Thought provoking article about Reference Services

Although his comments come from being a librarian in a public library, the author's observations and comments are mostly applicable in our academic environment. His premise: "Today’s reference user wants help doing things rather than finding things."

Where Reference Fits in the Modern Library: http://bit.ly/1KQrzAR

New: PatentsView_beta

The PatentsView search tool allows audiences to interact with nearly 40 years of data on patenting activity in the US. Use the tool to explore technological, regional, and individual-level trends through several search filters and multiple view options. I particularly like the "View on Map" option which shows you the location in the world of the patent at issue date.

For researchers in particular, PatentsView is intended to encourage the study and understanding of the intellectual property (IP) and innovation system; to serve as a fundamental function of the government in creating “public good” platforms in these data; and to eliminate the wasteful and redundant cleaning, converting and matching of these data by many individual researchers, thus freeing up researcher time to do what they do best—study IP, innovation, and technological change.