Rare Book School Summer 1998

Helena Zinkham
No. 25: Visual Materials Cataloging
20-24 July 1998

1) How useful were the pre-course readings?

1: Great. 3: Yes; the instructor also offered additional optional reading. 4: Very useful - very lengthy. 5: Very useful. 6: Great - really prepared you for the course. We could hit the ground running. 7: I felt well-prepared after completing the assigned reading and greatly appreciate the list of optional readings. I'm sure I'll get to them in the not too distant future. 8: They were helpful to gain a general overview. 9: Very helpful. 10: Very good for review and exposure to some new concepts. They made me take the time to read more carefully than I do in the normal course of my work. 11: Very useful.

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: Yes. 2: Absolutely crucial. They will be much used 3: Yes. 4: Yes. Her workbook was and will be a valuable tool. 5: Yes. 6: Very useful - I wrote all my notes in it. It would have helped to have a table of contents and/or divider between sections. 7: The workbook given to us in class was extremely helpful and will be a very useful tool in applying new information gained in class. The workbook made it easier to concentrate and eliminated the need to make copious notes. 8: Very useful; I will use the workbook often (daily). 9: The workbook is excellent. It covers many aspects of cataloging and processing visual materials. I will use it as a reference book. 10: Yes. I expect to be reading supplied materials more fully and mining them for distribution to other staff members. 11: All the material was appropriate and should be especially useful in the future. Both instructor and course participants provided good pointers for reference sources.

3) Was the intellectual level of the course content appropriate?

1: Yes. Challenging, but appropriate. 2: Indeed. 3: Yes. 4: Yes, I learned a lot. 5: Somewhat. 6-9: Yes. 10: Yes. It presupposed certain knowledge and training, answered questions that came up in our individual settings, and allowed for the exchange of ideas. 11: Yes.

4) If your course had field trips, were they effective?

1: Indeed. We got a rare chance to go behind the scenes at LC, Wow! 2: Yes, the trip to the Library of Congress was very beneficial to understanding the course material. 3: Very. Library of Congress staff added greatly to the course. It was great to see collections and special cataloging projects. 4: Yes, but it was too long a day for me to be effective on Friday (the day after). 5: Yes. 6: Definitely. The trip to LC Prints and Photographs was wonderful, although it made of a very long day. More than just a tour, it was hands-on. The session in UVa Special Collections was also useful, but it was more a show and tell. 7: The field trip was very well related to the course content. I though that it was time very well spent. 8: Yes - it gave new perspectives on cataloging methods, procedures, and the housing of items. 9: We had an excellent field trip to the Library of Congress. It was helpful to tour the Prints and Photographs Division and meet the staff. 10: Yes. We saw principles in application, hands-on exercises, and much extra detail such as housing and equipment - ideas not specific to this course, but very useful. 11: Yes. The visit to LC Prints and Photographs Division was especially instructive.

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?

1-6: Yes. 7: Yes. It was very much what I expected and very much needed. 8-11: Yes.

6) What did you like best about the course?

1: Knowledge, instruction, and feedback from other students. HZ was wonderful! 2: The instructor. 3: Mixture of instruction and hands-on work (cataloging). Opportunity to work closely with classmates in smaller groups. 4: The instructor knows the material very, very well. 5: Cataloging exercises and exchange of information. 6: The actual cataloging experience. 7: Hands-on aspect, the examples, resources, and field trip were extremely helpful. Very organized, knowledgeable, and articulate instructor. 8: 1) The comparison of several approaches to cataloging visual material. 2) The hands-on approach of cataloging actual collection materials. 9: The knowledge and strong visual materials background of the instructor, as well as her willingness to help with our local problems. She went out of her way to make arrangements for our trip to Washington. 10: The instructor was wonderful - knowledgeable, a wealth of practical experience, and a patient, confident, and helpful manner. The small class size allowed classmates to exchange much useful information. 11: HZ was excellent. She was well prepared and carefully structured the class sessions and hands-on work in groups. There was a good choice of examples and good guidance in the use of cataloging tools, as well as excellent opportunities to ask questions and share experiences with other course participants. I learned a great deal.

7) How could the course have been improved?

