Leeds and Sheffield Central Libraries are part of The Business & IP Centre national network. This is a collaboration between the British Library, the Intellectual Property Office and Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester. Newcastle and Sheffield PATLib or patent information centres. I blogged about the launch of the network in "Enterprise and Libraries: a New National Network of Business & IP Support" 8 March 2013 NIPC Inventors Club.
As I said in that article, the establishment of those centres is part of a two-prong strategy to replace the regional development agencies with local enterprise partnerships and local Business Link offices with libraries. In its press release "Enterprising Libraries: ten library projects receive Arts Council funding to support the development of local businesses" 3 Oct 2013, the Arts Council explained that
"Enterprising Libraries supports local economic growth by turning libraries into spaces for the development of business ideas, providing coaching, advice, meeting spaces and IT support for local businesses and entrepreneurs."Funding for the project is provided by the Arts Council, British Library and the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Sheffield has already appointed Roger Tipple as an innovator in residence and he addressed the Sheffield Inventors Group last week. I mentioned one of the topics that he discussed in his talk in "Another Look at Crowd Funding" 13 Oct 2013 NIPC Inventors Club. Maria Lampert of the British Library will give two talks on intellectual property on the 6 Nov between 09:30 and 11:30 and 12:30 and 14:30 respectively.
