This is now a dormant blog

This blog will officially become dormant. I am not planning on deleting anything, but I do not plan on adding anything in the future either. For science and technology related news, take a look at the sciencelibrary.org website. For news and information related to the Penrose Library at the University of Denver, take a look at the Penrose Pen and/or the Good Answers blogs.

Preview the New Penrose Web Site

Please preview the new Penrose Library web site. Not only does it have a new look, it has a whole new organizational framework. Using the principles of user-centered design, we organized the site around the things that people like you want to do, rather than around resource types or the administrative organization of the Library. Please send us your comments and suggestions.

For example, you will notice that across the top of the page there are drop-down menus specifically for Students and Faculty that contain links directly to the things we think you want to do right away. If you click on the links at the top of the page, you can go to an entire page tailored to your specific needs and experience, no matter who you are: Faculty, Student, Staff, Visitor, or Alumni.

You will also see that on every page you have the opportunity to search a variety of resources, the Library catalog, indexes and databases, and primary source material, both locally and across the world.

There is also a completely revamped and upgraded way to approach research from a thematic as well as course-based approach. Using a new service called LibGuides, you can now find research resources based on a particular course or on a specific topic. Again, the idea is to bring you the information services you need, the way you want them.

Split into two parts

This blog is going to be split into two parts.

For information on new general science and engineering resources, they are now announced at http://www.sciencelibrary.org.

If items pertain to the Penrose Library and our patrons, they will be put onto a new blog that will be announced later.

Boettcher Foundation Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards

This portfolio community supports DU principal investigators as they prepare proposals for the new Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards program. Here you will find information on the program, on the application requirements, and on DU's internal, peer review selection process. DU can forward one proposal to the Boettcher Foundation for potential funding.

Public Access to Federally Funded Research

The Obama administration has created a "Policy Forum on Public Access to Federally Funded Research". Right now, they are in the implementation stage. If you have an opinion on the following, go ahead and put in your two cents.

"One of our nation's most important assets is the trove of data produced by federally funded scientists and published in scholarly journals. The question that this Forum will address is: To what extent and under what circumstances should such research articles—funded by taxpayers but with value added by scholarly publishers—be made freely available on the Internet?

The Forum is set to run through Jan. 7, 2010, during which time we will focus sequentially on three broad themes (you can access the full schedule here). In the first phase of this forum (Dec. 10th-20th) we want to focus on the topic of Implementation.

Thanks to Mickey Shafer for noting.

Are you cooking or baking during the holiday season?

Celebrating Books and More: "Cooking for the Holidays."

Come to Penrose Library and view our December 2009 display: Holiday Cooking: All the cookbooks you need for meals and treats during the holiday season. You may view the suggested reading list by clicking on Cooking for the Holidays (MS-Word document).

If you don't find anything of interest in the list provided above, you could also do a search through our catalog to find even more books on holiday cookery.

Penrose Library Hours: In case you were wonderin'

For the month of December, the Penrose Library will be open the following times:

• Mondays - Thursdays: 8AM-8PM
• Fridays: 8AM-5PM
• Saturdays-Sundays: 1PM-5PM

With the following exceptions:

• The University of Denver and Penrose will close at Noon on Friday, December 18th.
• The Penrose Library will close at 4:30 PM on December 24.
• The University of Denver and the Penrose Library will be closed from 12/25/2009-1/2/2010.

See the hours page for more detail.

RiffTrax Area in Penrose

Check out the small RiffTrax collection of DVDs in Penrose. Here are the steps:

1. Borrow the DVD from Penrose.
2. Download the Rifftrax.
3. Sync them up.
4. Laugh hysterically.

Bonus: Check out their "Shorts".

Some of the DVD we still have are: The Sixth Sense, Star Wars I, The Little Shop of Horrors, Matrix Revolutions, and many others.

Build a Trebuchet Contest with Legos

In connection with the Genghis Khan exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, "the Museum wants you to build a mechanical siege weapon out of Lego building blocks—seriously!" On January 16th, they will host a competition to see whose trebuchet throws an object the farthest. All team entries must be received no later than Thursday, January 7, at 5:00 p.m. Take a look at their entry form and contest rules.

"Trailblazing" is blazing a trail...

Trailblazing is "an interactive timeline for everybody with an interest in science. Compiled by scientists, science communicators and historians – and co-ordinated by Professor Michael Thompson FRS – it celebrates three and a half centuries of scientific endeavour and has been launched to commemorate the Royal Society’s 350th anniversary in 2010."

This future can still happen!

Thanks to DLK and Aaron for finding...

