Exploring the Need for Intellectual Property Information Literacy for Business and STEM Disciplines

A major component of any information literacy training program incorporates training on copyright and fair use. While in the library literature, librarians have provided excellent training on understanding copyright and appropriate use, they have not focused on providing training on other forms of intellectual property (IP), particularly patents. As IP in the form of patents is becoming exponentially more important in the research-to-commercialization process, more work on information literacy training about patents is needed. This paper provides definitions of IP literacy, places the value of IP literacy in a larger context, looks at target audiences, proposes a framework for IP literacy and provides suggestions about the role that librarians can play in developing IP literacies beyond copyright.