A New Role of Chinese Academic Librarians—The Development of Embedded Patent Information Services at Nanjing Technology University Library, China

Patent information service is a newly emerging specialized in-depth information consultation service in Chinese academic libraries, developed with the implementation of the “National Intellectual Property (IP) Strategy” in China. This paper presents the embedded patent information service at Nanjing Technology University (NJTech) Library (Nanjing, China) and focuses on how it was designed and developed. Citation analysis and questionnaire survey were applied to study NJTech researchers' information behavior on patents so that the librarians could identify their unmet information needs. Based on the analysis of data collected from the citation analysis and questionnaire, the librarians found that they could assist researchers through collaboration and partnership in searching related patents, analyzing technology trends, identifying valuable patents, and tracking new emerging related patents. In the process of embedded service on patents, the role of the academic librarian at NJTech University has been extended to “Patent Specialist,” requiring close collaboration with researchers, embedding in their research units and groups, and helping them to make full use of patent information resources and become more effectively innovative in research.