Roomba Pac-Man

This is what our academic friends to the northwest of Denver are doing...

The Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles (RECUV) at the University of Colorado at Boulder has been developing software that helps robots form ad-hoc networks and distribute cooperative control of their operations. Some of the individuals at RECUV decided to create a cool demo on their own time to show off what their software can do.

IEEE Xplore new interface soon

IEEE Xplore will be coming out with a new interface in February, 2010. If you are interested in learning a little bit more, take a look at the the following -- "Experience the New IEEE Xplore Digital Library."

Penrose Library Liaison Newsletter

Here is the new issue of the newsletter (PDF). In this issue:

• Services: page 1
• Instruction and Research: pages 2-4
• Collections: pages 4-5
• Library News: page 6

Library Exhibit — "Blazing the Trail"

The exhibit Blazing the Trail: Denver’s Jewish Pioneers, curated by Beck Archivist Jeanne Abrams, was installed today on the main level of the library. This exhibit contains objects and reproduced images from the Beck Archive here at Penrose. It has been on display at the Singer Gallery of the Mizel Arts and Culture Center and will be at Penrose through the winter.

Murder in the Stacks

Student Services (Housing and Residential Education, Late Night at DU and the First & Second Year Experience) and the Penrose Library are sponsoring an event in the library -- Murder in the Stacks: A Vampire Mystery. Come solve the mystery in Penrose on November 5th at 6:00pm. To sign up your team, please contact DUIT at 1-2245 or duit@du.edu. Each team should have about 5-6 students.

Prizes include: pizza, DU Hockey tickets, vampire books, DU sports gear, and much, much more!

After the mystery is solved, there will be a party with snacks and prizes, then everyone is invited to head over to Davis Auditorium to watch the thriller V for Vendetta.

Hope to see you there.

Happy Open Access Week!

This week is "Open Access Week".

About the OA movement

Open Access is a growing international movement that uses the Internet to throw open the locked doors that once hid knowledge. It encourages the unrestricted sharing of research results with everyone, everywhere, for the advancement and enjoyment of science and society.

Open Access is the principle that all research should be freely accessible online, immediately after publication, and it’s gaining ever more momentum around the world as research funders and policy makers throw their weight behind it.

The Open Access philosophy was firmly articulated in 2002, when the Budapest Open Access Initiative was introduced. It quickly took root in the scientific and medical communities because it offered an alternative route to research literature that was frequently closed off behind costly subscription barriers.

Now Open Access is on a roll. Recent Funder Mandates — including that of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (the world’s largest research funder), which now requires that all their funded research be placed in an openly accessible database, and Harvard University — have further strengthened the prospects for Open Access to all research.

Scientific American is under new management

For now, Penrose will keep a subscription to Scientific American, even though the price went up 750% in one year (2009 to 2010). Nature Publishing Group is now the publisher, and they really jacked the price up on it. I will be watching print use of this in 2010. We do have electronic access to the magazine as well.

For more information, take a look at this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Scientific American is probably the nation's most venerable source of science news written for a general audience. The Nature group, which took over the magazine this year, proposes to charge $299 for a 2010 print subscription-up from $39.95-and as much as $1,500 for an annual license for online access-up from $1,000 - depending on how big the institution is.

Former Chancellor Dan Ritchie takes a rap...

Former DU Chancellor Dan Ritchie raps about a new blog at the DCPA. He makes "it hip and funny so the kids will like it!"



Thanks to Let's Go DU for finding this.

2009 Sparky Awards

The third annual Sparky Awards invite contestants to submit videos of two minutes or less that imaginatively portray the benefits of the open, legal exchange of information. The contest is well suited for adoption as a class assignment as well as an opportunity to promote library services, including media services or the information commons, where students can edit video, browse media, work collaboratively, and learn about copyright and balancing features such as fair use. Colleges and universities across North America are hosting local versions of the Sparky Awards to get maximum benefit from the third-annual installment of the contest. Other institutions everywhere are promoting international entries through sparkyawards.org.

The organizers of the popular Sparky Awards, a contest that recognizes the best new short videos on the value of information sharing, have announced that Pat Aufderheide, Director of the Center for Social Media and professor at American University, and Ben Moskowitz, organizer of the Open Video Alliance and co-founder of the Berkeley Students for Free Culture chapter, will help select the winners of the 2009 international contest. These additions to the judges’ panel reflect how vital the open sharing of information is to both students and faculty, and that the Sparky Awards is a unique forum to bring together stakeholders from across campus to the discussion on access to research.

The contest is sponsored by SPARC.