1) How useful were the pre-course readings?

1: Extremely useful, though there seemed a lot of it. 2: Useful. 3: Very useful. 4: Very. 5: Very useful. 6: Very useful -- the important readings were identified. 7: Very good. 8: Perhaps a little too extensive. Fortunately, I had already read large portions of it. 9: Gave me an idea of what to expect of the subject (I knew little-to zero about it). 10: Helpful in orienting one to the issues, terminology, and basic concepts covered in class. 11: Essential to course comprehension.

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 and yes. 2: Yes. 3: Very much. 4: Yes. 5: Yes, very useful. 6: Yes, and also made available electronically, which is very helpful. We will go home with more useful material than I expected, making this class even more worthwhile. 7: Yes. 8: Yes, not too much to overload the week. 9: They were Ok. I think a little more explanatory material would have helped -- but then again, that would be the Tag Library and Rules texts. 10: Yes. 11: Will be especially useful in future.

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

1: For the most part, but it did go into a higher level occasionally, which was tedious for the beginners. 2: Yes. 3: Yes, if not more than appropriate. 4-7: Yes. 8: Sometimes "over my head", but I expected that. 9: Yes -- even challenging. 10: Challenging content was made accessible by a talented and articulate instructor. 11: Yes.

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

1: We never physically left the classroom, but some did search the Web. 2-6: N/A. 8: N/A. 11: No field trips.

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, but you can really go astray with EAD 2-8: Yes. 9: I don't remember course description exactly, except that it mentioned one should be comfortable with the computer and while I am, I'm not "fluent" and some things we needed to do, simple to DP and others, confused me. Perhaps more specific idea of "comfortable" could be added to it. 10-11: Yes.

6) What did you like best about the course?

1: The instructor -- he was knowledgeable [to a fault], kind patient, accessible, funny . . . 2: DP's teaching style, endless patience, humor, and digressions into the philosophical and political aspects of encoding. 3: Outline of the course, which included all vital areas, and it was a privilege to have DP as an instructor. 4: The instructor's expertise in the subject and concern with being thorough and clear make him an outstanding teacher, and especially of this topic. He explains clearly and patiently, provides good background and context, and is very responsive to the student's questions and problems. 5: Hands-on encoding of finding aids and gaining experience with Xmetal and Notetab Pro. DP is an excellent instructor -- easy to follow as well as entertaining. 6: Excellent teaching of both concepts and practice. 7: Hands on instruction and use of new technologies and software; instructor's ability to instruct their use. 8: Hands on experience in creating EAD FA. 9: That DP was patient enough to get me to the point of understanding the material. 10: 1) Hands-on exercises in encoding. 2) Philosophical digressions of the instructor. 11: The instructor's expertise and his sense of humor.

7) How could the course have been improved?

1: Possibly offering to have an assistant to help the instructor to help the students, or clone DP. 2: The class was frustrated that we ran out of time to learn more about style sheets. It would have been immensely useful for DP to have 1 or more assistants so that the whole class didn't have to wait for one person's computer glitch to be worked out. But he did an incredible job, and covered a lot of material. 4: Consider giving DP a microphone and making it easier for him to reach all students' workstations. 5: Possibly more time discussing specific tags and appropriate or inappropriate use of tags. 6: More time on style sheets, although I wouldn't have wanted to give up anything for it, so maybe an advanced class? 7: Having a second course on system needs, up-front programming needs and style-sheet creation geared for each individual participant. 8: Needed short into on the "why" behind EAD 9: I think teaching it "inside out" might have helped me -- starting with particular elements, what they are/might be used for on an inventory, then getting broader or more general. Style sheets could've waited till the end. 10: 1 more class session. 11: A longer term -- e.g. two weeks -- with suitably expanded curriculum.

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?

1-2: N/A. 4-6: N/A. 11: N/A.

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, evening lectures, Bookseller Night, Video Night, Study Night, tour of the Alderman digital/electronic centers, printing demonstrations, &c.).

1: Sunday afternoon tour was disjointed, though the important places were covered; Sunday supper was great because of the opportunity for introduction; and the Sunday night lecture was informative. Unfortunately, I did not participate in any other activities -- just wasn't interested. 2: Very enjoyable. Sunday night dinner should be relabled Sunday night cold salad. 4: Those I attended were pleasant, though I would have been lost on Bookseller Night had I not been with people who had been here before. 5: Fine. 6: I enjoyed Greer Allen's talk and Bookseller Night, and an opportunity to tour the Rotunda. 7: Although Sunday night dinner was tasty, I had expected more of a meal than a picnic. 8: N/A. 9: I took part in few evenings because I opted to enjoy the company of colleagues at dinner (often long meals). The one book house lecture was fun! Sunday tour was rushed and less helpful than I hoped. 11: Monday lecture and Tuesday Bookseller night were suitably appropriate to RBS mission and focus.

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

1: If one is interested in taking the course . . . READ, READ, READ! There is a lot to know and it makes it easier to learn. I also feel with DP teaching, you get more than your money's worth. 2: The course was definitely worth it. And it was a privilege to be taught by DP. 3: It was an opportunity to meet highly experienced professionals in various overlapping fields Mong both instructors and attendees. 4: Yes (got money's worth). 5: This course is an excellent introduction to EAD and general text encoding. 6: Highly recommended if EAD is going to be implemented. By far -- got my money's worth for my institution. 8: Course was exactly what I expected. Only shortcoming was that the instructor could not give individual attention as much as needed. Perhaps an assistant could help participants in the creation of the EAD FA phase on Thursday and Friday. 9: Yes -- well worth the time and effort. Meeting others in the field or related fields was also great fun! 10: Very worthwhile course that met my highest expectations. 11: I look forward to future attendance. The gathering of such an intellectually committed circle of people is stimulating.

Number of respondents: 11

There were seven archivist/manuscript librarians (64%), one rare book librarian with archivist/manuscript duties, one teacher/professor, one systems librarian and one systems programmer (9% each).

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