The PTDL at New York State Library (NYSL) had a relatively quiet year in 2009. We did not see as many in-person visits as in past years but we did accomplish a couple of things outside the building that we think will help our program.

In June NYSL’s PTDL representative presented two separate programs on patents and trademarks at a local public library. Attendance by the public was low but the programs were worthwhile because they helped build a stronger relationship between our staff and the public library staff – something we’ve been interested in doing.

In November we participated in some Continuing Legal Education (CLE) programming. Over the years NYSL's training unit has occasionally been called on by the legal departments of NYS agencies to offer training. It would usually be on the legal materials we provide remote access to, such as LegalTrac, Loislaw, State Capital Universe, Congressional Universe, etc. The agency would arrange the CLE accreditation with the State Bar Association and NYSL staff would simply provide the instructor.

This year NYSL decided to originate the classes and obtain the accreditation ourselves. Intellectual property was included in the line-up of topics we offered to the agencies. One expressed interest and we were successful in developing a class and having it accredited by the State Bar Association.

The class was based on the overviews of intellectual property that have been presented to us at PTDLP seminars and in the PTDLP road shows. It went well - the agency was pleased.

As we look at shrinking numbers in terms of on-site visits we see that the expertise of a PTDL representative is now the real value of the program rather than the access we used to have a monopoly on. We see that outreach activities will be very important.