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Hamilton welcomed Charles Watkinson as its speaker for the Couper Phi Beta Kappa Lecture on Oct. 20. Watkins is the director of University of Michigan Press and associate university librarian for publishing at University of Michigan Library. His talk, titled “Open Access Monographs: Why Should Authors, Librarians, and Administrators Care?” explored the impact of the emerging open access movement on scholarly publishing.

Charles Watkinson, director of the University of Michigan Press, will give the Couper Phi Beta Kappa Lecture on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 4:10 p.m., in the Kennedy Auditorium, Taylor Science Center. His lecture is titled “Open Access Monographs. Why Should Authors, Librarians, and Administrators Care?” and is free and open to the public.

Haim Goren, associate professor at Tel-Hai College in Israel’s Upper Galilee, presented the Couper Phi Beta Kappa Lecture at Hamilton on Sept. 24. Established in 2005 to honor Richard “Dick” Couper ’44 and his wife Patsy, this annual lecture series features eminent speakers who present on topics pertaining to the Burke Library’s special collections.

Historical geographer Professor Haim Goren of Israel will present the Couper Phi Beta Kappa Library Lecture at Hamilton College on Wednesday, Sept. 24, at 4:10 p.m., in the Red Pit, KJ.  Goren will speak on “Edward Robinson: ‘Father of the Scientific Study of the Holy Land.’”  Robinson is an alumnus of Hamilton’s class of 1816. The lecture is free and open to the public.

“What can higher education learn from libraries?” Members of the Hamilton College community and librarians from the surrounding area gathered in the Kennedy Auditorium on Oct. 10 to find out. Professor R. David Lankes delivered Hamilton’s Couper Phi Beta Kappa Library Lecture, “What Can Higher Education Learn from Libraries?” exploring how library practices can actually inform some of the current debates surrounding higher education.

Professor R. David Lankes of Syracuse University will present the Couper Phi Beta Kappa Library lecture, titled “What Can Higher Education Learn From Libraries?” on Thursday, Oct. 10, at 4:15 p.m., in the Taylor Science Center's Kennedy Auditorium.  Lankes will explore the larger shift in higher education from preparing students for their first job to being an institution of lifelong learning. He will focus on how existing approaches in libraries actually provide models for this transformation.  The event is free and open to the public.

Every year, Hamilton’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa—the oldest academic honor society in the United States—holds a lecture in honor of Richard Couper ’44. The lecture series, which began in 2005, focuses on the library collections and the institutions themselves, as Couper was a major benefactor of Burke Library. This year’s speaker, Kevin Smith ’81, spoke on “The Impact of Copyright on Art and Scholarship in the Digital Age.”

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.

Hamilton College's annual Couper Phi Beta Kappa Lecture series presented Bryan Alexander, director of research for the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE) on Thursday, Jan. 29. Responding to the July/August Atlantic magazine article "Is Google Making Us Stupid" by Nicholas Carr, Alexander divulged the article's many weaknesses to a full Kennedy Auditorium in the Science Center. 

Author Glendyne Wergland, whose most recent book, Visiting the Shakers: 1778-1849, was recently published by Hamilton's Couper Press, presented the Couper Phi Beta Kappa Library Lecture on Oct. 23. The Couper lecture was established in 2005 to honor Hamilton alumnus Richard "Dick" Couper '44. Couper died in January 2006. This annual lecture recognizes Couper's commitment and contributions to the college and the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Each fall a distinguished speaker is invited to present topics related to the college's special library collections or to present an issue related to libraries in general.