think. So, at the University of Maryland’s Engineering & Physical Sciences Library (College Park PTDL), Jim and I have been recruiting and enlisting new members as of late ---- our graduate assistant Maureen Cech, who will be going to her second conference this April, and librarians Damon Austin and Nedelina Tchangalova.
It is imperative to keep an area as critical as Patents and Trademarks from becoming a seeming information “dark hole” to the rest of our library staff. Thus, we have set up training sessions beginning in January for these three newbies to introduce them to major databases such as USPTO, Espacenet, and even Google Patents. They will study some of the outstanding tutorials that have been authored (and we suspect underused) by our very own PTDLA Librarians. We intend this introduction to boost their confidence when encountering patrons with patent & trademark queries.
From Capstone to Gemstone to Keystone: And Now Marquee Courses?
(American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), 2008-06-25) Zdravkovska, Nevenka; Cech, Maureen; Austin, Damon; Miller, Jim; Kackley, Bob
The librarians at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Library (EPSL) have enhanced many engineering-oriented programs at the University of Maryland in College Park over the years. But it is most rewarding when a new program comes along. It takes tact and a different strategy to ferret out the best way(s) to be of assistance. A good example is EPSL librarians’ efforts to get in on the “ground floor” of a new set of introductory core classes for non-technical/non-science majors, Marquee Courses in Science and Technology, which began in the fall of 2007. The Gemstone Program, a unique multidisciplinary four-year research team-based Honors Program in the A. James Clark School of Engineering, has significantly involved UM librarians since its inception in 1996. Dr. William Destler derived this now very successful and nationally noted program from the “old” Capstone concept, under which senior UM engineering students are still being instructed on patent and other advanced searching by EPSL librarians. In fall 2006 at the A. James Clark School of Engineering, the UM Keystone Program was created to encourage the best faculty to teach the most fundamental engineering courses. The Engineering departments discontinued the librarians’ instruction part of ENES 100 “Introduction to Engineering Design”. We had given these ENES 100 sessions, involving hands-on experience, to nearly every section of new freshmen engineering students for about fifteen years. But the EPSL librarians persevered; and created a strong web presence for the UM Libraries via our Blackboard(TM) system ELMS (Enterprise Learning Management System.) In summer 2006, when we heard about the new Marquee Courses program, EPSL librarians wasted no time in an aggressive marketing campaign to the professors of these classes, to demonstrate UM Library resources to their students. This presentation will cover our efforts and strategy, such as communicating with the Marquee Courses professors to successfully secure time slots with their students not only for fall 2007, but for future classes. We will especially focus on spring 2008 classes, and other classes that we picked up on short notice. The material we present in these classes differs from traditional library instruction sessions, which often do not closely match the topics the professors cover in class.