Like many other institutions, Wichita State University and the state of Kansas have been hit with budget concerns, causing vacancies to remain unfilled. So for nearly three years, I have been the Director for Public Services, but also retained my former position in Government Documents/ Patents/ Trademarks. I like to think the quality of our services on behalf of the USPTO is still present, even though the quantity has gone down. I do more “on request” work with patrons and fewer scheduled workshops. The monthly 3-hour Saturday patent workshops are almost history, but since people still ask for an in-depth training on searching, I have one scheduled later this spring.

Our Government Information Center has become a Learning Center, but still has great visibility on the main floor and I share use of it for patent and trademark tutorials. I have trained two campus employees this year about the patent process and continue to be a resource for them—one of them in the Office of Research Administration and one in the Entrepreneurship School. In addition, I have developed strong ties with WSU’s Center for Teaching & Research Excellence and have given three copyright workshops for faculty on “Copyright Issues for Course Content” aimed at developing courses in Blackboard. I am grateful for the opportunities given us by the PTDLP to learn about copyright during our training seminars. Actually my on-campus work has grown over the past two years and the phone inquiries and appointments with the general public is a smaller practice.

I also remain an active member of the Business Consortium organization of the Small Business Development Center at WSU. This is a network of area government and non-profit organizations which are key to the development of small businesses. The Consortium offers a bi-annual EXPO, free to the public, and very well attended. I have given programs on IP issues for business at both of these EXPOs in the past year and my assistant (Jo Gregg) and I have manned a booth. There are usually numerous requests for further assistance after these EXPOs. Also, I am still an honorary member of IASCK (Inventors Association of South Central Kansas) and give an annual program for them.

Since I missed the PTDLP Training Seminar in Spring 2009, I was really looking forward to it this spring. Hopefully this will come together for us in Fall 2010. Fortunately, the listservs of the PTDLP and the PTDLA are still a terrific source of support to us all.

Nan Myers
Associate Professor
Director for Public Services
Librarian for Government and Intellectual Property Information