No. 12: Publishers' Bookbindings, 1830-1910
15-19 July 1996
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No. 12: Publishers' Bookbindings, 1830-1910 15-19 July 1996 |
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1. How useful were the pre-course readings? 1: I read all the books I was able to get. The list came in plenty of time this year. As always, the pre-course reading helped. 2: Very useful, and they provided technical information not really provided in the course (edition bindings, sewing, trimming in vs. out of boards, etc.). 3: They were useful for a foundation in the topic. The big problem was finding copies of the cited articles. 5: Very useful. 6: I was only able to read one rather lengthy articles and I found it most useful. It gave me a background of information that helped from the start. 7: The readings were useful in reviewing more familiar material or as introduction to less familiar material. Some titles were very difficult to locate. 8: Very useful. As always, the list was a good length (ie, not too large to complete in the time available), was distributed in plenty of time, and included books that were fairly easy to obtain. 9: The course readings were excellent in preparing one for the course. 10: Very useful, and many were widely available and easy to find. (There have been other years when most of the material was impossible to get hold of.) 11: The pre-course readings were nearly all relevant and helpful. 12: The list was quite long. Some were more useful for the class matter, and it was very helpful to have read them first; the background reading could have been left for the bibliography. |
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2. Were the course syllabus and other materials distributed in class useful (or will they be so in the future, after you return home)? 1: Very useful and helpful. I even bought a "Sue" book at Heartwood. Her books are beautiful and will begin a new reference collection. 2: Yes. 3: The most useful item was the time line chart. This will prove to be very useful in book collecting. 4: Yes, they're useful. Good guides and bibliography for better understanding c19 publishers bindings. 5: No course syllabus, but each day we were told what we would be discussing. 6: Yes. 7: Time line  very useful. Detailed bibliographyvery useful. 8: The time line chart listing binding trends will prove very useful, I think. 9: Useful for the future, references were constantly made to them after distribution in class. 10-11: Yes. 12: The bibliography will be cherished. |
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3. Was the intellectual level of the course content appropriate? 1: I think everyone fit in perfectly. 2: Yes. 4: Yes, it was right on the level. No one seemed lost or in over their head. On the whole, the student population was pleasant, friendly, and outgoing. 5: Yes. 6: Yes, very much so. 7-8: Yes. 9: Highly appropriate. 10-12: Yes. |
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4. If your course had field trips, were they effective? 1: Yes, it's always a pleasure to go to the Rotunda and Special Collections. Nice to have had George Riser in the class to get extra material out for us. 2: Yes. 3: In every instance the field trip was critical to the whole subject. The only problem with the Rotunda is that it's like working in a crowded subway with all the people. 4: Yes, GR from Special Collections did a great job catering to SA's needs. A job well done, George! 5: Yes very well planned. 6: Very much so. 7: Yes. 8: I very much enjoyed our visit to Special Collections. Visits to the Rotunda collection (if this counts as a field trip) were invaluable. 9-10: Yes. 11: The time spent in Special Collections, as well as the time spent in the Rotunda examining the variety of BAP bindings, was very well spent. 12: Yes. It was quite rewarding to look at the high spots of American literature only from the outside, and to see how it all fit into our chronologies. The Rotunda collection is invaluable to the course experience. |
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5. Did the actual course content correspond to its RBS brochure description and Expanded Course Description (ECD)? Did the course in general meet your expectations? 1: Yes, and more. 2: Yes, although I craved more in-depth discussion of edition and mechanical bindings, as opposed to design, as it related to the popularity of books as inexpensive common items, rise of recreational reading, etc. Next time I'll have to take "The Book in the Industrial Era." 3: The course exceeded my expectations and has created a great awareness of the topic that will make my collecting more meaningful and rewarding. I recommend the course to anyone dealing with books. 4: I think we got what we paid for, so to speak. It was an excellent course and the brochure was more than adequate for filling us in on what our week would be like. 5: Yes; this course exceeded my expectations. We saw many, many examples of bindings, which was necessary in order for the course to be useful as well as interesting. 6: Yes, very much so. 7: Yes. 8: Yes, in general, although I had also hoped to learn about c19 bookbinding structure (casing technicalities), and perhaps more about the social and economic factors conditions in binderies, for example; details of book distribution. 9: As expected. 10: Yes. 11: The course content did correspond to the course description and I would say exceeded my expectations. 12: Yes. |
