Porter, 'Automated Patent System Pilot Project', NCSU Libraries Newsletter v18n05 (August 1991)
 
_The NCSU Libraries Newsletter_
Volume 18 no. 5
August 1991
Porter, Jean
"Automated Patent System Pilot Project"


The NCSU Libraries is one of fourteen Patent and Trademark 
Depository Libraries (PTDL) chosen last year to participate in 
the Automated Patent System (APS) project of the U.S. Patent 
and Trademark Office.  The NCSU Libraries has been a Patent 
Depository Library since 1977.  There are currently seventy 
libraries designated as PTDLs.

The APS allows end-users to perform searches on the full text 
of U.S. patents from 1971 to the present, which means that 
any word or number that appears on the front page of a patent 
or in the body of the document can be searched.  Word searches 
can be made using boolean operators, thus permitting 
innumerable searching possibilities.  Searches are feasible by 
such information as inventor name, assignee name, current 
classifications, application number, and references cited.  
Drawings cannot be displayed, but the written descriptions of 
the drawings are searchable.  The database is updated weekly 
as patents are issued.

Users will perform their own searches with the aid of a 
reference guide, a desktop reference guide, a training manual, 
and a reference manual.  Staff will answer questions if major 
problems occur.  Introductory group instruction will be offered 
periodically, as well.  The system will be available for public 
use at the beginning of the fall semester.

Before this pilot project, APS was available only to the patent 
examiners and to people using the Public Search Room at the 
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Arlington, Virginia.  The 
pilot project will last for one year and be free to users during 
that time.  After the pilot project ends, a fee will be charged 
for using the system.

Other libraries involved in the pilot are the Boston Public 
Library, the New York Public Library, the Cleveland Public 
Library, the Milwaukee Public Library, the Minneapolis Public 
Library, the University of Nebraska Engineering Library, the 
Auburn University Library, the Los Angeles Public Library, the 
Engineering Library at Arizona State University, the University 
of Utah Library, the Oregon State Library, the Dallas Public 
Library, and the Miami-Dade Public Library.

For more information about the Automated Patent System, call 
Jean Porter, Head, Documents Department, NCSU Libraries, ext. 
5-3280.