1: Actually, it was pretty terrific. 2: The last three days were excellent. Less emphasis on comparison of the GM and APPM would have been appreciated. 3: It might be fun to catalog a piece from our own collections as an exercise. 4: Have us work individually more and turn in records and then receive comment on them. Also, more individual instruction - less group work. 5: Less emphasis on identifying specific technical visual formats. More emphasis on general cataloging descriptions. 6: Have the section on MARC tags earlier to avoid so many questions. I think it would be helpful to add the actual tags and subfields to the worksheets to aid those not familiar with MARC and help them feel more comfortable. Don't tell everyone to bring all the manuals, thesauri, &c., especially if they are flying: my suitcase weighed a ton. 8: The classroom was too cold!!! 9: The classroom was not comfortable - too cold. 10: Better access to computer terminals in the classroom.

8) We are always concerned about the physical well-being both of the BAP's teaching collections and of materials owned by UVa's Special Collections. If relevant, what suggestions do you have for the improved classroom handling of such materials used in your course this week?

3: Materials were handled with appropriate care. 4: This was fine. 6: It was great to have all the tools and samples available in the room. 8: Distribute gloves for handling photographs; provide wedges for certain albums. 10: None.

9) Please comment on the quality/enjoyability of the various RBS activities in which you took part outside of class, eg Sunday afternoon tour, Sunday night dinner and videos, evening lectures, Bookseller Night, tour of the Alderman digital/electronic centers,, &c.

1: Lecturers were very enjoyable this year. 2: Sunday tour and dinner and videos were fun. The Snark was great, Ellen Dunlap's lecture was a bore. Skipped Bookseller Night and the printing demonstrations. The tour of the digital/electronic centers was a waste of my time. 3: For health reasons, I attended very few outside activities. 4: The tour was very good and very fast. It needs more time. It really was more than I needed to do. 6: Evening lectures were enjoyable - maybe have them earlier (5:30) or later (7:00) to fit into evening meal times better. 7: Very interesting. 8: Sunday night dinner was very good; videos were enjoyable - but perhaps more free time to mingle with classmates the first night. Bookseller Night - I would like to have found more prints and other graphics for sale. Can any print dealers be added to the list? 9: They all were great. 10: Very nice, enjoyable, and generally informative. 11: The tour of the Alderman digital/electronic centers, the visits to Special Collections and to the LC Prints and Photographs Division were the most useful and informative activities. The lectures seemed somewhat irrelevant. Bookseller Night was a good idea - the only time to visit the downtown area during the whole week!

10) Any final thoughts? Did you get your money's worth?

1: Well worth it. I will be able to catalog visual material with a confidence I did not have before this course. Between the instructor and the course work, I learned more in a week than I could have learned in any other way. 2: Yes, I got my money's worth. 3: Yes. 4: Yes, I got my money's worth. If you would like to have a better feel for the area, come early or stay late to see where you are in Virginia. 5: Instructors need to keep in mind the impact that the Internet will have on access and retrieval. 6: This was a very useful course. The class was a good mix of those who knew MARC and other cataloging rules and those who had more experience with the printing techniques, so everyone brought strengths and was able to contribute. 7: Yes, I got my money's worth. 8: Very much so. I would like to see RBS become part of an ongoing professional training element for the staff at my institution. 9: Yes. It is a full, busy week, with great contacts with librarians and archivists from many places and backgrounds. 10: Excellent experience and program. Now I just need a week to debrief everything I picked up! 11: I would definitely advise other persons to take this course. I learned a lot and hope to be able to apply this knowledge at work.

Number of respondents: 11

PERCENTAGES
Leave Tuition Housing Travel
Institution gave me leave
100%
Institution paid tuition
100%
Institution paid housing
100%
Institution paid travel
72%
I took vacation time
0%
I paid tuition myself
0%
I paid for my own housing
0%
I paid for my own travel
28%
N/A: Self-employed, retired, or had time off
0%
N/A: Self-employed, retired, or exchange
0%
N/A: Stayed with friends or lived at home
0%
N/A: Lived nearby
0%

There were eleven students: four (36%) were archivist/manuscript librarians, three (28%) were curators of visual material collections, two (18%) were general librarians with some rare book duties, and two (18%) were rare book librarians.

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