Description

A decade ago the Law Library opened a special Library dedicated to intellectual property (“IP”) resources. Since the founding of the law school three decades ago there has been a focus on training IP professionals. To that end the law school has always had a collection development emphasis on IP. With the founding of the Graduate Programs in the 1980s, the law school intensified its goal to provide graduate students with a strong core collection. IP programs steadily grew, as did the IP collection. In the early 1990s the law school committed resources to moving all IP resources to a dedicated space, now known as the IP Library. As the law school's Graduate Programs progressively added courses in commerce and technology, the IP Library kept pace, providing resources to support these areas.

Mission, Purpose and Policies

The IP Library is a department of the Law Library and is administered consistent with the overall Mission, Purpose and Policies of the Law Library. Given the nexus between the IP Library and the Graduate Programs, the mission and purpose include ascertaining and meeting the needs of the graduate students as a primary user group.

RESOURCES, SERVICES & FACILITIES

Collection

Graduate students attend this law school for its proven performance as a top rated Center for the training of IP, commerce and technology professionals. As such, students expect the law school to meet their information needs in these program areas. Consistent with these needs, the Law Faculty voted to mandate that the Law Library develop resources in these topical areas at the research level – the highest in the Law Library collection development policy.

The IP Library meets this mandate by building comprehensive resources to meet both curricular demands as well as beyond to be the premier IP Library in the United States. The law school believes that this is the sole Law Library in the U.S. with a dedicated IP Library. Collection features to meet the needs of the graduate students in this fast- paced specialty include:

• All formats including microfiche, print, CD/DVD and online
• Resources on a spectrum from ancient treatises to the most cutting edge news sources
• Resources on a spectrum from highly scholarly to practice oriented
• Titles on a spectrum from mainstream publishers around the globe to grey literature form from governmental and non governmental organizations
• A collection which reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the graduate programs including business, economic, social, cultural, historical and political aspects
• Resources in topical legal areas with a synergy to IP including art, entertainment, sports, bankruptcy, crimes, antitrust, environment, torts, tax, health, insurance and more
• Several specialty Websites produced by the IP Library
• International, foreign and comparative resources heavily used by international graduate students
• Repository of WIPO publications
• Collection of foreign language dictionaries

Most international graduate students come from countries where the domestic IP resources fit on a few library shelves. They expect that a comprehensive IP education include comprehensive resources. The expectation is met with approximately ten thousand volumes collected in one space for ease of use.

Virtual Collection

The physical collection expands into a virtual collection of Web based IP oriented licensed products.

The IP Library produces The IP Mall at http://www.ipmall.info/ which has been an award winning website for almost a decade. It serves the graduate students in many ways, including:

• Resources on IP Library resources and IP legal research tools and strategies
• IP at the Law Library which is a section dedicated to a holistic presentation on all IP activities at the law school, with an emphasis on the human perspective of being an IP student and alum
• Dozens of topical collections of Web links in part related to courses in the IP curriculum
• Hosted resources, which is a section of unique IP content for research and general edification. One prime example is the Congressional Research Service reports covering the areas of IP, commerce and technology. This is a Web exclusive.

The Traditional Knowledge (TK) Portal at http://www.traditionalknowledge.info/ is a joint venture of the IP Library and graduate students under the supervision of Professor William Hennessey. The Portal is designed as a database of the information on TK available on the Internet. Our research revealed that though a lot of material is available on the Internet relating to various aspects of TK, these are not available at one place in a systematically classified fashion. A large number of organizations including intergovernmental organizations, national governments, civil society organizations, educational and research institutions are working on this subject contributing to the study of TK. The database classifies the information into categories, which identifies different facets of the subject matter. The information so classified is dynamically linked based on the interrelatedness of the subject mater to facilitate easy access and navigation of the database. It is hoped that this would help serious study of the subject and facilitate its development as an academic discipline.

IP News Blog delivers IP news and commentary under the supervision of the IP Librarian. Many of the content providers (“bloggers”) are graduate students. This growing service provides another avenue for graduate students to write and enhance their competitiveness in the IP arena.

Facility

The IP Library occupies one of three floors of the Law Library facility. Various type of study space includes tables, private carrels as well as soft seating. Seating capacity is one hundred fifty five (155). Most of our law school graduate students are international. Many use the IP Library extensively both for study and research. Graduate students use the IP Library from early in the morning until closing. The law school endeavors to make the space conducive to their needs. The area is very well lit with both natural and overhead lighting. The book stacks are short, allowing a bright environment. The floor is designated as a quiet zone to facilitate research and study. The artwork has been donated by graduate students, thus providing a sense of familiarity and continuity with those from their home regions, which have come before them.

Staffing and Instructional Programs

The IP Library is staffed by a full time IP Librarian of over ten years tenure who is also a Professor of Research. He holds a J.D. and LL.M. (IP) degrees and is a certified knowledge manager.

The IP Librarian is located in the IP Library to offer reference and research assistance to the graduate students. He teaches an advanced research course, Mining Patent Data in the New Millennium, attended heavily by graduate students who come from law, industry and government. The IP Librarian also provides guest lectures in IP courses, which include graduate students.