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6. What did you like best about the course? 1: SA's energy and enthusiasm and her vast knowledge about art, books, conservation, and experiences visiting institutions in this country and abroad. It was great going to the Rotunda daily and handling all the books. Seeing slides and brasses of books. Loved her stories. 2: SA, and her amazing slides plus her brasses! 3: The hands-on approach to books, allowing one to see and touch rather than studying pictures alone. Also the quality of the teaching collection. 4: The books! And SA's way of characterizing the decades of publishers bindings. It really did all make sense by the time we were done. 5: 1) The instructor was very organized, well-informed, and so enthusiastic about the subject matter. 2) Good visual aids. The slides were exceptionally good. 3) The instructor arranged for the class to have plenty of hands-on experience with the c19 bindings. 6: I liked the expertise and especially the heartfelt love and enthusiasm of the instructor. I felt she was very much the expert in the field she passed on a great deal of information and love of the subject matter. 7: The ease of the instructor with the subject allowed a repetition of topics to which new information built on old. This repetition enabled students to go forward with a great foundation. I am sure that many will build on what they have learned. 8: I enjoyed the instructor's approach to the subjecther reverence for and delight in the materials. I appreciated her emphasis on the aesthetic and artistic sidesomething which I find touchy to deal with. It was interesting to listen to her comments. 9: Seeing first hand the many examples of books of the period. 10: The enthusiasm and expertise of the instructorand also the varied interests of the other class members. 11: It is difficult to isolate one thingall aspects of the course were interesting, relevant, and enjoyable. 12: SA. |
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7. How could the course have been improved? 1: The baskets are a great idea with the black felt. The name cards are a great idea. 2: Less time spent passing around books and waiting for book-passing bottlenecks to subside. Perhaps more study of 1890-1910 period, more technical information. 3: Perhaps more handouts. 4: SA read a lot from her notes during her slides. I think if her remarks had been a bit more off the cuff, should would have been an "11" out of a "10"! 5: Perhaps a simple guide to the most common features of a book from each decade that we covered pictorial as well as descriptive. 6: I found the course to have been excellent. 7: N/A. 8: See no.5, above: more emphasis on social, economic, and technical factors of bookbinding. Perhaps less time could have been spent on the rare carved biblesan entire morning was too long, on such a rare type of binding. 10: I really liked it as it was. 11: Only by adding another week to the course. 12: I would have profited from more time spent with the extended collections in the Rotunda. |
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8. Please comment at will on the quality/enjoyability of the various RBS activities in which you took part outside of class, e.g. Sunday afternoon tour, Sunday night dinner and videos, Bookseller Night, tour of the Etext Center or Electronic Classroom, printing demonstrations, evening lectures, &c. 1: Thomas Tanselle was more palatable. Kenneth Rendell was entertaining as always, and TB was TB, though his talk was more politically correct. No one was or could have been offended perhaps it was the broken cable. 2: Very nice; I personally would have preferred a 7:30 time slotI don't know how others felt about eating late/eating early. 3: Both lectures were well delivered and contained useful information. 5: Satisfactory. 6: N/A. 7: All lectures were enjoyable to a certain degree. 8: TT's lecture was superb, as expected. TB's was an enjoyable survey. 10: Some better than others. 11: The three evening lectures were pretty much all of high quality and were entertaining as well as informative. |
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9. Any final thoughts? 1: We had fun and learned something useful and who wouldn't want to do that. 2: Know the technology/nuts and bolts of binding before you get here so that you're able to concentrate on design without confusion. 3: A must for anyone interested in books. 4: SA is Grandma Allen! She is witty, wonderful, enthusiastic, all-knowing, and absolutely lovely. Do take her course if you can. I can guarantee that you will definitely get something out of her course. 5: The care in preparation and organization of RBS is evident and much appreciated. It might be interesting to try a general assembly in the Rotunda on the first day and introduce all of the faculty and staffwith a brief description of all courses being offered. Thank you very much for a wonderful week. 6: Anyone who spends a week with SA will be greatly rewarded in many ways. 7: Take it ... it is wonderful. 8: As always, RBS deepened my appreciation of a facet of the rare book world. It enlivened and enriched my experience of rare books and I hope to be able to pass on some of that enrichment to my work with books, to my colleagues, and to our patrons. 10: I hope to come back next year. I always learn so much, and it's fun to spend a whole week with other book junkies. 11: SA knows her stuff. She is knowledgeable, personable, and challenging. I didn't realize how much I didn't know about bindings. |
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Number of respondents: 12 |
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There were twelve students, six were conservator/binder/preservation librarians (50%), four were rare book librarians (33%), one a book collector (8%), and one "other," with no details (8%). |