Public Records Division/Public Information Services Division
Public User's Meeting
June 17, 2009 2:00 p.m.
Remsen Building Conference Center
The Public User's Meeting was held at 2:00 p.m. in the 1st floor conference room 1D04/1D14 of the Remsen Building at 400 Dulany Street on the USPTO campus in Alexandria, Virginia. Diane Lewis, Public Search Facility Manager, chaired the meeting. There were three members of the public in attendance.
Announcements
Public Search Facility will be closed Friday, July 3, 2009 in observance of the federal Independence Day holiday.
Public Search Facility Update
Several microfilm cabinet drawers are broken. A request has been submitted to have the drawers repaired. There are signs on microfilm cabinets with broken drawers. The public will find the reels stored in these broken drawers on book carts near the microfilm reader/printers.
PSF management has received large group tour requests this month and expects additional large group tour requests during the summer months. Routinely tour participants walk through the historical area and the technical reference section on the 1st floor. PSF Tour groups do not visit the 2nd floor search facility space unless there is a special request for a group UPWS demonstration.
Question: Is it true that the Inventors Hall Fame is closed? Will the PTO regain ownership of loaned artifacts, if so?
Response: The National Inventors Hall of Fame and Museum is now located in the Madison building atrium. It houses museum artifacts from its former location at Inventure Place, located in Akron, Ohio, which was closed last year in order to prepare the building to house a new school. You can keep up-to-date on the museum by linking to its web site: www.invent.org.
Question: Is true that the bookshelf with reference volumes is missing some reference books? The Search Facility Librarians monitor the technical reference collection to ensure that the references are available and current. The PSF is in the process of acquiring updated versions of outdated technical publications. The PSF staff has inserted security strips in bound volumes to prevent the loss of publications maintained in the facility.
Question: Can you make available in the PSF at least 2 technical thesauruses? If it is a specific book requested please provide some suggested titles. The PSF Librarians are available to discuss with you which technical references including dictionaries and thesauruses would be useful to public searchers.
Question: Who keeps track of the research books? The two Public Search Facility Librarians responsible for those volumes are Daphne Joseph and Linda Deemie.
Public Users feedback:
Users still experience problems using WIFI in the PSF. There are problems with internet connectivity and/or sending or checking email, etc. One user reported difficulty with WIFI connection starting March 9, 2009 after being able to use WIFI capability with his laptop computer.
Response: PSF Management will contact the USPTO IT Network Support and request that WIFI connections be re-checked.
Public Records Division Updates
PRD is now all moved in and established at the new Shirlington, (Arlington, VA) location in Randolph Square (RSQ) building. All areas are functioning normally.
A response to the question of users' physical access to RSQ building was added to the previous meeting's notes and available via the USPTO website.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:35pm. Next meeting date is July 15, 2009 at 2:00 pm in the Remsen Conference Center, Conference Room1D04/1D14.