“Patenting” a New Engineering Librarian at an American University in the UAE

Abstract

As a new engineering librarian, my first instruction session assignment was to teach first-year engineering students about patents and how to search the patent literature. I learned a great deal about patents and what can and cannot be patented. Of course, a person cannot be patented, let alone a profession. The question still remains as to what if it was a possibility and what would that patent look like? As a librarian who liaised with the science community exclusively for a year before taking on engineering, I have learned from point zero. I have no background in engineering and my previous library career path did not include any engineering liaison assignments. In the same matter that some patents begin with an idea and that idea then becomes a product, I started with the idea of an “engineering librarian” and made that idea a reality. In my case, the product, an engineering librarian, is constantly evolving and changing as new information is gained while remaining true to the very basics of that product. Through interacting with the faculty, attending lectures, attending training sessions, and communicating with my counterparts in the US, both in-person and online, I have learned and continue to learn about engineering librarianship, particularly at my institution. Just as a patent informs the reader of all of the claims, diagrams, and description of an invention, this paper will take one through all the claims, diagrams, and description that consists of my path in learning the skills required to become an engineering librarian at an American University in the UAE.