Reminder: 2010 Tax Forms at Norlin Library

With less than a month until the end of Tax Season, a reminder about the availability of Tax Forms at Norlin Library seems in order. Also, due to recent changes in Federal tax laws, the Government Information Library has only recently received physical copies of many of the standard federal tax forms. Below is a repost of our tax forms blog post from January this year. We hope you find it helpful.

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The Tax Forms and Information page -- our regular home for all things tax-related in Government Information -- has been updated in two significant ways: Now, instead of a blog post that will explicitly list which tax forms are available in Norlin, patrons can visit the Tax Forms and Information Page and download an excel spreadsheet that details that same information. This process decreases the time it takes for the Gov Info staff to update the Web site with the most recent information.


A second change is the addition of a new printable guide: Finding and Printing 2010 Tax Forms. This guide explains how to locate specific tax forms online, and how those forms can be printed here in Norlin Library. Pre-printed copies of the guides are available in the Government Information Library, and at the main Research Desk on the 2nd floor of Norlin.

We hope these chances will be useful to our University and Public patrons who have come to rely on the Government Information Library for tax forms. As always, any questions or comments can be directed to us at govpubs@colorado.edu or on the phone at (303) 492-8834.

Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports

Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a research agency of Congress and writes reports at Congress' request. These short reports (usually 10-40 pages long) cover recent topics of concern. This week brings us reports on the foreign relations, defense, budget, and much more. Although these reports are in the public domain, there is no central database available to the public. To get a copy of a CRS report, you can request it from your senator or representative. These reports were discovered by Open CRS and Secrecy News:

• U.S. Response to the Global Threat of Tuberculosis: Basic Facts
• U.S. Response to the Global Threat of Malaria: Basic Facts
• U.S. Response to the Global Threat of HIV/AIDS: Basic Facts
• Law Enforcement Use of GPS Devices to Monitor Motor Vehicles: Fourth Amendment Considerations
• Mandatory Vaccinations: Precedent and Current Laws
• The U.S. Postal Service’s Financial Condition: Overview and Issues for Congress
• War Powers Resolution: Presidential Compliance
• Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2010
• Middle East and North Africa Unrest: Implications for Oil and Natural Gas Markets
• The Strategic Petroleum Reserve and Refined Product Reserves: Authorization and Drawdown Policy
• Terrorist Use of the Internet: Information Operations in Cyberspace
• International Criminal Court and the Rome Statute: 2010 Review Conference
• International Criminal Court Cases in Africa: Status and Policy Issues
• Closing Yucca Mountain: Litigation Associated with Attempts to Abandon the Planned Nuclear Waste Repository
• U.S. Tsunami Programs: A Brief Overview
• A U.S.-Centric Chronology of the International Climate Change Negotiations
• Algeria: Current Issues
• Asian Carp and the Great Lakes Region
• Brazil-U.S. Relations
• China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities--Background and Issues for Congress
• Chinese Tire Imports: Section 421 Safeguards and the World Trade Organization (WTO)
• Committee Types and Roles
• Earthquakes: Risk, Detection, Warning, and Research
• Export-Import Bank: Background and Legislative Issues
• Federal Agency Actions Following the Supreme Court's Climate Change Decision: A Chronology
• International Food Aid: U.S. and Other Donor Contributions
• Iraq: Politics, Elections, and Benchmarks
• Kuwait: Security, Reform, and U.S. Policy
• Limiting Central Government Budget Deficits: International Experiences
• Project BioShield: Authorities, Appropriations, Acquisitions, and Issues for Congress
• Prospects for Democracy in Hong Kong: The 2012 Election Reforms
• Public Health and Emergency Preparedness
• Russian Political, Economic, and Security Issues and U.S. Interests
• Security Assistance Reform: "Section 1206" Background and Issues for Congress
• State, Foreign Operations Appropriations: A Guide to Component Accounts
• Tajikistan: Recent Developments and U.S. Interests
• The Department of Defense's Use of Private Security Contractors in Afghanistan and Iraq: Background, Analysis, and Options for Congress
• The European Union's Reform Process: The Lisbon Treaty
• The Financial Action Task Force: An Overview
• The National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC)--Responsibilities and Potential Congressional Concerns
• The Speaker of the House: House Officer, Party Leader, and Representative
• Transportation Security: Issues for the 112th Congress
• U.S.-Latin America Trade: Recent Trends and Policy Issues
• Veterans Affairs: The U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims--Judicial Review of VA Decision Making
• Veterans' Benefits: Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) for Survivors
• World Trade Organization (WTO) Decisions and Their Effect in U.S. Law
• Yemen: Background and U.S. Relations

Interested in historical CRS reports? If you are here at the Boulder campus, check out the LexisNexis Congressional database, which has reports dating back to 1916.

Not on campus but still want access to additional reports? The library has a guide linking to various additional sources of CRS reports.

Saturn Images Combined to Recreate Flight of the Cassini Spacecraft

Enthusiasts of space travel are no doubt aware of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories at Caltech. JPL's research has made possible some of the key spaceflights of the 20th century, including the Pioneer Moon program (though Pioneer 4 now orbits the Sun), the Viking to Mars program, and the Wide Field and Planetary Camera installed on the Hubble telescope, among many others.

One of JPL's current missions is the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft's orbit of the planet Saturn, with a separate component designed to parachute through the atmosphere of the planet's moon Titan. NASA's calls the mission "the most ambitious effort in planetary space exploration ever mounted."



As with each of JPL's missions, photographs from Cassini are available at the Lab's online Photojournal, and also through the Cassini mission site, which is highly recommended.

Ambitious filmmaker Stephen van Vuuren is compiling Cassini's still images into an IMAX resolution film. Below is a two-and-one-half minute preview of some of the imagery van Vuuren has compiled. The film speaks for itself, but be sure to watch it in full-screen HD. It's amazing.

5.6k Saturn Cassini Photographic Animation from Stephen van Vuuren via Vimeo.

Discovery's final mission

Yesterday, the space shuttle Discovery landed for the final time. Discovery has logged the most days in space of any shuttle, with 352 days in space before this final mission. In other words, after this past 12 day mission it has logged almost a year in space, with over 180 different people having ridden in this shuttle. (from the mission press release)

Discovery is the first space shuttle to retire, to be followed by Endeavor and Atlantis. In honor of this landing, why not check out this video from NASA:


If you want to see some of the still images of the mission check out the image gallery for mission STS-133 (the 133 mission into space) from NASA.

Still hungering for more space information? Why not check out the library's guide.

What is FDsys?

In addition to our usual tutorial videos, the Government Documents Library at CU Boulder is trying a few new approaches to engage and attract users to the types of information to be found in government resources. The video below, "What is FDsys?" is the first part in a short series on the GPO's Federal Digital System or FDsys. We hope you find it informative and useful, and welcome comments below.

And now you can find more videos about government sources at the CU Boulder Libraries YouTube channel.