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“Ability, Assistance, and Collaboration in Academic Library Assessment,” an article by Assistant Dean of Faculty for Institutional Research Gordon Hewitt and Reference Librarian Rebecca Troendle Hewitt, was published in the November issue of the electronic journal Library Philosophy and Practice (LPP).

Couper Librarian Randall Ericson has compiled a bibliography of the works of prominent 20th century author and Nobel prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Spanning the years 1962-75, it includes translations of Solzhenitsyn’s work into all languages, as well as miscellaneous non-literary works such as letters and Solzhenitsyn’s statements to the Soviet Writers’ Union. One of the Solzhenitsyn’s most recognized and celebrated publications, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, was first published in 1962.

The Richard W. Couper Press has issued a new publication, Visiting the Shakers, 1850-1899: Watervliet, Hancock, Tyringham, New Lebanon, edited by Glendyne R. Wergland. This is a companion to her earlier volume published by the Couper Press in 2007, which covered 1788-1849. Visitors to Shaker communities recorded impressions of Shaker life, material culture, and worship. These 85 accounts provide a valuable window into Shaker life.

Carolyn Carpan, Burke Library’s director of public services, has been elected to serve as member-at-large on the executive committee of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) College Libraries Section. Her two year term will begin at the end of June.

Although many people might think of copyright issues as being contemporary, they emerged in legal discourse as early as the 16th century after the invention of the printing press and have been adapting to technological innovations ever since. In her April 29 lecture, Cornell's Tracy Mitrano discussed “Copyright Conundrums: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow,” and addressed what she believes to be the most pressing copyright problems facing higher education. Mitrano’s talk was part of the Couper Phi Beta Kappa Lecture series which was established in 2005 to honor Hamilton alumnus Richard “Dick” Couper ’44.

Tracy Mitrano, the director of IT Policy and Computer Policy and Law Programs for the Office of Information Technologies at Cornell University, will give the Couper Phi Beta Kappa Lecture on Thursday, April 29, at 4:10 p.m., in the Science Center Kennedy Auditorium. Her lecture is titled “Copyright Conundrums: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” and is free and open to the public.

Carolyn Carpan, Burke Library’s director of public services, has published “Introducing Information Literacy 2.0,” the first installment of her new column “Library Services in the Age of Google.” The column appears in the latest edition of College & Undergraduate Libraries, a quarterly journal that provides practical information for the librarians and staff of undergraduate institutions.

A “well-written and thoroughly researched volume …[an] intriguing history” is how the December 2009 volume of the School Library Journal described Sisters, Schoolgirls, and Sleuths: Girls' Series Books in America in a glowing review. Written by Burke Library Director of Public Services Carolyn Carpan, the book is the first study of American girls' series books to examine the entire genre from its beginning in the 1840s to present day, including Nancy Drew, The Baby-Sitters Club and Sweet Valley High.

Ken Herold, director of library information systems, published a short commentary on information ethics in the Fall 2009 APA Newsletter on Philosophy and Computers (vol. 9, no. 1, 22-23) of the American Philosophical Association. Herold is a correspondent with IEG, a collaboration between the Oxford University Computing Laboratory and the faculty of philosophy within Oxford, investigating the philosophy of information. He is currently researching the origins of digital objects in the works of Alan Turing.

The Lion and the Unicorn, an international theme- and genre-centered journal committed to serious, ongoing discussion of children’s literature, referenced Carolyn Carpan’s book Sisters, Schoolgirls, and Sleuths: Girls’ Series Books in America in its most recent volume. Four “series books” including Carpan’s were highlighted as offering “ much new information and analysis about this overlooked area of scholarship and the many mysteries that surround it.” Carpan is the director of public service in the Burke Library.