The Packet. Volume 24, Number 5.

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The Packet
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September/October 1991
Volume 24 Number 5
Mississippi Library Commission
The Packet
Commission co-sponsors innovation workshop
A two-day workshop,
designed to help inventors and
innovators take their ideas to
the marketplace culminated
October 11 and 12, 1991 at the
Education and Research
Center in Jackson. State and
local agencies and businesses
in conjunction with the U.S.
Energy and Commerce
Departments hosted the first
Southeast Regional National
Innovation Workshop.
In November 1989,
Congressman Mike Parker of
Mississippi's Fourth
Congressional District, asked
the Department of Energy and
the National Institute of
Standards and Technology to
consider Mississippi as the site
for a future Southeast Regional
National Innovation Workshop.
In December 1990, the
Department of Energy did
indeed select Jackson as the
location for its 62nd meeting.
A local planning committee
was formed and members met
every month to plan the event.
As a result, the workshop
attracted 175 educators,
entrepreneurs, innovators and
inventors.
"There have been 61 other
National Innovation
Workshops, but this is the first
one held in this part of the
country," Congressman Parker
said.
Mississippi boasts its share
of innovators and inventors.
Information Services
Coordinator Velma Champion
said U.S. Department of
Commerce records show that
129 patents were issued to
Mississippians in 1990.
The Library Commission
shares a vested interest in
innovation workshops of this
type, thanks to its recent
designation as the state's first
Patent Research Library. Many
of the inventors who attended
the workshop are already
taking advantage of the
resources available through the
Commission.
"Mississippi is blessed --
blessed in that it has great
inventors. For example, we
have people like Richard Truly
of Fayette, who is the head of
(continued on page 2)
Mississippi Library Commission Information Services Coordinator
Velma Champion demonstrates how to use the CD-ROM computer
for assessing patent information during the Innovations Workshop.