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.