STS/BRASS General Discussion Group, ALA Annual Conference, June   15, 2002

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	Issues in Science and Technology  Librarianship
	Summer 2002

	DOI:10.5062/F4RB72KG



      

     Conference Reports
    STS/BRASS General Discussion Group
  ALA Annual Conference, June 16, 2002
      Bryna Coonin
  Coastal Resources Management Librarian
  East Carolina University
cooninb@mail.ecu.edu        


    The Science and Technology Section (STS) General Discussion Group  co-sponsored a combined discussion group with the ALA Business & Reference  Services Section (BRASS) on Sunday June 16, 2002 at 9:30 a.m. at the  Westin Peachtree, Atlanta. 

    The joint session was entitled "Two Heads Are Better than One: Business  and Science Sources for Inventors," and featured three panelists to help  focus the discussion, including STS's Julie Hurd, head of the Science  Library at the University of Illinois-Chicago, BRASS's Patricia Kenly,  business Librarian at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Joanne  Tobin, technical resources librarian at the Georgia Institute of  Technology. 

    More than 50 attended the discussion, which centered on the different   ways information is used by science and business researchers, and how   both business and science librarians use patent information as part of   the process of assisting researchers.

    Hurd emphasized that in the science environment the librarian usually  encounters the researcher very early in the research process. For Kenly  and Tobin, contact with the researcher may come later, as a product is  developed out of the research and information about competition and market  research becomes significant. 

    A number of questions followed the discussion, reflecting that information  concerning patents is always welcome among both business and science  library users and the librarians who assist them. The joint session  provided a unique opportunity for two types of librarians who often do not  communicate directly in the course of a workday to think further about the  ways they can share expertise to the ultimate benefit of their users.   

      

  

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